For this Shavasana meditation,
Lie down and allow your body to settle into the field of gravity.
Feel the moment your body makes contact with the ground,
Your heels,
Your sacrum,
Shoulder blades,
Back of skull.
Each point of contact is a gateway to release.
Close your eyes,
Soften the skin of your face,
And take a slow,
Easy breath in.
As you exhale,
Imagine your entire fascial matrix yielding to the support beneath you.
Bring awareness now to the soles of your feet.
Begin this fascial unraveling through the feet and the legs.
First by feeling the dense network of fascia that extends from the plantar surface at the sole of the foot through the Achilles tendon,
Up the heel,
And the back of the calf.
Sense the tendons and the ligaments of the ankles,
Releasing any unnecessary holding here.
The calf muscles unfurl,
The tibia and fibula resting deeper into the webbing of fascia that suspends them.
As you exhale,
Feel the broad sheaths of connective tissue between your quadriceps and hamstrings,
The intermuscular septa becoming more hydrated,
More spacious.
Your femur bones,
The heaviest in the body,
They drop deeper into the pelvic bowl,
Their weight absorbed by the myofascial network of the hips and sacrum.
Sense the iliopsoas deep within the abdomen,
Uncoiling like silk ribbons,
Allowing the Now for the floating suspension of pelvis and spine.
Feel into the sacrum,
This keystone bone where so much myofascial force converges.
The sacroiliac joints,
Often subtly tense,
Begin to soften,
Releasing the long currents of connective tissue along the spine.
As you breathe,
Sense the wave-like motion of cerebrospinal fluid coursing along the spinal canal,
Nourishing the dura matter and the intricate webbing of the nervous system.
Each breath is a pulse of movement,
Gently hydrating the fascia surrounding the spinal column.
Now shift your awareness to the ribcage and notice the expansive yet elastic nature of the pleura,
The connective tissue encasing the lungs.
Like a living web,
This fascial bed spreads with the ribs on each inhale.
On each exhale,
That intercostal connective tissue glides to help the breath settle downward.
Sense the arms,
Heavy yet suspended in their myofascial sleeves.
The humerus bones sink into the shoulder sockets,
While the fascia of the rotator cuff and deltoid sheath releases,
Allowing the arms to settle into their most neutral state.
Your hands,
Rich in sensory nerve endings and fascial interconnections,
Relax.
Feel the palms widen,
The webbing between the fingers softening as the superficial fascia loosens its subtle grip.
Finally,
Bring awareness to your skull.
The craniosacral tide begins by floating in this delicate balance of the sutures of the cranium.
There's a rhythm here.
The tongue is heavy in the mouth,
Its deep fascial roots unwinding,
And the eyes,
Unsheathed in layers of fascia,
Drop back deep,
Heavy into their sockets.
The scalp softens as the layers of connective tissue melts into the vast field of support beneath you.
Let yourself dissolve into this field.
It's here,
In this state of deep release,
Where you experience the whole organism as a single unified fascial web,
A single,
Dewy,
Glistening,
Seamlessly interwoven from head to toe,
One continuous web.
Let go of the sense of separateness.
Stay here,
Cradled.
Stay here,
Cradled in stillness.
Stay here,
Cradled in stillness for as long as you need.
When it is time to return,
Move as if emerging from deep water.
May you carry with you this embodied awareness of your living,
Breathing connective tissue matrix.
The great,
Grand,
Glorious fascial web.
Namaste.
