For Health Workers: Honoring The Body For Rest

In this practice made especially for medical professionals, we take time to honor the body so that it may be allowed to rest. Let us come to rest so we can love, empower, heal, create, and transform. Thank you for your practice and your service. Stay safe and well.

Transcript

So,

Welcome everyone.

My name is Kyra Juolingo and I'll be offering a meditation on honoring the body and allowing it to rest.

And I just want to begin by thanking you all for your service.

I'm deeply,

Deeply grateful.

So for this practice,

I invite you to choose whether you'd like to be seated or perhaps lying or even standing if you have any physical pain that standing would help with.

But I encourage you if you are tired to,

If you're in a place where you can lie down,

That you allow yourself a chance to receive this meditation in a more restful position.

So once you are settled,

Invite you to connect with the points of your body that are touching the ground or the chair or whatever is supporting you.

Notice the places of contact.

Whether it's the feet,

Your seat,

Your back.

Also noticing the places where your hands are making contact with something else.

I invite you to really feel that your body is being supported by the earth right now.

Ultimately,

That's what's holding up all the things that are supporting you.

So really invite your body to give its weight to the earth.

To let the earth take your weight.

Right in this moment,

You don't have to do anything or make anything happen.

You can just be here and let your body rest.

The earth take your weight and support you.

So we'll visit a few places in the body and I'll invite you to be aware of them as you breathe in and as you breathe out to invite them to release any tension that may be there or just to soften,

To open.

Beginning with the forehead as you inhale,

Being aware of your forehead.

And as you exhale,

Allowing the forehead to soften.

Kind of melt over the skull.

As you breathe in,

Being aware of your eyes.

And as you breathe out,

Seeing if your eyes could rest back in their sockets almost as if they're pillows behind the backs of your eyes.

You can just rest back.

Breathing in,

Bringing awareness to the tongue.

Breathing out,

Allowing the tongue to rest on the floor of the mouth.

So releasing the jaw,

Letting there be some space between the upper and lower rows of teeth.

And bringing awareness to your shoulders as you breathe in.

And as you breathe out,

Releasing your shoulders down your back.

We're letting them melt more into the ground.

And breathing in,

Feel your arms and hands.

And breathing out,

Letting go of any holding or tension in your arms and hands.

Feeling them get slightly heavier.

More relaxed.

Breathing in,

Feeling your chest.

And breathing out,

Just releasing in your chest,

Softening.

If at any point as we move through the body,

You notice that there is some pain or some tension that doesn't want to go,

Be friendly to that and allow it to be there.

And just continue moving your body.

We'll make time to come back to those more complicated places.

Breathing in,

Being aware of the belly,

The abdomen.

Breathing out,

Letting the abdomen soften and open.

Just checking in if there's some tightness,

Some holding,

Seeing if that wants to let go.

Breathing in,

Feeling your back.

Upper back,

Lower back.

Breathing out,

Releasing the back as fully as you can up to the support of the earth.

Breathing in,

Aware of the hips and the buttocks,

Pelvic area.

Breathing out,

Releasing the buttocks,

The pelvic area to the earth.

Softening,

Letting go.

Breathing in,

Feeling the legs and the feet.

Breathing out,

Letting the legs and feet soften and release their weight even more onto the earth.

Now feeling the whole body as you inhale and as you exhale,

Appreciating your whole body.

Feeling your whole body rest deeper and deeper with each exhale.

And as you do this,

See if your exhale wants to get slightly longer than your inhale,

Focusing on the whole body line.

We're sitting here,

Standing.

With each exhale,

To see if it might want to be a few counts longer than the inhale,

As the whole body has a chance to open and rest on the earth.

If you breathe in for three counts,

See if you might breathe out for five counts.

Four,

Six.

Every time you exhale,

Inviting the body,

The whole body,

To release and rest deeply on the earth.

And as you do this,

See if you might breathe out for five counts.

And as you do this,

See if you might breathe out for five counts.

Now I invite you to visualize light at the top of your head.

This could be white light,

But if there's another color that you find to be a healing,

Nurturing,

Supportive color,

Then let it be whatever color will support you now.

We're going to be drawing this light into the body through the crown of the head.

And especially if there was any place in the body that felt more tense or more under some kind of strain or maybe that was painful,

Or even a part of your body where you might hold some worry or some fear or some anger,

Some sadness,

We're going to take care of that part of the body as we bring in light.

So visualize like a ball of this light,

Whatever color you choose,

Right above your crown of your head.

And now begin to feel this light penetrating into your skull and relieving tension in your brain,

Bringing in a wholesome,

Supportive energy down your neck and your throat.

Filling these areas with friendliness,

Kindness,

With gratitude for this amazing body that you have.

And feeling the light flowing like water down your shoulders,

Down into your chest,

Into your lungs,

Really supporting your lungs,

Just bathing your lungs in kindness and in health and in strength.

Now feel the light penetrating your heart.

Feel it coming down to penetrate and surround and take good care of your diaphragm,

Your kidneys,

Your stomach,

Your intestines,

Small and large,

Your liver,

Gallbladder,

Your reproductive organs,

Your spine,

The vertebrae.

Feel this light flowing down your arms,

Filling up your hands,

Your fingers with a sense of joy in your own aliveness.

Feel this light flowing down your legs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Your ankles,

Your heels,

Filling up your feet and all the toes.

Feel this light circulating now through the whole body,

All through the body.

And wherever there might be some pain,

Some stuckness,

Some difficulty,

Especially feel the light circulating and massaging and taking good care of this difficult area,

Bringing in compassion,

Bringing in support,

Bringing in kindness and care.

Breathing in with the light,

Breathing out with the light.

Feeling this light flowing through your body to come also to rest as it helps your body also to rest.

Maybe it gathers in one place,

Some place where you need it,

Or maybe it gathers in the heart.

And it just radiates quietly from this one place.

So offering your whole body deep gratitude for all that it's doing,

For all the energy it's putting out day after day,

Week after week in service of so many others.

For heartfelt love and care to your wondrous body.

And we'll close now with this star of fire affirmation.

So I'll read a line and I invite you to check in with yourself.

You can either repeat after me out loud or silently as a continuation of your meditation.

I am a healer.

And I am enough.

I stand on the shoulders of the healers and scientists who came before me.

I stand arm in arm with my colleagues.

We will heal the sick.

We will comfort the dying.

We will cut through the darkness of ignorance like a holy torch.

I own my fear,

But my love is fiercer.

Hear my battle cry.

To love.

To empower.

To heal.

To create.

To transform.

To love.

To empower.

To heal.

To create.

To transform.

To love.

To empower.

To heal.

To create.

To transform.

So thank you all so much for your practice and I wish you a very good day.

Reviews

One of the most lovely and healing meditations I have done in a long time.

To love, to empower, to heal. to create, to transform: I take these words with me, so powerfull, thank you

Love Kaira and the kindness, love and gentleness I seek in my life. Her voice and energy is so soothing.

So much gratitude for this offering. As a Black frontline nurse this is especially needed during this time of viral pandemic and the global reawakening to racial suffering. I appreciate you!

lovely thank you

Thank you!!! 🙏🙂🙏

Thank you. Relaxing and insightful. ❤️

Hi, Thank you its very good soulful and healing meditation, I appreciate with gratitude. Many Thanks.

Thank you. This helped a lot with getting me off to sleep.