Resting In The Stillness Of The Dark Sacred Night

When the nights are long and dark, it is a natural time to turn inward, rest and reflect. Bring to mind the points of light in the dark night sky. This quiet practice awakens us to the energy field of stillness as we are guided through our physical body and into rest.

Transcript

The sacredness of this time of year, The sacred night. The opportunity perhaps to settle in and be a little bit more connected, A little bit more in that dark sacred night. And how there's that one energy field that we are in, Our bodies are in the same field of energy as Earth Mother and the stars and our energy fields are connecting with each other. And in our physical body, We have the most solid manifestation of our being. We have our bones and our muscles and our nervous system and our hearts. I thought we could do a little awareness practice in the layers of our being, Noticing that our body is in this space, This space of the dark sacred night. And see if you could adjust your body so that you're comfortable, Check that you're warm enough. If there's something that you could do to feel a bit more nourished, Lie down, Lie back, Whatever that might be. And notice the connection through the back of the body, The back of the head and neck, The shoulders, The back of your arms and the large muscles of the back. Notice how your body is supported in this environment. Notice if you're holding yourself up through tension in the shoulders and the upper back, If you could let that soften through the upper back, The mid back, Lower back, Back of the legs. If you can feel the soles of your feet, Whether they are in connection with something or if they're in the air or in space, Notice the energy in the soles of your feet. As we come up through the body, We come through the feet and the bones and the toes, The upper feet, The ankle joints, This place of connection with the earth. We all remember that awareness, That feeling, That experience of our feet are on the earth, The solidness of the support under our feet. And the sensations might vary. Sometimes it's cold, It's soft, It's scratchy, It's wet. Tune into that reliability of the earth under our feet. And then we bring our awareness up through the legs, The physical body, The bones of the lower legs, The knee joints, The muscles in the front and the back of the lower legs, Calves, That tender space behind the knees. And then the powerful muscles in our thighs, The front and the back, The bones that connect our knees up through to our hip joints, Our pelvic floor, Our stomach area. If you could, And you might want to stretch a little or move a bit, See if you could allow your legs to be at rest. Let yourself settle through your legs. And then coming up through the pelvic floor and the belly, Up through the navel center, The stomach area. Notice the movement of the body with the breath in that area, Allowing your stomach to soften a little as we're breathing out. Notice the heart area, The heart and lungs protected by the ribcage, The large muscles of the chest and the back. Noticing the connection in our physical body as well as some awareness of the energy field of the body. Notice the neck and shoulders, Down through your arms, The upper arms, Those muscles and bones, The elbow joints, The joints and muscles of the lower arms, Wrist joints, Hands, Fingers, Fingertips. Notice the palms of your hands, Backs of your hands. And take a few deeper breaths if that feels okay, And let your awareness flow over the sides of your neck, Your shoulders, Down through your arms and hands. Let the back of your arms, Especially be supported. Your hands be at rest. And coming up from the heart area, The ribcage into the collarbones, The ribs at the front and the back, And how all of that is connected. Coming up through the neck, The hinges of the jaw, Your mouth and tongue. We're never just completely in the physical body. We also have the energy of speech, Of sensation. Coming up through the nostril area, Feeling the breath, The sensations, Bringing in the cool flow of oxygen, Releasing the warmth of the waist, Like CO2 coming out of the nose. And notice the pattern, The rhythm. Is your breath a little bit more at ease just in the last 10 minutes? Notice your eyes. You have your eyes open, Or if you have your eyes closed, Or if you have your gaze soft, Notice your eyes. Notice your brain, The thoughts that might be coming and going in your brain. And as we're noticing the eyes, We might also be remembering things that we've seen. Maybe standing outside at this time of year at night, We can see the darkness of the sky, The brightness of the light, The stars, Moon. Letting yourself be absorbed in that for a moment. Noticing the bones in your head, The skull, Your forehead, The top of your head, The crown of your head. And being aware of the whole physical body. Notice how you're supported in the environment that you're in, Physically supported. And if you were to take a few deep breaths and release, That often helps us to soften the body. Soften the muscles as well. Let your body be supported. And then bring your attention to a more subtle quality of the body, The energy field. Let go a little bit of the physicalness in your awareness. Bring your awareness more into the energy. And in the energy layer, There's the breath, The energy of life force in the body, Prana. There's the life force all around us, Surrounding us and in us. And again, Attuning to the dark sacred night. Letting your body and mind rest in that awareness. Nothing to do, Nothing to figure out, Just to rest for a moment. And in that rest, In that darkness, We might notice there are points of light. You might bring your awareness into your heart center. And that might be a visual, It might be an energy. Let yourself rest in this darkness, Also aware that there's light as well. And locating your body and your energy body in this field of awareness. Maybe bringing back that awareness of the night, The night sky. And it's natural we would have thoughts and perhaps visual memories. It's one way to bring that into our awareness. That evening of the solstice or of the full moon, The light around the moon, The light shining reflected on the moon. And if thoughts are in your mind, Let them settle or move a bit to the background. Let your awareness be quiet for a few minutes. Let your thoughts come into stillness. You might notice your breath, You might anchor into an awareness of the night sky. Let your body rest and your mind be still. As we're coming to the end of the practice, Notice that even as we begin to move our body a bit or open our eyes, Look around, That we're still in that field of energy. That darkness, The still, The light is still coming through our eyes out into the connection with the world.

Reviews

Thank you for this deep resting practice. It was just what I needed on this cold and snowy evening.