This is a meditation that you can do at the end of a long day when you're ready to surrender and rest.
Or if you're like me and you have an injury in the neck or back,
Wherever it is,
It can be helpful to lay down to meditate and there's absolutely no shame in it.
And of course,
If you end up falling asleep,
It's likely that your body really needed it.
So that's okay as well.
Let's begin.
Lay your spine on the floor and possibly put a support under your neck,
Maybe a rolled up sweatshirt or a fancy pillow.
And just as a warm up,
If you're able,
I invite you to hug your legs up to your chest and just rock side to side a bit.
Wake up the spine and signal to the body that it's time to relax.
Place your two feet on the floor and if you'd like to,
Lift up your lower back slowly,
Slowly,
Slowly so that your hips are in the air,
Your spine is suspended in the air and then slowly lower back down.
One vertebrae at a time.
This might help your lower back to decompress.
You may even feel a little bit of traction as your hips touch the floor.
Now close your eyes and simply notice the length of your spine as it's touching the ground below you.
Take a couple of inhales and exhales.
Lay down.
Know that you're laying down.
Feel your spine on the ground.
And that's all you need to do right now.
Let your to-do list fall away.
If there's a part of your mind that's stretching out into the stratosphere,
Imagining the future,
Anticipating,
Creating a fantasy,
Feeling anxious,
Call that part of yourself back.
Like catching a fish,
Sort of reel your mind back into your body.
You have this safe container of 10 minutes to let your body and mind recalibrate.
We're going to bring all of our energy into being present right now.
You can do the same thing if there's a little tendril of your mind stretching into the past.
Call it back.
Sort of gather all the parts of yourself that you might have left in the past or in the future.
Bring them back inside your body.
If you haven't already,
You can place your two feet so they're touching the ground flat and your knees in the air.
The knees can kind of lean against each other.
This position will naturally cause your breathing to be much more oriented toward lower belly breathing.
With that in mind,
I invite you to place your hands on your lower belly just below the belly button.
Now we can lay down and feel our spine on the ground,
But also we can feel the lower belly moving as we breathe.
We can feel it in our hands.
We can also feel our awareness internally noticing what it feels like when the body is simply breathing.
Let your mind melt.
Inhale and feel yourself breathing.
Exhale and let go of any surface level tensions that are ready to just fall away.
Exhale and feel yourself breathing.
If your mind starts to wander,
Notice that it wandered and just bring it back to your lower belly into your hands.
Breathe in an openness to whatever arises in this present moment and breathe out resistance,
Tensions,
Toxins.
Breathe in a sense of compassion for yourself and all the trials and tribulations of being a human.
Breathe out the emotional residue of being a human.
Breathe in pure fresh energy.
And now drop any kind of effort whatsoever.
You may even feel your body just kind of sinking into the floor.
Let go of anything inside your body that might be holding on,
Clenching.
You could check your jaw,
Your glutes,
Your pelvic floor.
Just kind of check and see if there's anything that's ready to let go as we ease into a state of total surrender.
Breathe in.
Slowly,
Slowly open your eyes,
Wiggle your toes.
Maybe do a little stretch.
It's been such a joy to meditate with you today.
Thank you so much.
