Slowing Including What Is Uncomfortable While Including What Is Simple

In this 20-minute rest, Lisa gently guides us in staying connected with ourselves in simple ways, while acknowledging areas we may struggle with. Please feel free to push pause at any time to connect more fully to what you’re discovering.
This track contains ambient sounds in the background

Transcript

I'm just checking to see if there's anything any repositioning that needs to happen here. Noticing temperature and textures and contacts and letting the body move if it needs to or get a blanket if it need if you need to or anything like that making any any adjustments here and then just if none are needed just noticing the body is already perhaps settled in in a certain way. Yeah and without maybe in a kind of an actual factual way just kind of noticing or observing how the body has settled in. So for me I am sitting in a different chair than I often sit in and I'm I'm on the edge of my of this rocker I've normally leaned back but for some reason my context is different so I'm just noticing like oh I don't have anything behind my back but I feel real strong contact with the floor under my feet and my sit bones are are real solidly planted and then there's just a space behind my back because there's nothing nothing pressing against my back and I feel just actually factually the the armchair my arms supported by the arm chairs of this rocker. So just letting your attention just kind of do a little checklist of what your body is making contact with what your bones and body are being held by in direct experience and just feel those direct experiences through the softnesses or the hardness or the temperatures. We're really inviting the brain to utilize itself efficiently by observing. Observing is really useful to get the hemispheres online so we there is a reason why we we start with the actual factual or include the actual factual just so the brain and the nervous system and the vagus system can be in good health. We just notice these actual factuals and we can do that with the eyes open or closed we can notice the actual factual of the positioning of context of sitting or laying down or we can do it with the eyes closed through the felt expression and again this is going to be unique for all of us because we're in our unique context and positioned in our unique context so there isn't a right or wrong way to be sitting or laying there's just the way that you happen to be doing that. I'm just noticing that there is a field of gravity that we're in which means that we are all firmly planted somehow in this moment in some way or another none of us are floating in the ceiling up to the ceiling or anywhere where all of us are being very much supported in a very real way this is not conceptual so we invite attention to notice through the sit bones or the feet or the back or however you're positioned just the actual factual of the body taking up space having a weight because everything on this planet in the field of gravity has a weight and then if it feels right to really kind of let your body so to speak really like let your body have this weight that it does sometimes we tense or hold as if to resist what we're sitting upon or just because it's a habit to clench or hold muscles tight but in this moment it feels right to let any habitual holding release knowing that you have this chair or couch or whatever underneath you to catch your body to support your body fully and it's okay if not all your muscles release because not all your muscles could release otherwise you'd be on the floor as a puddle we need muscles holding and contracting for us to breathe and for our heart to beat and all sorts of other things so we're just seeing what's available to release knowing that we will still have things in our body and those are important and needed and necessary if you haven't yet you might also just notice or observe how breath is happening in this moment perhaps not to connect to the quality of the breathing but just notice that it is indeed happening the breath is moving the body with every inhalation and every exhalation and we can just factually observe that and this will be different based on context for me I'm sitting fairly upright so my body my shoulders are very much rising to the ceiling with every inhalation so to speak other people will be more reclined so their chest will be moving more towards the ceiling so just watching and observing how the body fills and empties how the ribs move the shoulders move the back or the sides move the belly move excuse me moves if we are having a hard time noticing the movement or observing the movement we can put a hand on the chest and the belly and then the movement will find us will show itself to us so we can observe through that it's okay if one of your hands is moving more than the other or if neither hand is moving a whole lot we're just noticing the subtleties here there is no right way to be breathing in this moment or wrong way we're just kind of observing some people teach right ways to breathe and wrong ways to believe in that breathe and that is not the that's not what we're doing here we're just observing how however breath is showing up in this moment as an observer as an experiencer now your mind might be referencing things past or future and that's really normal so it may be difficult for you to connect to what is actually factually happening in this moment because your mind may be somewhere else that's very normal if at all possible find something in your experience right now which is really easy and simple to be curious about it could be being curious of how air comes in and out of the nostrils and to just hang out with that just letting your attention study that expression one that I've been doing today is really feeling with the exhalation feeling the belly move out which is a reverse for me normally I will study it the other way but I'm just been noticing today the body rising with the inhalation and then the body releasing out and the belly releasing out with the exhalation that's just been really fun for me today it might be that you just notice the fingertips or yeah something just unique for you something simple easy neutral and just being patient with yourself because it can sometimes be hard to come to simple because our minds are love love complication so being patient and compassionate with yourself if this is difficult and every time you notice you're kind of lost in those thoughts or narratives just gently bring yourself back to something that doesn't really have a narrative or a judgment it's just fairly neutral simple easy okay and as you're noticing whatever is simple or easy you're just noticing other things that are here that are true you may not like them but that are true maybe there's some part of your body that's cold and you don't really like it a whole lot but it's okay or you don't need to get a blanket you can just observe the coolness or something's warm and that might not be your favorite but you can observe it or notice it or experience it as it is it might be something that you're noticing that you you do wish you could change maybe there's a heaviness or that tiredness that someone had mentioned earlier like maybe there's maybe that's here and can that be allowed to be here too just like whatever had been simple before just noticing where that tiredness is in your body or the heaviness is in your body and can you connect and include it with the same kind of observation or experiencing as you did that other area of the body that had a simpleness to it can we let that just be here as it is and the answer might be yes and the answer might be no just replacing the word tired or whatever word is right for you if it's not tired if it's not heavy maybe some other word is accurate for you that you're observing that you're not really super a big fan of and just acknowledging that yeah you may not really like it and you know does it take up all of you is it from head to toes you know when we slow down it's like oh where is that heaviness everywhere well in some way yeah because we we take up space right and we we have a weight so on some level there is a literal heaviness to us but there might be something that we might call like an emotional happiness and then just being curious of that like where is that emotional heaviness and can that be allowed to be while you notice that maybe in lots of other areas that's not present breath is still happening sitting is still happening simple neutral likes dislikes preferences and perhaps aversions yeah they're they're all here in different ways and just letting your attention kind of meander to notice the vast terrain not having to like all of the terrain we're just noticing that there is a lot of differences a lot of different experiences in this moment and just seeing what it's like to have those and both experiences I like X and I don't like Z or X is really comfortable and Z is not so comfortable that could take lots of different shapes and expressions the mind sometimes really tunnel visions and and it finds a sensation or an emotional experience and it says oh I'm that all of me is that and when we slow down and include all of us we might notice it's not all of us it's something maybe really small and it still means something and that's okay we're not trying to talk ourselves out of what is actually here we're trying to invite ourselves to notice and include more of what is here because that mind can tunnel visions and we want to kind of open it up to to what is actually here and not the perceived tunnel vision of what is here really inviting our nervous system to connect to the fullness of what is here and by that I mean again not just the discomfort or not just what we don't like or not just the aversion that we might have which is totally understandable but to also include the well-being that is also here so the nervous system can stay somewhat regulated the vagus nerve can stay somewhat regulated to support our bodies and our brains to remind ourselves that we cannot like something and and still not feel in danger for example so you might need to just look around your room if if you're feeling like oh boy the sensations are really awful you might be like yeah it is and oh wow I'm safe in this room I'm okay no harm is coming to me in this room and I'm really experiencing something that I don't like yes both and the last bit of time here just invite you to have some longer slower exhalations that could be audible to you to you or not but just to let that exhalation every once in a while be real slow and long and gentle to really let that vagus nerve release through that exhalation and just a normal inhalation I invite you with that long slow gentle exhalation to let that be a full body experience as much as possible so you might really feel it feel that exhalation move all the way down through your belly through your legs just really letting it take its time moving down out through the body as if it's going right into the earth taking with it anything that's no longer needed and then the body will just intuitively breathe in that neck that next round of fresh oxygen for the body let yourself have a few relaxed breathing cycles and then when it feels right for you have that longer slower gentle exhalation where you really feel that release down and out through your body just inviting yourself again to release anything that's not needed you don't even have to know what that means or what that's going to do we're just speaking to our nervous systems and they are wise they listen in their own way as you stay connected to sitting and breathing letting the eyes start to jump gently open taking in the space around your room and then when you're ready coming back to the screen.