This is Mark Taylor with the Center for Body-Mind Movement.
In this exploration,
We're going to be enjoying cellular breathing in our bones.
To begin,
I'm going to invite you to lie in a comfortable position on the floor,
And just situate yourself so your bones can fall into the earth.
Just do a little quick assessment.
Are you in the most comfortable position possible?
And if you can imagine a more comfortable position,
Move there.
And once again,
If you can imagine a more comfortable position than the one you're in,
I'm going to invite you to move there.
And this invitation of moving toward comfort is ongoing through this entire exploration.
So whenever you want to renew yourself and move the position of your body to something that's more comfortable,
You should feel completely free to do that.
I'd like to start with the image of the entire body as a single cell.
So I invite you to bring awareness to your skin,
To the things that are touching your skin from the outside,
The air,
The pressure of what you're lying on,
Your hair,
Your clothing.
Just be aware of all of the sensations of the information that you're getting from the external world.
So a single cell requires a fluid environment.
Early cells developed in the ocean.
So I'm going to invite you to imagine that you are surrounded by water.
You're floating in a warm sea.
And everything that your skin touches is fluid.
And similarly,
If you look into the center of yourself from the perspective of your skin,
Everything inside is fluid.
So your skin is just a membrane that separates an internal ocean from an external ocean.
And you may notice within this fluid membrane relationship,
There's an expanding and condensing of your breath,
Expanding as you breathe in and condensing as you exhale.
I invite you to feel that it's not just through the nose or through the mouth that you're breathing in,
But it's through your skin.
So as I inhale,
My skin expands into space,
Into the fluid surround.
As I exhale,
I release what's not needed and come back toward my center.
Breath moving in through my skin and out through my skin.
Every part of me can participate in this expanding and condensing flow.
My feet,
My legs,
My pelvis,
My abdomen and chest,
My fingers and hands,
My forearms and upper arms,
My shoulders,
The skin around my neck,
The skin that's covering my face,
My jaw,
My eyes,
My forehead and the skin that's covering my skull.
Expanding and condensing,
Communicating between the fluids of my external world and the fluids of my internal world.
So in this place,
I'm able to rest,
Renew,
Rejuvenate and reorganize.
Completely attentive to this movement of expanding and condensing in the present moment.
The only place I have to go is into the next breath.
There's no past except for what I'm exhaling.
So in my body,
I have 70 trillion individual cells,
Each one expanding and condensing in its fluid environment.
Fluid on the inside,
Fluid on the outside.
And today we're going to be breathing into the cells of our bones.
Bones have living vital cells.
So I'm going to invite you to bring awareness to your feet,
To the bones of your feet.
And imagine that within them,
There are vast constellations made of individual stars.
And each star is a cell that's breathing.
Millions of cells breathing in the bones of my feet,
Expanding and condensing.
I invite you to bring that awareness to the sensation around your ankles.
To the millions of cells that are breathing and floating.
And expanding that awareness into the bones of your lower legs.
Enjoying the cells that are embedded within.
Expanding and condensing with breath.
And bringing that same awareness to your knees.
Each bone in the knee with millions of breathing cells finding their space,
Finding their ocean.
Permission just to rest and breathe.
And bringing that awareness into your thighs,
The bones of your thighs,
The femurs.
Feeling each cell expanding and condensing.
The cells of your periosteum,
The cells of your hard bone,
The cells within your marrow.
And feeling the expanding and condensing flow in your hip joints.
Millions and millions of cells,
Each one happy and healthy.
Expanding and condensing.
And bringing that awareness into the bones of your pelvis,
Your sacrum,
The pelvic halves,
The sacroiliac joints,
The pubic symphysis.
Every cell that participates in this bowl of your pelvis expanding and condensing and resting.
And feeling the bones of your lumbar spine,
Your low back.
Allowing all the cells to rest,
To breathe,
To float in their expanding and condensing rhythm.
Receiving oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide.
And bringing that pleasure into your thoracic spine and into the ribs and sternum.
All of the cells expanding and condensing with breath.
Imagine that all the cells in a neighborhood are inhaling at the same time and exhaling together.
And then bringing this awareness to your shoulder girdle,
Your clavicle,
And scapula.
And letting the millions of cells that make up your shoulder joints expand and condense.
Finding space,
Finding rest.
And inviting that sensation into your upper arms,
The humerus.
Allowing all the layers of cells in the layers of bone to float,
To breathe.
And enjoying this same quality in your elbow and in the bones of your forearms.
Expanding and condensing.
And bringing each finger with all of its bones into your awareness,
The bones of your palms.
And let the billions of cells that make up those bones find ease,
Space,
And breath.
Shifting awareness now to your neck and hyoid bone at the base of your tongue.
All the vertebral segments of your neck.
Breathing.
Finding space.
All the cells floating and resting.
And bringing that same ease to your temporomandibular joint and to your jaw.
And allowing all the cells of your facial bones to expand and condense with breath.
The bones of your cheeks,
Of your upper palate,
Around your eyes.
And deep into the face,
Everything breathing.
And bringing awareness to the great rounded bones of your skull.
And all the cells that are breathing within them.
And feel your whole body with the entire skeletal system full of twinkling stars.
Each one a cell that's floating,
Breathing,
Expanding and condensing.
So I'm going to invite you to come back to movement in the room.
Bring a little bit of movement back to your hands,
Your fingers,
Your feet and your toes.
Just a little flexion and extension.
And see what else in your body is willing to move as you come back to your normal daily consciousness.
Take your time coming back and see how you can integrate the breath of your skeletal cells into your normal daily function.
And thanks for participating in this exploration of cellular breath in the bones.
Thank you.
