Resting With Allowance

In this 27-minute guided rest, you will be invited to connect with a form of allowances. The experience of allowances can be unique for each individual. It could be the support of your chair or bed. Or the feeling in your feet or hands. From this space of allowance, or love, or consciousness, or God, or what words suits you, you will be invited to connect with what is going on for you. This could be a story in your mind, or a conflict with another person, or a difficult sensation.

Transcript

Okay,

So yeah,

Go ahead and get comfy,

Let your,

If you're not already,

Let your sit bones kind of find their spot and your legs and your feet settle in and then the space behind you,

Your back,

And depending on your positioning,

Your head,

Just getting comfortable,

Your arms,

Your hands,

And really honoring the comfort of your system.

So if you need to rearrange or get another pillow or get a blanket,

Just kind of honoring that so that your body can feel important,

You know,

That your comfort can be recognized as important and valid.

And then just taking a moment to pause here in the comfort that you've found,

That you've discovered.

And we'll just pause here to let your attention kind of settle into the factual way that your body is here.

In other words,

The way that your arms are placed and what they're resting on or your hands are resting on,

Just feeling that contact,

Feeling the way that your head or your back is making contact.

If it is with something solid or maybe just the space behind you if you're sitting upright,

Maybe even that space in front of you,

Whether it's clothing or a blanket or air,

Just feeling that space there.

There's contact there as well,

Maybe a more subtle contact.

The body rising and falling and moving into that space in front of you or above you as the body rises and falls as it fills and empties.

Just feeling the body connecting with space.

And if the back of your body is connected to something solid,

Just feeling your body connect to that as the breath comes in and out.

And down to the sit bones where there is something solid for everyone unless you're standing,

But none of us are standing in this moment.

So just feeling the solidity underneath the sit bones.

The upper body is moving with the breath and the sit bones are staying pretty still.

Maybe moving a little bit.

And then that which the sit bones are sitting on or connecting with is probably pretty unmoving in this moment.

I'm just letting kind of letting that space of the body and the lower back,

The sit bones into that pelvic floor region,

Just letting the nervous system in that region acknowledge the sense of unmovingness under the body from the chair or bed or whatever cushion as the body itself does move in different ways.

Maybe just an actual factual kind of way,

Just taking notes from head to toes.

There's different ways the body is both moving and still.

The chest and the belly are likely moving somewhat overtly with the breath and then in other ways the body is fairly still.

And then underneath that is the stillness of the couch or the chair or whatnot.

Just kind of feeling,

Letting the nervous system attune to those realms,

Those experiences here that are all simultaneously happening.

You may want to include the legs here too if you haven't already,

Just acknowledging the existence of the legs and the feet and they may feel fairly still,

Particularly compared to the upper body.

And as you tune into the legs and the feet and how they may be somewhat still,

You might start to subtly notice or start to notice some subtle ways of movement,

So you might notice for example a faint heartbeat through the legs or the feet or just a subtle energetic happening that connotates movement of some sort.

It's very subtle perhaps.

And then that which the legs or the feet are resting upon,

The object itself is going to be still.

And just to let the nervous system through the legs and the feet to note the own movement of the body's energies,

Even if the legs are not moving,

There's still the energetic happenings of movement and then whatever the legs and feet are resting on,

The couch or the floor or whatever,

The nervous system through the feet and legs can feel that unwaveringness,

That stability there.

And so our nervous systems can slowly start to notice and include a constancy of sorts,

A constancy of the cushion or the bed or the chair that stays even when there's movement happening somewhere else.

So here we are in the paradox.

The nervous system registers this unwaveringness,

This constancy,

This stability at the same time that there is movement happening and change happening.

And we really want to invite the nervous system to pause and return to this unwaveringness,

To this felt sense of constancy.

This cannot be figured out from the mind or found with the mind.

It has to be connected to or recognized from the being.

So we just go very slow and gentle here to pause into our nervous systems through our bones,

Our muscles,

Our skin to notice that there is a solid object under us that is holding this moving body.

You can feel this in experience as the breath comes in and out and the body moves with the breath and the stability of the object remains.

So the breath rising and always falling back to the stability of the object holding the body.

And just letting your system receive that support or that sense of holding of the object,

Playing with the breath,

Maybe letting the breath even engage a little bit more overtly,

Taking a deeper breath to really feel as the body releases,

It returns to this holding of the object and it stays held even when the inhale comes.

So through this cycle of inhale and then exhale,

The nervous system can stay turned toward the stability and the holding in a practical way.

If thoughts come in to try to figure this out,

Just notice,

Oh yeah,

I'm thinking,

I'm in thought,

That's really normal.

Just gently bring your attention back to the breath or to something that's already happening that really requires no thought or figuring out.

Again,

As those thoughts get your attention,

Just acknowledge that and then just gently coming back to the object that you're being held by,

Letting your nervous system reconnect with that holding,

With that support in this very practical way.

So through this rest today,

We're going to continuously reconnect to this sense of stability or holding or whatever word works for you,

The space that holds.

We're going to continue to reconnect here just to train the brain and the nervous system to remember to include this because most of our life we've not known to include this,

So we have to practice this consciously.

So we'll do that during this rest.

In this moment,

Just let your attention go to maybe some other experiences that you're having here.

Maybe there are sensations that are easy or hard,

Maybe contractions or softness could be anything.

Just noticing kind of qualities in your experience in this moment.

In fact,

They may be all of those.

There may be comfort and discomfort near each other or at the same time.

So just kind of noticing those experiences that you're having in this moment and as you're noticing those experiences,

Whatever they happen to be,

Invite your attention to also stay connected with that felt sense of the stability or the holding.

So we're going to invite ourselves to stay connected to the holding and from here include other things in our experience.

It's usually the other way around,

So we're going to just kind of re-do this experiment to reconnect and stay connected with the holding until we notice that we're not and then we just go,

Oh yeah,

Let me reconnect there.

Practice that reconnecting.

And when you reconnect from this place,

Let your attention include something else in your experience.

Could be an emotion,

Could be a thought,

Could be a sensation,

Could be sound,

Could be something else.

The moment you notice that you've left the holding space,

You're going to bring your attention back there to reconnect just very simply.

And I'm going to just kind of switch the language for a moment.

I'm going to kind of call the chair or couch or cushion,

I'm going to call that the allowing space because in a practical way,

The couch or chair,

Whatever,

It is very unconditional.

It's very unwavering in its support.

The chair doesn't care if what you're thinking,

What you're feeling necessarily,

It stays here for you.

It stays supportive for you.

It's allowing of any experience that you're having in this moment and it stays,

The chair stays.

And so as we tune into this space,

As the nervous system perceives this sense of holding or sustained allow,

We're going to look at it as a sustained allowing of sorts.

And I'm just going to keep it super simple.

It's this felt sense of practical allowance.

And if an emotion comes or a thought comes or a sensation comes that we don't like,

Or that doesn't feel allowing,

Just acknowledge that and bring your attention back to the space that does allow and include it from the allowing space.

So from the chair,

Include that which maybe doesn't feel allowing or which you don't like or which is uncomfortable.

So we're not actually trying to change the experience.

We're not trying to change an emotional response or a thought response or a sensation response or inviting our attention to include it from this space of the holding.

And again,

This isn't something that we can do from the mind.

So it's not even going to make sense necessarily from the linear mind or the logical mind.

So if you're using the mind to think about this right now,

That's super valid and super normal.

And it will likely not work so well.

So just to acknowledge that and then gently come back to something simple here,

The breath,

The chair,

The couch.

Return to simple.

Returning to simple when something comes that doesn't feel so simple and let the simpleness include that not so simple.

You may in that energy of not so simple,

You may have thoughts of shame or experiences of shame or thoughts of not good enough or thoughts of all sorts of other thoughts.

And we're not trying to change any of that.

Maybe sadness,

Maybe fear,

Maybe anger,

Maybe frustration.

We're not trying to change any of that.

Maybe images.

And again,

Those those are those get to be here too.

We're letting those be as they are.

And the invitation is to have some part of our attention also including the simple space underneath us,

Or perhaps around us depending on on your own experience of that space of allowing that practical space of holding.

And very slowly,

You might start to notice that the space of holding or allowing includes the space of the breath.

And includes other experiences that we're having.

Thoughts coming and going,

Ideas coming and going,

Sensations coming and going,

Images,

Senses,

Tastes,

They all come and go with and move from this space of the holding.

The space of allowance holds all of all of that in the moment.

And only in the moment,

Not in the past or the future,

Just right now.

That space of allowances here right now in that practical way.

And it holds referencing to past or future too.

Our mind can be so strong and how it is bringing in expectations or shoulds.

So just to acknowledge that,

You know,

The space of holding or allowance could feel very small and just very succinct,

Or it might feel very large.

So staying with your own experience,

The space of allowing or holding it might,

You know,

Just be one finger.

Or it might be,

You know,

The space right under your sit bones.

Or it could be your foot,

You know,

It really could be anything.

Or it could be many of those at the same time.

So just really getting very,

Very simple.

The simplest expression of the space of holding or allowance or dependability.

So however you perceive that in the nervous system and it's simplest of expressions,

Just letting your attention kind of really get intimate with that.

And from there,

From that simple expression,

The invitation is to include more.

But first,

We get really intimate with that felt sense of allowance first.

We'll constantly reconnect to that space.

And it may even change from day to day or hour to hour.

Just noticing how it's here now.

So only can connect to it in this moment.

We reconnect our attention to discover how it is in this moment.

Reconnect with it as it is and feel its flavors,

Its qualities.

Maybe it's warm or maybe it has a smoothness to it or maybe it has a heaviness to it.

Really could be anything.

We're all really unique.

So we all kind of connect with this differently.

And then again from here to include more when that feels right.

And this is really a practice.

So this isn't something that we just get all of a sudden and then it's a forever done deal.

This is a practice of every day kind of every as much as possible to reconnect with this felt sense and then to live from this place more and more as our nervous systems get more and more tuned to it.

So we're going to just keep practicing it in the rest of this.

We're just going to do another couple of minutes here.

But as you're staying turned towards this simple place of allowance or support,

Stay connected with it with your attention while you let the eyes softly open.

So now you have a data from the outside,

So to speak.

And so the invitation is to stay tuned toward this inner resonance.

Again while the eyes are open and you may need to kind of close them to reconnect again and then let them reopen again.

This too is a practice to stay turned toward even when there's stimulation or data coming in.

And in your day to day life,

This will be the invitation to be in your life and stay turned toward this deeper resonance,

Sustained resonance of allowance.

So you have this and world that you're living from,

This state of allowance that is also with all the other experiences.

Rather than either or,

We have an and experience.

And we invite the mind and the brain to rewire to that truth.

You'll note that the mind or something in us kind of wants to have these homogenous experiences of all acts,

All peace,

All bliss,

All whatever.

And that is just not the human experience.

So we want to just train our systems that we can stay turned towards this space of allowance and other things may be coexisting with that.

So the eyes open now and still staying turned toward this space in your being of allowance and feeling the breath,

Noticing sound,

Noticing other sense mechanisms.

And as need be,

Let your mind or let your eyes maybe even kind of close for just a brief moment to reconnect as needed.

Sometimes it can be hard to stay with this felt sense of holding when there's a lot of data.

So we can in any moment exclude some data,

Purposefully,

Consciously to reconnect.

And then when that reconnection is made,

Then we can invite more data in.

So those pausing moments can be really important that allow for the reintroduction,

The re-recognition,

The reconnection of the support.

Okay.

And we'll just let your attention now come back to the screen when you feel ready for that.

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Reviews

This one was so good! Truly an essential practice for nervous system regulation. 🙌🏻💗