Hi,
This is Meg Rinaldi of Body Centered Inquiry,
And welcome to this guided somatic movement session,
Before We Had Words.
For this session,
You can be on a comfortably padded surface on the floor,
On a bed,
Or in a comfortable chair.
If you choose to lie down for this session,
Make sure you have ample support beneath your knees to protect your low back.
You'll need head support as well.
Make sure it's a rolled up bath towel or yoga blanket.
I'll be guiding you through this as if you're lying down.
Adapt as you need to.
And when you're ready,
Please come to lie on your back,
Arrange your props,
And let yourself begin to settle in.
Bring your awareness to your shape as you make contact with the ground either on the floor,
Bed,
Or chair.
Begin to get curious about how you bring awareness to your sensations of shape and connection to the ground.
How do you organize your attention to become sensitive to yourself?
Can you be curious about how you do these things?
Physicist David Bohm suggested that the difference between paying attention and inviting awareness is curiosity.
As you rest further into the ground,
However it is you're organized right now,
Can you allow your awareness to shift to your breathing?
What is it to simply be an explorer within yourself and see what's happening right now?
Could you imagine that the ground is moving toward you as you rest further into the ground?
Could you imagine a dynamic relationship to the ground and to gravity?
And be curious too about how you go about finding comfort for yourself.
That in itself is an important learning.
And rest.
Have your eyes closed or in a soft gaze.
And breathing.
If you're able,
Have your arms long by your sides for right now.
What we're exploring in this session are movements before we had words.
It's an interesting thing to think about.
But we moved our body a great deal before we ever had words.
Our movements helped us to discover ourself,
Our world,
And our relationship to the world long before we had language.
Doing simple,
Pre-verbal movements is a way of inviting deep rest and a deep reset into our body,
Mind,
Brain,
And heart.
Now slowly bring a soft left hand to touch your mouth.
Let the fingers of your left hand be soft.
It's a gentle gesture.
The soft left hand gently touches your mouth.
And can your mouth be soft,
Easy,
Tongue soft,
Throat,
Jaw,
Face,
And eyes be easy?
And then with the same care and awareness,
Rest your left hand and arm somewhere on your body.
Be aware of your breathing as you resume this simple,
Gentle gesture of bringing your soft left hand to touch your mouth in an easy way.
And then rest your left hand and arm on your body.
Keep the movements small,
Simple,
And meditative.
And do this movement four or five more times in your own time,
Paying attention to how you initiate the movement and how you complete it.
Breathing,
Being aware of the ground that is always there to meet you,
Being aware of the quality of your mind.
And know that you can pause the audio at any time if you want to savor parts of this session or take more time.
And when you're ready,
Take a rest,
Again being aware of your breathing.
And resume this simple movement with only the left hand for now,
Four or five more times,
Attending with care to how you bring your hand to your mouth and how you allow the left hand and arm to rest again on your body.
Be aware of your body supporting the left hand and arm as it rests there between movements and allow the hand and arm to let go completely before you resume the next movement.
So it's very slow.
Again,
Pause the audio as you need to and rest.
Let everything go and rest.
Be aware of the ground beneath you,
Your breathing,
Your quality of mind.
Allow your face,
Throat,
Neck,
Tongue,
And eyes to be soft.
And resume these movements now with the right hand and arm.
Notice the quality of the movement and how you could bring awareness not only to what you're doing,
But how you're doing it.
Keep the movement small and simple.
Keep your hand and arm close to your body.
Invite the qualities of softness,
Quiet,
Curiosity as you explore these movements with the right hand and arm softly touching your mouth,
Bringing equal care to how you rest your right hand and arm on your body and breathing.
And do this four to five times on this side,
Noticing any tendency to hurry or to get ahead of yourself.
And again,
Feel free to pause the audio.
If there's a sense of needing to hurry,
Be curious about where hurry arises in your body mind and be curious about how slowing down arises in your body mind.
We all have deep habits.
And to bring them into conscious awareness,
We have to slow down enough so we can find the signals in the noise of our usual habitual ways of being.
And when you're ready,
Take a rest and be aware of where you go inside yourself to rest.
And come back now to exploring bringing your right hand and arm in a soft gesture,
Touching your mouth,
Which is also soft,
With the soft fingers and hand,
The right hand.
Explore this a few more times at your own pace,
Breathing,
Being aware of the ground beneath you,
The quality of your mind,
The quality of the movement,
Paying attention to both how you begin the movement and how you complete it,
Bringing your awareness to how you begin the movement and how you complete it.
And rest.
As young ones,
We did these kinds of movements for as long as it was easy,
Pleasurable and simple.
There was no struggle,
Only just the right amount of effort to keep ourselves entertained.
An important takeaway from this kind of somatic session is to consider the mantra,
How could this be simpler?
What would your life be like if you asked yourself that from time to time?
How could this be simpler?
And continue to rest.
And in your own good time,
Find a simple way to come to sitting if you're not already in a seated position.
Take your time.
Take your time to gradually come up to sitting and eventually standing.
You are moving from a very early developmental time in your life before you had words and before you stood or walked.
So go slowly here.
Take all the time you need.
And thank you.
That's the end of this session.
