Settling in,
Making any little adjustments that are going to help you to be really comfortable and at ease.
So if you're not at ease,
Making any little changes so that you can come into your stillness.
I'm feeling again that we can settle.
Feeling that with every exhale,
There's that opportunity to let go,
To surrender the weight of the body to gravity,
To surrender the thoughts to gravity.
Just giving everything to the earth.
Breathing in the belly can rise.
Breathe out this feeling that with the out breath you can let go of anything you don't need.
Letting go of any tensions in the body.
Any places in the body where you may be clenching or gripping.
And giving yourself full permission to rest.
Permission to the mind to rest.
Permission to the eyes to rest.
Settling,
Letting go.
Deepening into rest with every exhale.
Feeling that soft rise in the belly as you breathe in.
And that softening,
Letting go as you breathe out.
Belly rising like the belly of a sleeping child.
And belly softening.
As you breathe in you may bring your awareness to the toes and the feet.
And with the exhale feeling that you can breathe out any tension in the toes or feet.
Any sense of gripping or holding.
The ankles may become more floppy and the heels may rest a little more deeply into the ground.
Breathing into the legs.
Breathing out let the legs relax.
Feel that you can give the weight of your legs to gravity.
How is it if you let the groin relax?
How is it if you give the weight of the bones to gravity?
Is there any sense that the feet could maybe roll away from each other,
Fall away from each other?
As you completely surrender the weight of the legs.
Breathing into the bowl of the pelvis.
And breathing out giving the weight of the pelvis to gravity.
Breathing in swelling the lower back into the ground.
And breathing out let the lower back relax and release.
Breathing into the belly.
And breathe out let the belly relax,
Let the belly soften.
Feel if the belly could take up a little more space.
Could be this sense that you cut the waistband of your trousers and let the belly spill out and take up a little more space.
So there's this maximum amount of room for the breath and the belly for these sleeping baby breaths.
Breathing into the chest.
And breathing out let the chest relax.
Feel if the tensions or the armour at the chest can soften and relax.
Feeling if there's any clutching or holding at the chest that you can allow to unwind,
Unravel.
Allowing the chest to be soft and open.
Breathing into the upper back,
Swelling the upper back into the ground.
And with the exhale let the upper back soften.
Maybe there's a sense that the shoulder blades could relax into the ground.
This feeling if there's any clutching in the upper back that you could soften and release.
Breathing in,
Sending the breath to the shoulders.
Breathing out let the shoulders relax.
Feeling if there's any tension in the shoulders that you can let go of.
Is there any sense that you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?
Just for the next five minutes feeling that it's safe to take off this heavy luggage that we're carrying.
We can breathe out and let go of the cares of the world.
Breathing in now to the arms,
The hands and fingers.
Breathing out let the arms,
Hands and fingers soften and relax.
Maybe the fingers could curl up a little more.
Maybe if the arms rest heavy into the ground,
The heads of the arm bones can relax and fall open.
Maybe there can be a sense that the collarbone can smile and open.
Breathing into the neck and the throat,
Feeling that the muscles of the neck can relax from their work of holding and supporting the huge weight of the head.
Feeling that the muscles of the neck can soften and relax.
If the head wishes to roll to the side,
Allow it to roll to the side.
There's no need for the head to face upwards if it would rather roll to the side.
Let the neck relax completely.
Breathing into the jaw and breathe out.
Let the jaw relax.
Let the bottom jaw fall away from the top jaw.
Let the lips fall away from each other.
Allow the tongue to relax.
Feel that as you allow the jaw to relax that you can also allow the point where the neck and the skull meet to relax as well.
As you allow the back of the neck to relax and release,
Maybe there's some sense that the chin could drop in towards the chest,
That the back of the neck could lengthen out.
Feeling for that connection of tension or ease between the jaw and the nape of the neck.
And then opening up our awareness to take in the temples as well.
As we relax the temples,
We might find that the jaw can relax a little more and that the nape of the neck can soften and relax some more.
This tension triangle here,
Just feeling if we can allow each one,
Each corner to soften and so all to soften.
Let the forehead smooth and let the temples relax.
Feel that you could relax the brain,
Relax the mind.
Feeling into any grippiness in the mind and feeling that you can let it go.
Let the tense little fingers of the mind loosen their grip around the thoughts.
Let the thoughts be.
The thoughts can arise and pass.
Just allowing the thoughts to have their own flow.
Without allowing the mind to get in the way.
Feeling if allowing the temples to relax a little more allows the mind to relax a little more.
Supports the thoughts to flow freely.
Allowing our body to be this open channel where the breath can flow,
The thoughts can flow and the energy can flow.
Just opening to this river of life,
This constant unfolding and passing on of the present moment.
As the breath rolls in and rolls out,
The present moment comes to us and then passes.
The thoughts rise and the thoughts pass.
Coming into the sense of the body as this open space,
This vessel.
Where all this is-ness can arise and pass.
Can flow in and flow out.
We don't need to get in the way of anything.
We can rest with this open awareness.
With every in-breath opening to life again and again and again.
Poem by Dana Faulds called Allow.
There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt,
Containing a tornado,
Dam a stream and it will create a new channel.
Resist and the tide will sweep you off your feet.
Allow and grace will carry you to higher ground.
The only safety lies in letting it all in.
The wild and the weak.
Fear fantasies,
Failure and success.
When loss rips off the doors of the heart or sadness fails your vision with despair,
Practice becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your known way of being,
The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.
Starting with this sense that you are this open channel that allows everything to arise,
Everything to pass.
All of the experience of the present moment arising and letting it go.
Feeling both your stillness,
Your steadiness as you rest as this open vessel and also this ever changing reality,
This impermanence.
And feeling perhaps that you can hold it all.
Resting as this channel that allows the breath to roll in and out.
Resting as this channel that allows the thoughts to come and the thoughts to go.
And resting as this open channel that can let go of any tensions in the body so that the energy of the body,
The energy of your life,
Your being can flow freely.
Starting with this sense that when we get caught into the mind there's a stagnation of flow and as we relax the mind we can come back into the flow.
Feeling perhaps that if the body clenches up into tightness,
If the jaw tension creeps in or the temple tension creeps in,
That again this resistance stops the flow,
Closes this channel.
And this feeling that you can relax again and again and again and open again and again and again to this flow of life.
Resting with the lens of your awareness wide open so that you can allow everything.
Whatever arises is welcome.
Allowing the tide of the present moment to bring in what it brings and to take out what it takes out.
No resistance to what is.
The good,
The bad,
Shame,
Malice.
Let it all be.
Let it all go.
And you may like to continue to rest here with this sense of openness,
Of spaciousness.
Or you may like to continue with your day.
