Constructive Rest – Rebalance Body, Mind & Spine

Welcome to this Constructive Rest Practice, returning home to the body and the Earth with a gentle somatic practice.

In this 20-minute session, you’re invited to pause and reconnect with yourself, with the quiet intelligence of your spine, and with the rhythmic calm of nature. This is a space to soften habitual tension, calm the nervous system, and gently re-balance the relationship between body, mind, and breath.

Whether you're new to Constructive Rest or returning to a familiar practice, allow this time to be one of self-kindness, presence, and quiet renewal.

Let the ground support you. Let gravity guide you. And let stillness bring you home to yourself.

Transcript

Hello listeners and students and clients.

I welcome you to this constructive rest.

Today it's a beautiful sunny day in London and I'm in one of the most beautiful gardens,

One of the communal gardens in Notting Hill that's famous for the film.

I'm lying quietly,

You may be able to hear the background sound of birds surrounded by trees and beautiful plants and nature and I thought it would be a good setting for constructive rest.

Whenever we can get close to nature I feel it's really important.

We know how healing and soothing and restoring it is,

It's like coming back home.

So find a quiet place where you can settle down,

The ground isn't too hard,

Maybe lying on a blanket,

A little bit of support underneath the head.

So you can settle into conscious release,

Constructive rest.

And I'd like you to have a sense of the support,

The earth beneath you,

Whether you're lying on a mat,

The grass or just simply imagining the soil beneath your floorboards so you could be at home.

Know this,

That the earth is alive and it carries a quiet,

Healing,

Gentle,

Restorative energy.

And remember the earth has a negative electrical charge.

That's why it's so important to be in nature because when we walk barefoot or lie upon the ground we might simply connect with the intention that we feel like we're somehow held by the ground.

You can have that feeling that you're held,

You're cradled,

You're nurtured and supported.

And we are positively charged so when we lie upon the earth and when we're close to nature it's very,

Very resoothing,

Soothing,

Very,

Very soothing,

Restoring.

It restores the balance on a deep cellular level.

On a very deep,

Deep,

Deep level it brings the body back into balance.

So we're learning just to quieten the whole system.

So take a deep breath into your body and imagine that breath is infused with cooling,

Soothing,

Healing energy.

And you're breathing into every atom,

Every molecule,

Every cell,

Every tissue,

Every fiber,

Every organ of your being.

Breathing that breath in deeply and on the out breath letting that breath go,

Letting that breath fall into the earth.

And as you let that breath go you're allowing yourself to soften into the softness of your being.

You're allowing yourself to soften into the softness of the earth.

And just remember that you are not separate from the earth.

You're not separate from your body.

You can feel the whole of your spine in your body letting go.

Your eyes are softening.

You can imagine having a gentle smile across the facial muscles.

The jaw can soften.

And I am imagining that the breeze and the leaves from the trees are coming in through my nostrils.

So you can maybe feel the breath hitting the nostrils so it's not restricted or obstructed.

Maybe it is.

Just notice if it's coming in through the nostrils freely and easily.

Behind the sinuses,

Imagine the eyes are softening as the breath comes behind the eyes,

Behind the sinuses,

Down through the throat.

Your throat is soft.

Unobstructed.

Free.

Breath travels along the column of the spine.

Waving through the torso and waving through the spine.

You can imagine and feel and sense that expansion,

That opening of the torso.

That breath bringing energy,

A presence,

An all-pervading presence.

Your body is always present.

So we're making that journey from the mind and bringing our conscious mind,

Our attention into the body.

So we're unifying that connection.

We're establishing and reinforcing that connection and that journey of coming back home.

And it is like a journey.

The mind is so close to the body,

But the egoic mind,

The rational thinking mind,

Wants to keep incessantly thinking.

And we come into this quieter place,

Into the heart.

The breath can hang more deeply into the abdominal region,

Almost sinking into the pelvis.

So we come into the seat of intuition.

What we often refer to as our gut feeling.

And as you rest upon the earth,

Be gently with it.

Allow your body to recharge.

Allow yourself to surrender.

Anything you've been holding on to,

Psychologically,

So mentally or emotionally,

Physically,

Spiritually,

Could you somehow have a little bit of detachment from that situation,

That person,

That event.

Could you maybe hand it over?

Let it fall away from you.

Maybe you're holding that energy somewhere in the body.

Could it be your shoulders,

Your heart,

Quite somewhere deep within you.

Maybe you could somehow ask the healing power of the universe,

Of the earth,

To take on that burden.

You don't need to carry it.

You can let it go.

So as you begin to feel supported,

The more you feel supported,

The more you'll be able to just gently let go.

Feeling the weightedness of your body,

Allowing gravity to do the work.

Gravity will naturally begin to release and bring that ease and that spaciousness within your body.

That feeling of being spacious and gracious.

That quality of beingness.

We're practicing the art of nondoing,

Quietening,

Softening,

Surrendering.

Coming into that feeling of serenity,

Feeling settled and supported.

That being held and nourished and nurtured and cradled and loved by the earth.

And if any feelings or thoughts come up,

Maybe they're joyous ones,

Peaceful ones,

Maybe they're uncomfortable,

Just acknowledge them,

Become aware of them,

And they will pass.

Emotions are always in movement,

In motion.

So that feeling of being aware that you're aware,

That presence that is everywhere,

Within you,

Around you,

Above you,

Beneath you.

Cultivating that presence of self.

Somehow feeling that you're rooted,

Your feet are rooted and connected,

And planted upon the earth.

Remember there's a place within you that's never been wounded.

A part of the soul that has never been wounded.

Meister Urquhart was one of his sayings in the 14th century.

Mystic,

Poet,

Visionary.

There's a place within you that's never been wounded.

So in this stillness we're allowing the body to come back into balance.

The spine unravelling,

The breath deepening,

The nervous system softening,

The immune system recharging.

And we can feel the earth,

The Great Mother,

As our quiet teacher,

A silent healer.

And feel that peace within.

We start cultivating those peaceful moments that become bigger moments.

Moments of grace,

Of peace,

Of serenity.

One of the most precious gifts we can have,

A peaceful mind,

A peaceful body.

We have this loving,

Kind,

Accepting awareness of ourselves,

Of our deeper self.

Just the way we are in this moment.

Maybe you'd like to just gently use the eyes to turn the head from left to right,

To ensure there's no tension in the neck.

Maybe your palms or your hands are facing upwards as you lie down.

There's space underneath the armpits and the shoulders,

So the arms aren't pulled too closely to the torso.

It's almost like your arms are open,

Like an expression of joy.

As if you're about to hug someone.

The whole of your torso settling,

Softening,

Releasing.

Inviting your back,

The whole lumbar,

Lower back,

Thoracic,

Mid-back,

Upper back,

The shoulders,

Big trapezius muscles beginning to broaden,

To spread,

To open,

To widen.

You're just allowing that breath and observing that breath.

Just gently coming in,

Gently going out.

The release of tension,

Physical,

Mental,

Emotional,

Spiritual,

Always happens on the out-breath.

So you may want to do a big sigh.

I let myself go.

I allow myself to surrender.

I can detach with,

I can have a little bit of detachment with whatever I'm holding onto.

I can give myself this quality,

Nourishing,

Healing time.

You're giving yourself this quality,

Nourishing,

Healing time.

A little bit of time for reflection,

Contemplation.

Or just being.

Give yourself that gift of just being.

We have such a compulsion to be doing,

Even if it's in our mind.

The mind is constantly doing.

Thinking's a habit.

Most of what we do is a habit.

We're always stepping out of our habit and coming into this place of presence,

Of acceptance,

Of love,

Of healing,

Restoration.

Allowing the body to regenerate.

And we're getting that beautiful charge,

That charging,

Grounding energy from the earth.

Even if you're lying at home,

You can think of that positive charge from the earth.

That eases inflammation,

Stress,

Improves sleep.

The circadian rhythms helps to synchronize the body's internal clock by supporting melatonin production,

Reducing cortisol,

Leading to a deeper feeling of calm and presence.

So we're coming out of fight and flight,

Which so many of us are in,

Into parasympathetic rest and digest,

Which is useful for if you have stress,

Anxiety,

Trauma,

Or sensory overload.

It settles the heart.

The heart has a more coherent heart variability,

Which is associated with improved emotional regulation and physical resilience.

And it will speed recovery from injury or overexertion.

We recover more quickly from any sort of stress or pain or injury.

And the grounding enhances the proprioception,

The body awareness,

Which is essential for the Alexander Technique work.

So just allow yourself to be,

Allow yourself to feel the body.

When the mind wanders off,

Just gently come back.

Do this practice,

Constructive rest,

We call it,

As much as you can.

I hope you found it helpful.

And regular practice will have a virtuous compound effect.

Don't ever think it's wasted time.

Every time you practice,

It's a gift of self-love,

A gift of healing to yourself.

So I encourage you to practice.

And I hope you found this talk useful.

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

Fantastic! In a world that praises striving, pushing, achieving, and doing, you showed us the power of letting go, of stillness, of connecting with the quiet power we can discover within and with nature when we stop and connect.

So pleased I attended your live… and thank you for a wonderful track 🌿