The Layers Of Here

In this 23-minute guided rest, you will be invited to connect with "simple" by going under the layers of your mind. When connected to simple, you are invited to include more of you. You will be encouraged to find what's simple for you.

Transcript

Yeah,

Just getting comfortable.

And you'll your your system will know when you reach that spot.

You know,

When the when the back is comfortable when the sit bones or the feet or the arms or whatever,

However you're positioned.

Yeah,

And just kind of notice notice.

What for you in this moment is comfort.

For me,

I'm noticing it's that pillow that I just put behind my back.

I'm really appreciating that pillow.

I can really feel that in this moment offering a sense of comfort and ease and support in a very practical way.

Practicality is so important for our nervous systems.

So in your own sitting,

In your own context,

In your own positioning,

Just noticing what in this moment feels good or right or okay or neutral,

Whatever word works for you.

Nothing fancy.

Maybe it's the angle of the chair or the way that your feet get to be positioned or where your hands get to rest really could just be just about anything but we really want to look for very simple something very simple in this moment and letting our brain utilize itself in such a way that when we do connect to simple,

The brain becomes regulated actually.

Just witnessing or just noticing the actual factual of something that brings in both hemispheres and different parts of the brain and in such a way that the brain is somewhat balanced and regulated,

We might say.

So that's why we begin by including something simple,

Neutral,

Factual.

Sometimes our thoughts can be very busy and keep us from coming or connecting to simple and that's very normal.

So if you have a lot of thoughts right now that are judging or analyzing or evaluating,

That's really normal.

That's what our brains do.

It's not a sign that you're doing anything wrong.

It just means you have a brain that's doing what it knows how to do.

And then underneath all of that brain activity,

We can just be curious.

Is there anything underneath all of that brain movement that really doesn't need analysis in this moment?

And I'm coming to my feet often come to my feet,

They're always usually almost always a little cooler.

Do the coolness of my feet need analysis in this moment?

It doesn't seem so to me.

Now your feet might need analysis.

So you might just find some other area does that maybe just for whatever reason doesn't need analysis.

You don't even have to like it or dislike it.

So we're not evaluating a quality of experience.

We're just being curious if there's anything in this moment that is fine just as it is.

Maybe it's your left ear lobe or your right pinky giving a moment that attention meander a little bit to just see in this moment.

What is that simple just as it is.

And for fun you might or we might invite our attention to just meander more what else is just is as it is and needs no analysis or need doesn't need to be different.

Letting your attention really connect to the simplest of symbols.

So I think of who do my elbows need to be different in this moment?

How about my heels of my feet to my the heels of my feet need to be different?

The answer might be yes,

The answer might be no.

We're just being curious to see in this moment do my eyelids need to be different?

So we're not ignoring all the things that maybe you want to be different.

Those are okay.

Those are allowed to be here too.

We're not excluding anything and we are taking a moment to include what is often ignored which is simple.

We often ignore simple for lots of reasons.

But in this moment we're just being curious about that.

Not to pretend that there aren't a whole lot of things that aren't simple at the same time.

So we might start to notice some things in this experience right now may be fairly simple and maybe there are some things in your experience right now that aren't so simple.

And in this moment there's an invitation to be with the and both,

What I call the and both.

The simple and the not simple.

We're not trying to get more simple or less not simple.

We're just noticing how they're both here perhaps.

And can we let them,

Maybe can we let them both be here or acknowledge anyway that they are both here in some way.

We might start to notice oh we're we or I am a human experiencing many things.

I'm a human sitting or laying down or standing.

Looks like no one's standing but whatever the context is.

Oh I'm just I'm me Lisa you're you insert name.

A human who's sitting who's experienced some experiencing some things that are simple and perhaps experiencing some things that are not simple or just observing that noticing.

We had acknowledged identities earlier so maybe identities are popping up and maybe they're not.

We all have many coexisting identities.

Some we take very lightly and some we might hold on to and be very important to us.

Our careers might have identity certain parts of our personality certain ways that we like to be perceived by others or think of ourselves.

And maybe in just in this moment we can acknowledge that having identities is really normal and human and even okay.

Sometimes I have an identity of mother and I can be curious about that identity and how tightly I'm holding on to it.

And so it's useful and how it's helpful to be curious of our identities to be aware of our identities and how much we are gripping onto them or how we are even avoiding them.

Just to be curious about our human selves that do have identities.

And if we were to consider what is here underneath the myriad of identities.

I don't know how many identities I have.

Let's say I have 10 just for fun.

Maybe we let's say we all have 10 identities.

I don't know what they are but just for fun we have many.

Who might we be underneath our identities?

Now just notice what the mind wants to do to try to figure that out.

If the mind is going to images or ideas that's very common.

In direct experience we invite our attention to actually drop down literally below the chin to see without identities who am I in this moment?

And to discover the answer to that question I'm invited to literally notice myself in this moment.

Which is what we were already doing before right?

We were already noticing the actual factual of this moment which includes temperatures and textures and sensations what not.

If it's comfortable for you to include breath go ahead and do that maybe just even out of the nostrils.

If you don't really enjoy connecting to breath in the chest or the belly just notice that breath is moving in and out of the nostrils for a moment and then we'll come back to our exploration.

Our nervous systems do love oxygen.

So we can slow down for a moment just to observe the nostrils are bringing in air and the nostrils have air flowing out of them.

So now we are connecting more to our sitting breathing bodies underneath our identities of who we are who we aren't.

We are sitting breathing beings creatures and I'm going to invite your attention to come to again come to simple come to most actual factual.

It might be I'm a sitting breathing body with my left hand on my left leg or I'm a sitting breathing body with my right foot wherever it is.

So we're going to actually take this very literal to locate ourselves or locate our bodies in this very moment actually going to really invite our attention to discover that in real time.

Where am I located?

Well I'm located in a rocking chair that's wood and I have cushions behind me and under me and a carpeted floor under my feet.

That's where I'm located in this moment.

We're going to start there.

So for you notice your immediate environment under you behind you.

You and your chair you and your floor are in relationship you're in location with each other and the breath is here too.

And we are taking up space and we can feel that space very subtly or very overtly around us.

Our body breathes into that space the rib cage gets bigger and it breathes into the space.

When we breathe in our body might get taller we rise into the space that had been around us there it is around us.

And then when we exhale our body falls a little bit into that back into the field of gravity back in towards the chair.

So we are in this location experientially with chair with floor with breath.

Really inviting attention to come to the most simple actual factual.

We're not acknowledge I'm sorry we're not ignoring sensations emotions or might be fear anger sadness grief peace sereneness there could be all those different emotions and feeling different feelings we're not denying any of that those all coexist at the very same time as the simplicity of sitting and breathing.

The space that we occupy doesn't exclude anything.

Now we may want it to exclude some things we may not want fear to be here and that's okay too.

That desire for fear not to be here that's included here too.

So sometimes we have identities that like to or we might call them personalities and or personality selves and in our personality selves have preferences.

There's things that we don't like to be experiencing or don't like to have around and that's very human of us to have that.

So those get to be here too.

We might notice that that gets to be very complicated pretty quickly and just to notice that and if possible to let your attention also include something anything in this moment in your sitting breathing body that's simple.

It is not easy for all of us to stay connected to simple our minds are often very used to chasing or being looped into lots of thoughts and narratives what I call narratives ideas and that's really normal.

That's not a defect that's that's one of the ways that our brain work works is to do that so we can notice that and then even if it's just for one one or two seconds to notice anything that has simplicity here maybe it's the nostrils taking in that air again.

So the invitation here is not to have a homogeneous experience.

It's impossible for a human being.

The invitation is to notice the multitudes and then if possible to also be curious of something anything that has some simplicity to it that we can be curious about and let our attention rest with for a few seconds.

If your eyes have been closed I'm going to in a moment I'm going to invite you to open them but but just do so very slowly and while you do open the eyes I want you to let your attention stay connected to whatever you had noticed that simple.

So as the eyes start to take in all this data if you need to close them again to reconnect to what you had discovered was simple you can close those eyes reconnect to that simplicity or neutrality and if you can hold that in your attention while the eyes open practice that if that's doesn't happen that's okay too.

We're kind of doing brain exercises now neuro pathway exercises.

Your attention.

Look around the space if it wants to and then let's let your limbs start to move a little bit if you want to stretch a little bit or move your arms or legs.

If you need to stand up and stretch that's fine too.

I'll just notice that with more data more coming in our location is still here the simplicity of our location hasn't left but our attention might be filled up with a lot more things now but when we pause and even we can look down and go oh yeah I'm still in this location.

I'm still just right here right now and at the same time there might be a lot of other things happening too.

And you might just ask yourself before we pause here for the rest you might just ask yourself or connect with yourself what you want to see something from this rest that you learned that you want to continue to deepen into into your learning or maybe you found something that was simple or neutral and you want to keep connecting with that.

Keep getting to know that simplicity or neutrality that you discovered maybe as a practice.

And when you're ready you can come back to the screen just take your time.