I invite you to lie down.
If you're getting ready for bed,
You can slide underneath the covers.
Roll your knees into your chest or whatever type of shape that makes you feel cozy and supported.
Resting your head on a pillow and closing your eyes.
This can also be a short meditation for those who just need a moment to take a second to calm the beating heart.
Perhaps paying attention to the energy of the body,
Taking a few moments to turn away from your busy mind.
And whatever surface you are lying on or sitting on,
Really leaning into the surface.
Letting go of any tension that might exist through your muscles.
Bracing that awareness around your fingers,
Uncurling your toes like a sigh of relief.
Letting yourself be more supported by your support underneath you.
On the ground,
Have you.
Slowly taking deeper breaths into your rib cage.
Just noticing the expansion outwards of your ribs from the chest.
And then seeing if you can pull your breath into the backs of your shoulder blades.
So often we pull our breath into the front body.
Still trying to see if you can now take that breath into the back body.
And then taking this awareness to the sides of the body.
Seeing if you can really start to fill up the spaces between the ribs.
Breathing in deep.
Expanding your rib cage in this 360 degree orientation.
And then exhaling,
Returning back to the center.
Breathing in this expansion.
Maybe feeling your breath in the fingers and the toes.
And then exhaling,
Drawing back in.
And if you've had a particularly challenging day or your thoughts are really running the show,
You might choose to start counting your breaths.
Inhaling for maybe a count of three or four.
And then exhaling for the same amount of time.
Really focusing the mind on this counting.
In and out.
Smoothing the quality of your breath.
You might start to notice a shift in the sensations in your body.
Maybe you can feel the pounding of your beautiful heart in your rib cage.
You might feel even more subtly the blood flowing through your veins.
It's not often that we get to sit alone with ourselves.
Remembering the intricate details of our bodies,
How they keep us alive.
So will you unwind from your day.
Stripping off all labels,
All ideas of who you need to be in that world that you live in.
Like you could take all that weight of expectation off your shoulders.
Set it aside.
Maybe even imagining letting it just sit outside your door.
And letting yourself come home to yourself.
And if you find already your mind starting to wander as it might,
Keep bringing it back to your breath.
And then from the top of the head,
Let's do a body scan together.
First thinking of the skin on top of your head.
Allowing it to melt.
And then tracing that awareness down through the face.
Then crinkling the skin of your forehead like you were smoothing out a crinkled piece of paper.
And then softening the jaw.
Releasing any neck muscles that might be finding themselves in alert.
Letting your head rest.
And then sweeping that awareness down to the collarbone.
Left right to either shoulder and down the length of your arms to the fingers.
And then returning back to the space between the collarbone.
Down through the center of the chest.
To your beautiful,
Supple belly.
And then through the fronts of the hips.
Down the legs to the knees.
Through the shins to the tops of the feet.
And then from the tops of the feet to the soles of the feet to the heels.
Floating up through the calf muscles,
The backs of the knees and then to the thighs.
And then through the glutes to the back body.
The lower back.
And then like you could climb your awareness up the spine through the vertebrae all the way to the base of the neck.
To the head.
And then returning back to the crown.
Your whole body.
No more obligations.
No more responsibilities.
Just be.
Keep breathing.
And then as you breathe here,
I invite you to start lengthening your exhales.
Pausing at the very bottom of the breath.
There will be a little squeeze.
And then this allowing of the breath back in.
And again exhaling all the air out.
Little squeeze at the bottom of the belly.
And then letting your breath just float back into your body.
Getting into this rhythm.
Really allowing your body to start to settle.
And if the mind wanders,
Bring it back.
And keep breathing.
Inhaling this expansion.
And exhaling,
Returning back home.
Releasing the weight that you carry.
Knowing that it can be really heavy sometimes.
But in the evening we can give ourselves the space to shed that weight.
Testing our bodies,
Our hearts and our minds until we need to pick that up again tomorrow.
Good night dear one.
