Receiving And Releasing Breath

In this 22-minute guided rest, you will be invited to connect with your being in a very simple way. While doing so, there is time and space to receive and release the breath in a curious way. You can meet yourself as you are in this moment. This recording was made in a online gathering.

Transcript

So just kind of letting your your body settle in here wherever you are whatever space you're in.

Letting your attention come to what is here and now.

In a very real way I don't this is nothing esoteric about this rest but what is here and now and I'll just include some pointers here of what is here for all of us is something that we're resting upon.

What that is is maybe different for each person.

Whether you're standing or sitting or laying you will be resting upon something the body will make be making contact solid contact or I should say contact with something solid in this moment.

And so whatever that is for you taking a moment to include that that solidity that's behind the head maybe or maybe under the arms under the sit bones under the feet.

Those are some common places of connection of connection connecting to something solid but there's many more.

And so we're just going to return to this invitation to connect with the here and now-ness of this moment and just the simplest realist ways and you know your context best.

So starting at the head of your bodies and even if there's nothing behind the head that's solid there will be something behind the head.

There's nothing solid behind my head but and yet at the same time there is something behind my head and I'm just feeling that with the space of my body.

I can't feel that with my mind or with the thinking mind.

I can only experience what's behind my head from my head from the back of my skull.

So we're just letting the back of the skull find itself here in this moment however it's connected or whatever it's connected to in your context.

No right,

Wrong,

Good or bad here just contextual experience.

And the head find itself.

And moving down into the neck your context.

Back to behind the shoulders.

Seeing your shoulders relationship with the space above them.

A lot of us hold a lot of tension in the shoulders so they might be raised up towards the ears and you might just notice that if that's true for you.

If the shoulders want to drop inviting them to do so but no agenda here.

Again feeling any space behind the shoulders any contact there to the back area.

Feeling the backs relationship with the space behind it whatever that happens to be.

We'll just pause here for a moment to notice that the breath may be interweaving through the backs relationship to what's behind it.

As the breath does move through the back ribs include the back ribs so you may notice that you may not.

So no agenda here just calling forth what is being experienced here for you in this moment.

Down lower into the lower back.

And you may feel breath interface with the lower back as well.

And then down to the sit bones.

Just taking a moment to feel the sit bones making contact with whatever is here.

If you're standing there may not be much contact but if you're sitting or laying down there will be some pretty overt contact here.

This is due to the field of gravity and nothing more.

Our bodies are bound by the rules of gravity and we can feel that indirect experience when we slow down.

We can feel the weight of the body.

Every body everything on this planet has a weight and we can feel the weight of our human body through the sit bones in some kind of way unless we're standing then it will be harder to feel that.

Feeling now lower than the sit bones into the back of the thighs.

And the weight of the body will press into whatever is underneath it,

Behind it unless you're standing.

Down to the lower legs.

Whatever you're experiencing.

And lastly down into the feet.

The feet are a wide range of context here.

It could be toes,

It could be heel,

It could be the sole.

Just feeling the way that the feet are making contact with whatever they happen to be making contact with even if that's air.

For some of us it will be more overt like a floor or the heels might be propped up on something.

You can feel that solidity there.

Nothing to do here but just notice what's already here,

What's already an experience based on your context.

If you're standing you'll feel a lot of weight here and if you listen to this again you can experiment with this from a standing posture to notice the different felt sense of the weight of the body as the feet are connecting to floor or earth or whatnot.

You can even let the weight distribute differently and even as we're sitting or laying down we can notice the weight of the body is distributed based on the context of our posture or positioning and that's nothing right or wrong about it.

It's just context and gravity.

So again this field of gravity gives all of us a sense of weight here and so you'll feel the weight of the body in certain overt ways.

Some parts of the body will feel almost still and for human bodies that are used to moving,

Walking and whatnot we're just letting the arms and the legs have permission to do nothing,

To just be here for the next bit of time.

There's nothing required from them as far as activity.

So letting those arms be heavy and the legs be heavy,

Letting the muscles soften if they want to.

And even while the arms or the legs may be rather still,

You may still feel movement through them.

Again,

Just based on your own experience,

Just noticing what you notice.

There is no agenda here or supposed tos.

There's just what you happen to be experiencing.

Now while the body has little requirements in terms of activity right now,

There still is activity happening.

We can observe that activity happening.

We can feel that activity happening.

So as your body is leaned back,

Just watch the movement that is already happening just by being human.

For me the most overt movement is breath.

For you it may be something else.

It may be thoughts that are moving or imagination that is moving or sound that is in movement or so on and so forth.

So there is no right way to connect to movement in this moment.

Letting your attention connect to it how it feels easy for you or simple for you to do so.

I will be drawing attention to breath here in a moment and some of us don't like to connect to breath.

And so as that's happening you can stay connected to whatever you'd like.

You can also stay connected to my breath.

So for some people it's easier for them to watch me breath than to connect to their own breath and if you can't see me you might connect to the sound of my breath.

I might,

You might hear me a little bit.

And again you're welcome to use your imagination or connect to something other than breath in this moment.

So if it is safe for you to connect to the movement of breath just noticing just that,

The movement of breath.

However you most simply notice it.

Whether you like breath or not it is always happening in our days.

It is always happening in the present moment.

Sometimes as we learn to be in our bodies that is too much to connect with the present moment and that's okay.

So again you can notice something else.

If it is okay to connect to the breath in the present moment just let yourself do that as simply and as gently as works for you.

Starting from more of the exterior or external we have a rising and falling that comes with breath.

We may notice that in the shoulders.

We may notice that in the back ribs.

And here I'll invite for the first time conscious inclusion with the front of the body we might notice that in the front ribs or the diaphragm.

Or just simply the chest rising and falling.

There's nothing to do about any of this in this moment just noticing the up and down happening that comes with breath.

Our bodies all day long are receiving and releasing.

We're receiving new with every inhalation and we're exhaling old with every exhalation.

You don't have to be conscious of that.

That is the job of the breath.

That is the job of the body to do that for us whether we're conscious of it or not that's a gift that our bodies are built with this ability to exchange to receive and release.

To bring in new and let go of old.

It's simply a part of the mechanism.

Doesn't matter morality is irrelevant,

Gender is irrelevant,

Race is irrelevant,

Age is irrelevant.

This is something that all human bodies have in the breathing mechanism.

It is not earned.

It is given.

This recycling process,

This receiving and being given and releasing out.

And we can feel that in different ways.

We can feel it just structurally really as through the field of gravity as the body takes air in and our body rises up it is receiving in and then it releases out.

So we can also feel the exchange of breath into the pelvic floor area and we can feel that tangibly with that exhalation as the body falls back into that field of gravity back into the chair,

The bed or if we're standing we can still feel it dropping down.

This is just sheer grab physics and we slow down we can feel the subtleties of this.

We can bring our conscious attention to this exchange as it feels right for us.

Breathing into bits that want to be connected into and exhaling out energies that we would like to release.

And we don't really even have to connect to the whole body to connect to this consciously so if connecting to the whole body feels a little bit daunting for you just stay with your attention in the nostrils because that exchange is happening just in the nostrils themselves.

This receiving and releasing,

This giving and receiving is happening just in the nostrils themselves.

You don't have to involve anything else if that doesn't feel right for you.

And we're just going to pause here or I'm going to pause speaking here just so your systems can feel that exchange.

It's already happening and we're just inviting conscious attention to be with this receiving and releasing exchange and for you to participate with that in a way that feels right for you.

You may even discover little mantras here or words that you that are coming to be with this movement,

Whatever feels right for you.

There's absolutely no right or wrong way this is supposed to be happening,

No agenda,

No expectations or shoulds on my part so whatever you're noticing is just organically what's happening here based on your context and your experience,

Your unique experience.

It's also fine and normal and welcome if you do have an agenda or if you do have shoulds or you do have expectations that's part of being human so those are welcome to be here as well.

Just noticing those,

Letting those be invited to be here as well and letting attention come to the simplest expression of your moment right now.

And just staying with this receiving and releasing movement and letting the eyes start to slowly open into your space and letting the rest of your body slowly start to wake up a little bit so you may shift around on your sit bones or move a little bit or your arms and legs and while that's happening still stay with this receiving and releasing happening.

So we're stretching the neuroplasticity here a little bit to include the movement of breath through the receiving and releasing while we're also experiencing the room and the rest of the body a little bit more.

And if it feels like you'd like to let the eyes shut again you can do that,

You can do that just to see what it's like then to close the eyes again as you stay with this receiving and releasing exchange.

Getting connected with that exchange letting the eyes again softly reopen and then we'll slowly make our way back to the screen.