Hello,
My name is Susan.
Welcome to this guided meditation.
This is an offering of rest.
Not rest to restore you to usefulness,
Not rest to help you cope better,
But rest as a way of being with yourself without demand.
You're not being asked to focus,
Not being asked to fix or change anything,
And you're so welcome to listen lightly,
Or to drift,
Or to stop at any point.
This is a time to simply be with yourself in this moment,
In this space,
And allow your whole self to be exactly as it is,
However that is for you.
And you absolutely don't need to arrive anywhere for this,
There's nothing you need or have to do well.
If something inside of you is tired,
Whether that be physical,
Emotional,
Or in another way that's just too hard to name,
You don't need to explain it,
Nor do you need to understand it.
That tiredness is allowed to be here.
You might begin by noticing that you are somewhere,
And noticing without effort,
Maybe a sense of being in a room,
Or a space,
Or a place.
The space around you doesn't need your attention,
It can simply exist,
Holding you without asking for anything in return.
If it feels available,
You might notice your body,
Not by checking or scanning it,
Just the simple sense of having a body here.
Your whole self present in this moment.
You don't need to improve how it feels,
You don't need to relax it,
You're just allowing it to be exactly as it is.
Breath is happening somewhere,
You don't need to follow it,
Nor do you need to guide it,
In fact you don't need to do anything,
Because breath is happening.
Just know that breath is moving through where you may be,
However you're feeling,
And if it feels distant,
Uncomfortable,
Or even irrelevant,
You don't need to stay with it,
Just let it be in the background.
This is not a time for working on yourself.
You are not being asked to process anything,
Resolve anything,
Or let anything go.
You're not required to hold yourself together,
And you're not required to fall apart.
You're just here,
In this moment,
With yourself.
If there's a sense of weariness,
You don't have to move away from it,
But nor do you have to move closer to it either.
However,
You might imagine settling down the effort of managing how you are,
Just for these moments.
Letting your system rest from being vigilant,
From being competent,
From being okay.
There is no better version of this moment.
There's nothing else you should be feeling.
You're allowed to give yourself up for this moment,
Not in a dramatic way necessarily,
Just in a quiet,
Simple and ordinary way.
Letting yourself be here,
As you are,
Without commentary,
Or necessity,
Or instruction.
If ease appears,
Even slightly,
You can let it be there,
And if it doesn't,
That's okay too.
Rest doesn't require comfort,
It only requires permission.
As this time starts to draw to a close,
There's nothing you need to gather up,
There's no insight you need to take away,
There's no state to maintain.
This is simply a time spent in rest,
Rest into your own presence,
Letting your whole self be,
Without demand.
You can move on from here,
From this moment,
However you need to,
Slowly or quickly,
Or not at all for a while,
And when you're ready,
You can let this moment close.
