Hello,
And welcome to your daily meditation.
Today's session is going to be about rest.
So why are we talking about rest?
Well,
Take a look around at the modern world.
Everything seems to be speeding up,
Moving faster.
Our work is moving faster.
Our technology is moving faster.
Our personal lives,
There's so much to juggle that it sometimes feels overwhelming.
And things are moving so fast that sometimes we feel guilty for just taking a break.
From an evolutionary perspective,
The human brain did not evolve to handle as much stimulation we get every single day.
And so this can result in a lot of stress,
Sometimes even feeling of anxiety,
Or at its worst,
Even panic.
How are we supposed to handle all this?
Well,
Meditation offers us a very simple invitation,
Which is that regardless of what is happening in the world around you,
We could take a moment to find a sense of rest in our inner space.
And so let's do that together today.
We'll start by shifting into that comfortable,
Restful position,
Keeping your back nice and straight,
With your shoulders relaxed,
Letting your cheeks and your jaw unclench.
Let your eyebrows just loosen any tension.
Feel your whole face go from a solid to a liquid.
Let it relax.
Really feel the center of gravity connecting your body with the seat,
The chair,
The cushion.
And notice how the breath may respond to the breath.
It may respond to this invitation to rest.
We're going to use these next few minutes to just flow with the inhale and the exhale.
There's so much rest we could find just from breathing.
So noticing how your inhale gently inflates your belly.
And how the tummy collapses on the exhale.
See what happens in your mind when you take the next breath even slower.
Consider this notion of rest.
What is rest?
When you summon this word rest,
What comes up for you?
For some people,
Rest could be a sunny day on the beach.
For other people,
It might be kicking back on the couch after a day of work.
But more so than what you're doing when you rest,
Take these next few moments and sink into,
What does it feel like to really rest?
The secret behind rest is that you don't need to be somewhere special to rest.
You don't need to have a cup of tea or be on the beach.
Rest is available in every single moment.
It's waiting for us to listen,
To attune to,
To just feel it in our bodies.
So take a minute here and simply rest.
And notice what happens in your awareness as you try.
And some people find that to access that place of rest,
It could be really helpful,
Too,
To connect with a specific part of the body.
For example,
You're noticing that your body is feeling a little tense or stressed or frenetic.
You can say the word to yourself in your mind,
Rest.
And you could also pay attention to your feet and its connection on the ground.
All right,
Let's take a deep breath together.
You may have been surprised to find that rest is actually harder than it sounds.
And that's really nothing to be ashamed of.
Rest isn't really encouraged in our culture.
And so we don't really know how to do it very well.
But it may be helpful to remember that rest is always present.
You can be in a state of rest while you're at work.
It comes down to a mindset.
It comes down to a way of breathing and a way of being.
And to complete this practice,
We could take in a couple more slow,
Restful breaths.
Consider an aspect of your life that could benefit from a little bit more rest.
And at this point,
You can start stretching your body,
Slowly blinking the eyes open,
And returning back to this room.
So thank you very much for joining me.
I hope you found it restful.
And I hope you have an incredible rest of your day.
