Resting In Stillness: A Somatic Meditation For A Busy Mind

Check in with your body and nervous system as you settle into this 28-minute stillness practice. Work with whatever state you arrive in, whether that's fight-or-flight energy, exhaustion, or a restless mind, using simple somatic tools that help you feel safe enough to let go.

Use cyclic sighing breathwork to shift your breath, soften your muscles, and bring more ease into your whole system.

Step back into the witnessing position so you can observe your thoughts without getting pulled into them, and rest in the stillness that's always underneath.

Come back from this practice more settled, more resourced, and with a clearer felt sense of stillness.

Transcript

A meditation and stillness practice. Start by getting comfortable. If you want to sit or lie down or lie back, However is most comfortable for you. I found it actually helped me go deeper into meditation because I wasn't struggling with pain in my body. How you feel coming into the practice? Some people will have had a really busy day, Maybe really stressed. Others are more relaxed already. Come in and settle and deepen. Check in at the beginning of the practice and then as we go through, Notice what changes, What's the same. One of the things we check is our overall feeling. Are you exhausted? Are you hyper? Are you grieving? Are you happy? A general sense of where you're at. And then more specifically, What's happening in your physical body? Are you comfortable? Are you hungry? Are you full? What do you feel like in your body? Are you comfortable moving? Taking some deeper breaths? Sometimes that's so welcome and other times we don't want to disturb our stillness or we're in a bit of a freeze perhaps and it's, I'll get to that but not just yet. Might be really helpful to move around a little. You could move your body, Bring your arms up as you breathe in and let them release as you breathe out. Move your shoulders around. There's so many ways we can come into awareness of our body. You might wiggle your toes. Notice the soles of your feet. You notice if your body is comfortable being still. If we're in a hypervigilance of fight or flight, Often the stillness feels like an effort and we'll go through a couple practices around that. Is it feel comfortable to go off guard, To let your body settle back and be supported by the chair or whatever you're lying on, Sitting on? If we have that kind of edgy energy, Then it might be helpful to do something a little vigorous. Might do some shaking, Just kind of let your whole body shake. You can stand and do that or just as you are. Might do some tension and release. So if we have a flight or fight response going on in our body, It's helpful to notice that, But then it's also helpful to do something about that. Sometimes what we do is we just notice it and then we take a few deep breaths and it feels like it releases a bit. Other times we need to do something more vigorous, Just whatever it is for you right now. As we're sliding into the stillness, It's not going to be the same for everybody and that's fine. Notice the back of your body, The back of your head and neck, Back of your shoulders, Large muscles of your upper back. This is where we might notice that we're bracing ourselves, Holding some tension in our upper back. You could look, Let your eyes take in what's happening behind you. Is it actually safe enough to let go of your guard? So a lot of this, We're going to stillness, We're talking about feeling safe enough that we don't need to have our guard up. Looking around the room, Noticing if there's anything immediately threatening. If not, It feels safer or safe enough to do practice, That would be helpful. And if not, We could work with that. We could deal with that. I can see that my living environment is safe right now, But I've really got a lot of worry in my mind. We could let ourselves be aware of that if that's what's going on. Sometimes we're not hypervigilant, We're more on the free side, We feel kind of dull or tired, Feels like too much effort to move our body or to breathe, It wouldn't feel like a relief to do that in a more conscious way. Wherever you are in your day, Your body is reflecting that. And if we always have our guard up, That's a highly stressful situation. Part of what we're doing here is looking to see in my immediate future, 20, 25 minutes, Would it be safe enough for me to let go of that? So if there's no immediate threat, We still might have a habit of that in our body, Our nervous system still might be like, I need to keep my guard up. So we're trying to help our nervous system be a little bit more accurate around that. We do have to have our guard up generally speaking in life, But do we need to this moment? The next 20 minutes, Could we release the tension in our shoulders? Could we lighten that shield in front of our heart? Could we let our body be in our awareness, Let our breath be smoother, The large muscles of the upper back, Where we tend to brace ourselves, Back of your arms and hands. Again, If you're feeling like you're in a fight or flight, You might have energy in your arms and hands, So you could shake them out or hold your hands. My arms are ready to protect myself, But there's actually nothing here that I need to protect myself from right now. So perhaps it would be okay to let your arms rest. And then coming back through your mid back, Lower back and into the back of your legs. So notice that you are supported somehow through your back. So if we're standing, It's the soles of our feet. If we're sitting in a chair, It's our feet, Our seat, Maybe partway through your back. If you're lying down or lying back, Probably the whole of your back body. So is the support that you have right now reliable enough that you could let go into that support? And if you're more in a freeze or an exhausted state or kind of dull or numb, Would it be okay to bring your body into your awareness and notice, My body's actually well supported right now. Or if not, I can move or adjust so that it would be. One of the things that we can do is really tune into our back body. What's happening in the back of our body? Could I let myself rest? Resting in stillness, You might be there right now. My body's relaxed, I'm breathing more deeply, My mind is starting to become quieter. So that's the thing about getting really specific. Right now in this moment, If there's no immediate danger, Nothing requires immediate action, I could take a break. It doesn't mean I'm going to have no tension in my body. It might mean though that it could be a little less. Sometimes when we take some deeper breaths, We get a little more oxygen in our brain. It feels good. So let's do a couple of minutes of cyclic sighing. Or if you prefer some other breathing practice, Go ahead and do that. Cyclic sighing is a deep double inhale through the nose and then breathe out like you're breathing through a thin straw. The exhalation can get very long with this without any effort at all. So inhaling again and out through the mouth like through a straw. And let all of your focus be on this simple little practice. As you're breathing out, Soften your forehead, Eyebrows and eyes, Mouth and jaw, Double inhales. Release any tension from your neck, Your shoulders, Upper back, Through your chest. Notice that nothing bad has happened in the last 10 minutes or so. And in fact, We might be feeling better, More relaxed, More settled. My mind is settling a little, Or maybe it's not. We're going to work with the mind directly in a moment. So a few more breaths like that. And then if we were sitting behind our head watching thoughts, Let's do that for a moment to see if there's thoughts that are disturbing the stillness. The thoughts are words that we hear, Or we might see them written out, And images, Colors and shapes that our mind interprets. Notice your thought streams. Are they alarmed? Are they sluggish? Is there not much going on in kind of a numb way? Or is it more a stillness? What's happening in your thought stream? And it could be anything. Maybe you're noticing that you're feeling irritated. Is it something in this moment that's irritating you? Maybe there's something itchy on your body that you could change. Or is it more you've had a day when it's been really frustrating, And you have that hypervigilance or some kind of a nervous system response. You might know what it's from, Or maybe not, But just notice, I'm feeling angry, I'm feeling something. And I can tell that because of the flavor of that, But also the thoughts in my mind. What's going on in your mind? So often our mind will wander. That's very common. And if you have something specific going on, You might look into that. Well, Why? Why am I feeling the way I'm feeling? Why are these thoughts here in my mind right now? And sometimes we have a pretty good sense of why it's going on. Sometimes it's more general. We can't really say this happened, This happened, This happened, And that's why I feel this way. So as you're watching your thoughts, Notice if there's any clues in the thoughts that are coming in, Either in their content or the intensity. And if the thoughts seem to be intrusive, Like you need to do something about them, You might pause and just work with the thought. If it's something intrusive, You might put it over on the other side of the room, Open your eyes, Notice that you've got a thought going on, Images, Colors, And shapes. Really intrusive thoughts, We might put them into a frame over there and notice the space on the outside of the frame. Take your eyes around the empty space a few times each direction. So if you have a feeling of you're stuck like a bird in a cage, Maybe you could put yourself over there as an image. There's me sitting in this big bird cage stuck in there, Locked in, And notice what it feels like to be looking at that. And then take your eyes around the empty space outside the frame a couple of times in each direction. Sometimes we need to do that more than once. Is that actually preventing you from having a respite from your worry or your irritation? Could you take this next 10 minutes or so and rest in the stillness that's here? So underneath whatever's going on in our mind, Underneath the thought stream and in between the thoughts, There's stillness. The vast depths of our mind are still and often we can't access that because we're really kind of hooked on the thoughts in the mind. Step back into that witnessing. I'm witnessing that right now this is how I feel. These are the thoughts in my mind and does it feel safe enough for me to not think about that for 10 minutes? Could I let that go for a bit, Give myself a rest? You might have your eyes open for a while if that helps. Just reminding yourself visually, I'm not actually needing to do anything about my situation right now. I could allow myself 10 minutes. Then often it's really helpful to work on something specific, Like what does it feel like when you notice the breath moving through your nose? It's cool as we breathe in, It's warmer as we breathe out. Work with the continuity of the breath. If you're holding your breath it's really hard for our body to relax because that's a signal we have to hold our breath because there's something dangerous. So if you could just allow your breath to have more ease, Be more continuous, That will change what's going on in your mind. Just as you get to the end of the exhalation, Allow yourself to begin breathing in. Just as you're finished breathing in, Allow that stale air to release out of your lungs. We don't need to hold on to the stale air. Then breathing in and breathing out, Let yourself flow with that rhythm. Sometimes that's enough that our mind becomes more still, Maybe for a few seconds, A few minutes. If the thought comes back or if the mind gets busy again, Let yourself move back into the witnessing. Here's my mind being busy, Trying to let me know all of this stuff. I actually don't need to do anything about that right now. So I'm just going to focus on what does it feel like in my body as I breathe out and I let my muscles relax. Maybe you're frowning and you could relax your forehead. I've never found a time when I put my awareness in my forehead that I couldn't let it soften a little bit more. If you're carrying tension in your jaw, You could move your lower jaw around a little. Let your throat soften. Your mouth becomes still. Your vocal cords, You don't need to speak right now. Let your throat be still. Let your mind, Your thought stream come to stillness. Notice your chest, Your heart area. Notice your arms, Your legs. Is your body agitated? Is it dull? Or is it coming into more of a relaxed? I'm aware of my body. I might not be feeling 100% okay, But I'm okay enough that I could let my body just be here. I could pay attention to my breath. I could witness whatever's going on physically, Energetically, And in my thought stream. Really focus in on that smoothness of your breath. And if that doesn't work for you, If you don't want to pay attention to your breath right now, Then don't pay attention to your breath. Maybe put your attention on softening the palms of your hands or noticing the soles of your feet. And notice what's your relationship with your thoughts. Sometimes we think about thoughts as being like the ripples on a lake on the surface. And then we can remove our engagement with the thoughts. So instead of a thought comes in and then it goes to another thought, And then perhaps our breath, We start holding our breath, We get anxious. Instead of that, Just observe. Here comes a thought. This is what it is. Maybe normally I would go into a train of thought about that, Or I'd worry or my body would get tight. But right now I'm doing a practice. So I'm just going to watch, Notice what's here, Really keep coming back, Taking another breath, Relaxing my body, Being aware of my body. Sometimes we notice there's so much compulsion in our mind. We could at least have some compassion for ourselves, If that's what's going on. It's hard to be in that situation. Maybe we have some pain or discomfort in our body. Sometimes it's helpful to notice the space around whatever that sensation might be, Instead of going right into it. Pain and discomfort have a way of getting our attention. But would it be okay to deepen your breath and to let your mind not engage for a bit? Let your mind come into stillness. It might be the stillness of no thoughts. It might be the stillness of I'm not engaging with the thoughts. There's thoughts in my mind, I'm witnessing them, And I'm remaining present. I'm noticing, I'm witnessing the thoughts as they go through. If I get engaged, I come back. I let myself experience as much stillness as possible. Notice your breath, Your body. And sometimes it helps to focus on something pleasant, Enjoyable, Something not painful, Something comfortable. So it might be that you bring to mind a visualization or remembering standing on the earth with the bare feet, Noticing the energy through the soles of your feet, Air on your skin. Maybe it's a favorite place, Favorite experience, A favorite person. Let yourself focus on that for a few minutes. What's one of your favorite things, Experiences, Where your mind naturally becomes more still? Keep some awareness on your body and your breath. Let yourself be soothed by softening your muscles, More ease in your breath. Witnessing thoughts and witnessing your body, Your experience. Let yourself rest. If your mind is wandering, Just bring it back, Focus on something that's helpful, A remembered experience, A person, Whatever that is that will help you remember in your body what it feels like to be still. We come back again and again. If you've gotten engaged in some thoughts or something going on, Just come back. Let yourself come into the deeper stillness in your mind. Sometimes people have an insight or an intuition when the part of the mind that talks a lot starts to get still. That might be happening too, That's fine. Our deepest knowing often happens when our mind is more still, Our body is settled. As we're preparing to complete this particular practice, Of course, You could stay in the stillness for a while, Work with your breath, Relax your body, Keep witnessing thoughts, And then deliberately coming into stillness. We all know the experience of stillness. And notice how you feel now compared to the beginning of the practice and the middle of the practice. When you came in, What did your body feel like? What was your relationship with your body and your breath? Was your mind really busy? Is it less busy now? What's happening in your experience? Maybe there were times that you were able to witness thought, Even disturbing thoughts, Like, Whoa, Yeah, Look what's in my mind right now. And I just noticed I was holding my breath. I take a deeper breath. I could offer myself some compassion and kindness. It's really a lot of suffering when we have a compulsive mind, And a lot of joy when we have a bit of stillness. And one of the reasons that we get so specific at the beginning we were looking at, Is it safe enough for me to do this for 20 minutes or so? Could I let down my guard? Could I relax my body? Could I let my body settle into the support? Or do I need to be on the edge of my seat? And if there's nothing immediate that I need to take care of, Then we could just check out, Take a break, And we come back more energized, More capable, And more resourced. I hope you had some pleasure and joy, Some stillness, That you feel better going into the rest of your day, Whatever that might hold for you. I appreciate that we can do this together.