This practice is best done in a fully reclining position.
Whether it's in your bed or just on your yoga mat or on a sofa.
Anywhere that you can allow the body to release and feel support.
Start to allow your eyes to soften or even close completely.
Allowing the eyeballs to rest back in the eye sockets.
Allow your body to feel the support of whatever is below you.
See if there's any way you can make yourself a little bit more comfortable.
So if you're feeling any pull in the lower back,
Maybe allowing your knees to bend.
Allowing your chin to just gently fall forward a little bit to lengthen the back of the neck.
If it's comfortable for your shoulders,
Consider letting the palms rest facing up.
Allowing your eyes to soften or maybe close completely.
As you do that,
Allow your eyeballs to rest back behind the sockets.
Starting to draw attention to your breath.
Using the inhale around the nostrils and the exhale back out.
Maybe start to deepen that breath,
Inhaling past the nostrils into the throat,
Into the chest and the ribs and the belly.
And exhaling out from the belly,
The ribs and the chest.
Noticing as you inhale the expanse and as you exhale that softening release back.
Starting to notice what came with you today to this practice and rather than trying to push it away,
Acknowledge it.
So there could be some physical sensations.
There could be some mental lists to do,
Ideas.
There could be some emotional things lingering.
And allow yourself to name them in your head.
And see if you can start to look at them from the perspective of your breath.
So breathing into these feelings,
Ideas and sensations.
Allowing your mind to go from the intellectual stimuli to the sensation of breath.
And each time a thought pops up,
Return to that inhale and return to that exhale.
Breathing to expand all the way into the basin of the pelvis.
And exhaling to let everything soften and release back.
Bring your attention to your right thumb.
And then to your right second finger.
Your third finger,
Fourth finger and pinky finger.
Bring attention to the palm of the right hand.
The back of the right hand.
The right wrist.
The right forearm.
The right elbow.
Right upper arm.
Right shoulder.
Right armpit.
Bring attention to the right side of your chest and rib cage.
Side of the waist.
Your right hip and thigh.
The right knee.
The right shin.
Right ankle.
Back of the right foot.
Right big toe.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth toe.
Pinky toe.
Now start to shift your attention to your left side.
Your left thumb.
Second finger.
Third finger.
Fourth finger.
And pinky.
Feel the palm of your left hand,
The back of your left hand,
Your left wrist and forearm,
Left elbow,
Upper arm,
Top of the shoulder,
Left armpit,
Left chest,
Side of the rib cage,
Side of the waist,
Left hip,
The thigh,
The left knee,
The shin of your left leg,
Top of the foot,
Bottom of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And pinky.
Bring attention to the whole back body now.
The heels of both of your feet heavy.
The backs of the calves releasing down.
The backs of the knees.
The backs of the thighs.
The backs of your hips.
And into the lower back.
The middle back.
The bottoms of the shoulder blades.
The space between the shoulder blades.
The upper back.
The back of the neck.
The back of the head.
The top of the head.
Your temples.
Your forehead.
Your eyebrows.
The space around your eyes.
Your cheeks.
The tops of your ears.
All the way down to the lobes.
The bridge of your nose,
The tip of your nose.
Your upper lip.
Your lower lip.
The tip of your chin.
Bringing attention inside of your mouth.
Allowing your tongue to soften away from the roof.
Allowing your jaw to soften.
Bringing your attention back to your breath.
Starting to feel that breath travel and linger at the chest.
Feeling that expanse up.
And that release down.
Feeling that breath now at the bottom of the ribs.
Feeling as you inhale the lungs expanding the space between the ribs.
And as you exhale everything releasing.
Let the belly be soft.
So that as you breathe even deeper you can feel a full expanse between the hip bones and a full release down.
Feel your whole back body heavy and supported.
Start to bring your attention to the front side of your body and start to feel a lightness there.
Noticing the lightness of your inhale.
Bringing all the way into the fingers and into the tips of the toes.
Maybe starting to sense that lightness of energy.
A little bit of a tingly sensation.
Each pore.
Feeling light.
Bringing your attention back to the support in the back body.
Allowing yourself to release.
Feeling that support to let anything that is holding to float away from you.
Sink into the earth below you.
Out to the sides.
And then bringing attention back to that golden lightness of the inhale.
Feeling it lift you up.
Even pulling your heart up.
Reaching up so that your breath starts to expand out and up.
Beyond you.
So that each exhale starts to emanate lightness.
It can be helpful to think of it as a golden light.
But it's also a feeling.
Start to pay attention to that feeling.
Start to pay attention to how it resonates at your heart center.
You might even consider allowing the sides of your mouth to turn up just slightly.
Seeing if that shifts anything.
So usually what you're feeling here is what you're looking to call more of.
What you're looking to cultivate.
Maybe it's a feeling of release,
A feeling of joy,
A feeling of deep relaxation,
Safety and support.
You may not even be able to describe it.
But allow your heart and your breath to breathe into the sensation and grow it out.
So that each inhale feeds this intention.
And each exhale allows it to diffuse outward.
Cacooning you in this feeling and this deep relaxation.
