Receiving Sensation & Breath

When we receive our sensation, our breath, our life, we recognize the buoyancy of life. This is important if we are to distinguish between “struggle’ and “effort” Life requires effort. It does not require struggle. Discovering this path of least resistance is grace in action. Length: 23 min 47 sec

Transcript

Hi,

This is Meg Rinaldi of Body Centered Inquiry and welcome to this guided somatic movement session,

Receiving Sensation and Breath.

For this session you can be on a firm bed or you can be on the floor on a comfortably padded surface,

A carpet or thick blanket.

Have head support,

A rolled up blanket or bath towel.

Please do not use bed pillows as they are too soft and actually inhibit the kind of movement we want to invite in this work.

You could use a yoga bolster beneath your knees,

You'll be lying on your back.

Or a 6 inch or 15.

24 cm roller for underneath your knees or rolled up blankets for beneath your knees so that your low back can relax.

Wear clothing that allows for warmth and ease of movement.

Remove your glasses,

Belt,

Jewelry,

Anything that might interfere with your movement.

And when you're ready,

Please come to lie on your back.

Begin to let yourself arrive.

Allow your awareness to gather right where you are now.

All of your busyness will be right where you left it after the session but you'll meet it refreshed.

Allow your eyes to close gently,

Have your arms long by your sides or resting on your body in a simple way.

Allow your awareness to gather at the back of your body as it rests on the ground.

No matter where we are,

We're on the ground.

The ground is right there to meet you,

Always present,

No matter what position we're in.

Continue to settle in.

Allow yourself to receive the sensations of your back body connecting with the ground beneath you.

The ground is dynamic,

It moves toward you.

Let yourself play with that idea of a dynamic relationship between your body and the ground.

Right there,

You begin to receive.

We're in a time of great transition and we all need rest.

On a retreat recently,

I discovered that receiving breath,

Receiving sensation,

Receiving life itself is deeply restful.

It's not a new idea but it's a liberating one when it's recognized and it's what we'll be exploring in this session.

It's an experience of being met by the ever-present vitality of life.

It's different from doing something,

It's even different from being.

It is recognizing the buoyant invitation ever present in life itself.

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton says,

Quote,

Silence is not the absence of something,

But the presence of everything,

End quote.

Allowing ourselves into full presence is an act of receiving and allows us to distinguish between effort and struggle.

Living like this is what slow movement is all about.

Allow your awareness to begin to gather around your breathing.

Become aware of your in-breath,

Your out-breath,

And allow yourself to begin to receive the natural pause that occurs at the top of the inhalation and at the bottom of the exhalation.

Take your time here,

You can pause the audio.

Allow yourself to receive that natural pause,

It's always there.

It's how our breathing arrives and leaves.

Go through seven cycles of breathing,

Noticing the inhale,

The pause,

The exhale,

And the pause.

Allow yourself to receive the pauses rather than feeling any need to make them happen.

They're already there.

Take your time.

Listen for the natural pauses.

There's nothing you have to do but receive what's already there.

Breathing in,

Pausing,

Breathing out,

Listening for the pause.

Taking your time,

Pause the audio if you need to.

You could linger right here,

This could be sufficient for you today.

And when you're ready,

Just take a rest,

Allow your normal breathing to return.

Be aware of the quality of your mind.

Be aware of the connection of your body to the ground and simply rest.

And when you're ready,

Please listen for the next guidance before you do anything.

Begin to ever so slowly roll your head to the right,

Just a small amount,

Even smaller,

But you're still not doing it yet.

These are just the instructions.

And then with the same care and gentleness,

Roll it back to where you started.

But before you do all of that,

Wait for the impulse to move.

Wait for the impulse to arrive naturally.

Don't necessarily do the movement the moment I say it.

Wait for the impulse to arise and then begin to slowly roll your head to the right and then back to center.

This is a simple way of disrupting habit.

Wait for the impulse to arrive before you move,

Listening through yourself.

When does it happen?

Where does it happen?

Breathing.

Notice when you breathe in and when you breathe out and how that connects with this movement of gently rolling your head to the right and then gently rolling back to center.

Listening through yourself when the natural impulse arises.

It's probably not at the same time as you're hearing my voice.

Keep the movement small and simple.

It could be a very imperceptible movement.

It could just be listening for the impulse of the movement,

Just the initiation of it.

You'll actually learn much more about yourself in this kind of work if you keep your movements small and simple and slow.

Continue this movement five or six more times slowly,

Waiting each time for the impulse to arrive,

Listening for when the first tiny impulse to move begins.

And continue to remain aware of the impulse and the ground supporting your back body.

Allow the neck,

Face,

Eyes and throat to soften.

Breathing.

Moving in your own good time.

And you can always pause the audio to spend more time exploring this idea.

If the movement begins to become mechanical for you,

Then you have shifted somewhere in your awareness.

So come back to your awareness.

Come back to what you're doing.

Come back to ground,

Breath and movement.

Waiting for the impulse to arrive.

Waiting for when the first tiny impulse to move begins in your body,

In your mind.

And you're simply rolling your head to the right and coming back to center where you started.

To complete that cycle,

Take a rest.

And allow rest to arrive.

Notice how rest arrives for you.

How do you know you're resting?

Breathing ground beneath you.

Be aware of the quality of your mind as you allow yourself to receive rest.

Check in with yourself.

Is your head support good?

Is your support beneath your knees working for you?

Your supports are there to take over any extra work that you may be doing and not even realize it.

Come back now to the simple movement of rolling your head and this time to the left and notice how the impulse has already arisen.

Gently allow your head with your eyes closed,

Soft throat,

Jaw,

Tongue,

Eyes and face.

Listen for the impulse when your head wants to softly roll to the left.

Notice where the first impulse arises.

Listening for that first impulse between hearing the guidance and acting.

It's not about how long the gap is between the guidance and the acting.

It is noticing how becoming aware of that gap impacts your capacity to receive impulse and sensation.

It is very subtle and yet it's very powerful.

Continue to do this movement five to six times slowly and again become aware if you're mechanical in your movement,

What's missing?

Many of us have the good fortune of being able to do this movement.

We can do it so well that it becomes mechanical but when our movements become mechanical then our awareness has slipped.

Take your time here,

Pause the audio as needed.

Feeling being aware of your quality of mind.

Is it fast?

Is it slow?

Is it frustrated?

Is it happy?

Is it joyful?

What's present for you right now?

The ground coming to meet you and support you and actually turn down the noise in your nervous system.

And whenever you're ready please take a rest.

And if I'm moving more quickly than you're moving then please pause the audio.

And when you're ready to rest receive the echoes of these movements throughout your body.

Receive whatever is there.

You don't have to manufacture anything which is a relief.

And you can't do it wrong because it's more primal than anything we can judge about ourselves.

It's pre-verbal.

Continue to be aware of how your back body meets the ground and how the ground meets you.

Allow your breathing to arrive and fall away.

There's nothing you have to do or even think about.

Breath coming and going all by itself with that gap at the top and the gap at the bottom of your breathing.

Sensation rising into awareness and falling away.

A continuous ebb and flow of vitality.

We turn now to the idea of rolling your head.

And notice already with even a suggestion your attention changes and your mind shifts.

And when you're ready,

When the impulse arises,

Gently roll your head with as small a movement as you can to the right.

Come back to the middle point and then slowly roll your head to the left.

And then slowly back to center.

And then roll to the right.

And come back to center.

Each of these points listening for yourself,

When does the impulse arise to move?

Just do this a few times slowly.

Waiting for the impulse to arise.

Waiting for breath to be supportive.

Taking your time.

Moving in this way is intended to disrupt habits.

Only disrupting our habits allows us to see what we're doing and also the possibility of new choices.

And when you're ready,

Allow yourself to receive rest.

Be aware of receiving the quality of your mind.

The quality of your breathing.

And the quality of the connection between your back body and the ground.

The ground that's always coming to meet you.

And continue to rest.

Only to allow yourself to receive rest.

And in your own good time,

When the impulse arises,

Roll to one side,

Slowly coming up to sitting,

Listening.

Each step of the way here for when the impulse arises,

Follow the direction your body wants to move.

Listen to it.

It's letting you know all the while what the path of least resistance is.

Continuing to be present to yourself,

Continuing to listen for the impulse to move.

Notice your quality of mind,

The support of the ground that's always there,

And your breathing.

Thank you.

That's the end of this session.

May you be at ease.

Reviews

That was fascinating. I felt slightly stressed as I didn’t have much of an impulse to move my head, but maybe that’s because I’m really tired today and my body needs total rest. I shall do it another day and see what happens. Thank you 🙏

I really enjoyed the focus on small and simple. Listening for the impulse to move and not just following instruction took it to a whole different level. Thank you