Being Held

In this guided rest you will be invited to explore the felt experience of being held. You will be guided to connect with your actual factual experience and can be done in any position. This recording was done in a group setting.

Transcript

The body actually knows comfort in a very simple way. So just kind of letting the body move and adjust until it feels like it's at a spot that's manageable or the best of available. And then just checking in, Just checking in with what your body has selected for this time. And really just checking in matter of factly. And where are the feet? And where are the ankles? Where are the legs? How are they settled? We're not connecting into how are they in terms of right, Wrong, Good, Or bad. We're just matter of factly going, Oh, My ankles are crossed. And I can feel that pressure there. Or my feet are flat on the floor. And I can feel that surface under the feet and so on. So we're really just matter of factly just acknowledging the feet for a few moments. We'll start with the feet. Up through the legs, The lower legs, Feeling the placement of the lower legs. Let's make contact with them. Through the upper legs. Just feeling the space. Through the upper legs. Just feeling the space underneath the upper legs, The chair, The couch, Or whatnot. Feeling the pressure of the body resting there. The pressure of the sit bones on the chair, Meeting the chair in that space. The placement of your back. It's against a chair or laying down on a couch. Or even it happens to be kind of upright with nothing behind it. Just feeling the space there. Feeling your contextual textures and flavors and nuances. The back of the head might be resting against something or it might not be. And the arms, Too. The arms in their positioning. Just feeling what's under them. Down to the hands. And then there's kind of this front space of the body. And that's kind of the center of the body. And then you're just kind of looking at the body. And then there's kind of this front space of the body. And that's kind of different. The front space of the body has a different set of experiences. So if we compare and contrast, Which the mind likes to do anyway, So we might as well do it consciously, We'll notice that when we breathe and we have something behind us, Usually the breath will go out in front of us. And we can feel how there might be something solid behind us based on our context, Or maybe not. And if there is something solid behind you, You'll feel what that feels like to breathe into. You'll basically notice the body will move outward. That's kind of a physics thing. There's nowhere really to go behind if you're against something. So then the breath fills itself forward. And we can feel the front of the body. The front of the chest, The front of the belly. As the breath engages and the body meets space, The space in front of it. You can feel the air on the face, The air on the skin of the face. You can feel the air on the face, The air on the skin of the face. You can feel the space in front of the legs. Now that might be more subtle. But when we use contrasting, We can access it a little easier. So you might just notice the back of the legs and then the front of the legs and just noticing the differences there. Down through the lower legs, Eventually to the feet. And again, You might notice the soles of the feet feel one way and then the tops of the feet feel another way. So we have these variating, Or these kind of things, Variating, Or these contrasting experiences from head to toe, Many of them, Hard and soft, Contact of something solid. And then nearby, Maybe not, Just space. Maybe hot and cold. Maybe comfortable and uncomfortable. Or what we might more succinctly, Maybe a tightness, And then somewhere else there isn't that. Just kind of noticing the differences of experience here. And then we're going to return our attention to the back of the body again, Back to where the body is making this very tangible contact with object. Chair, Couch, Or maybe as you listen to this later, It might be a bed or even the floor. Just feeling the back of the body's contact, However it is making contact. You know, In this moment, All of us have something behind us, I think. So just kind of noticing this space of something behind you. Again, It's going to be contextual, So what I'm experiencing might be different than what someone else is experiencing based on the kind of chair or the couch. Just kind of follow along as best as works for your context. What we all do have in common is something under our sit bones, So that's pretty common, That commonality I mean. So we can all, We can start there. We can all feel this sense that our sit bones are pretty supported, Quite supported even. In just a very practical way, Not in an emotional way, But just in a practical way. In a practical way, Our chairs, I'm guessing we're not going to be able to see them, Our chairs, I'm guessing we're not, None of us are worried about our chairs moving or couch moving. I'm guessing for most of us it's pretty assumed that this chair is quite solid and dependable. And so we're just going to consciously acknowledge that, Like oh yeah it actually is. It's pretty, I'm in a rocking chair and it's, Even though it moves a little, It's pretty darn solid. So just to kind of feel that object underneath you that is pretty stable and abiding in its presence. And we can feel that when we, Again compare it, When we bring in say the breath. So the breath moves the body up and down or in and out. So as we notice the breath, The torso will rise and fall or fill and empty. And just that factual exchange, That mechanical change, Exchange brings movement by its very nature. So we can notice the movement. We're not trying to evaluate the movement or decide if it feels good, We're just noticing that matter of factly there's movement. And then nearby in the sit bones there's very little movement if any at all, Relatively still. The stillness of the sit bones is feeling the dependability of the chair underneath. Another way of saying that is our nervous systems can consciously acknowledge, Oh I'm pretty taken care of here in a practical kind of way. I'm being supported here and I don't have to worry about the falling off this chair. I don't have to worry about going anywhere. And you can feel some weight just couch beds underneath section of the chair. You can feel that. You can feel the solidity, The solidness of the sit bones, And maybe the pelvic floor, Maybe the lower back into the chair. So while the body is moving up top, The lower body is feeling its safety. It's feeling the security of the chair in just a very practical way. The nervous system loves practicality, So we're just acknowledging the practical component here for the benefit of the nervous system to consciously recognize, Oh, There's something here holding me. I'm being held here. And just kind of letting yourself, Your sit bones, Maybe your hips, Maybe your sacral area, Your pelvic floor, Your upper legs, Just feel that holding. You're being held. The body is rising and falling. It always falls down and releases down back to that which is holding the body, Supporting the body, The chair. This isn't happening in our minds. This is literally happening in our direct experience right now. So we just keep dropping the attention into the simplicity and factuality of this. It's not something the mind can understand or experience. It's only something that the sit bones can experience. And the nervous system that lies within our being can feel in this stillness, This dependability, This holding. So we're going to play with breath a little bit just to even feel it more. You might, If it feels right to you, Just kind of let the body take a little bit of a deeper breath and then a little bit of a deeper exhalation just to feel how the body always returns. It always returns to what it's being held by in this moment right now. The chair. The couch. The bed. Body lifts up away from the field of gravity. And it falls back down into that. It's caught by the field of gravity. It's caught by gravity. It's held by gravity always. Our bodies are always held by the field of gravity. But we often can't really connect with that so much until we really feel it through an object of a chair, For example. And then we can feel in our beings and in our nervous systems, Oh, Yeah, My body, My bones are being held here. And just staying with the simplicity and the mechanicalness of the body rising and falling, Of both moving and being still. And then you can add more of you into this. If you're leaning against something behind your back, You can also feel how the chair or the couch are being held in a place where the jet is like people's asses, Like wh parallelingexcept a balloon, You can also feel how the chair or the couch, Whatever, Is holding you there as well, If that's your context. And just letting your back feel that dependability behind it. The body rises and it falls and the chair stays stable no matter what. The chair is the same when you're breathing in, It's the same when you're breathing out, It's the same when you're happy, When you're sad, When you're thinking a lot, When you're thinking nothing. The chair stays constant. We're just inviting the nervous system to feel that constant sense of holding by the chair. And again, We're not talking on an emotional level or even a psychological level necessarily, So we may not feel emotionally held or psychologically held, We're really just turning toward the nervous system in relation to the being, To the form of the being here. Just in a very practical, Factual way. And to just let the body feel that in this practical way. You might also notice, Depending on context, That the arms may be feeling held or the legs might be feeling held, Maybe even the hands or feet. So just based on your own context, Just noticing how contact is here, How the arms and legs are supported in the ways that they are based on your positioning. And just let them feel that connection. We can start to slowly notice that the body is rising and falling and amidst that there's a stillness at the same time. There's nothing that's not being held by what you're resting upon. And it may be useful for you to really hone in on the places that your body is practically feeling that support, Feeling that holding resonance with, Just to let your nervous system feel that. There's nothing to figure out about it or understand or analyze, Just to notice what's already here in some aspect of your experience of this holding, This contact with object that requires your body to do nothing. Just receive the support that's already here. And you can tense up against that support or you can relax. It doesn't matter. Either way, The support stays the same. So we can even consciously experiment. We could tense the inner thighs, For example, And let them go. And either way, The chair stays supporting. Or do the same with the belly or even the fists. We can purposefully tighten and release, Just like we bring in the oxygen and then we release it. And that space of holding stays the same regardless behind us, Around us maybe. And even feel it in front of you or above or below you. Letting your attention come to the simplest experience of this. If you notice thoughts coming in or it's seemingly complicated, That's really normal because that's just the job of the mind is to kind of complicate things that are actually simple underneath all of the mind's thoughts. Just notice the mind if it comes in and just gently come back to something that is just here as a matter of fact, Sit bones on the cushion or hand on the lap or feet on the floor. Just letting those areas feel the contact, The support that is here practically, Factually. Nothing to do, Just notice. Just keep coming back to the simple sense of holding that's here, Reconnecting to that holding. Letting your attention come to the simplest experience of this. Letting your attention come to the simplest experience of this. And as we slowly start to come out of the rest, You might keep your eyes closed but letting your body, Your legs or your arms move a little bit. Notice that as the body moves, The chair remains. The sense of holding may still be there tangibly. Staying with your experience. And when it feels right for you, You can slowly let the eyes start to open. Letting your attention continue to stay with the felt sense of holding that is happening in your being while the eyes start to take in visual data. So colors and shapes and objects and all that. Still staying connected to breath and still staying connected to the space that's holding you, Supporting you. And then slowly coming back to this room and to this space when you're ready.

Reviews

A very special, embodied practice. Thank you.