Hello everyone and welcome to today's practice which is all around releasing pressure.
Now the word or the concept of pressure is something that personally I have experienced a lot in my day-to-day life particularly throughout my journey with chronic illness and chronic symptoms and in my experience that sense of pressure can come in a number of different ways.
It might be that sense of pressure to be somewhere that you're not in this moment,
That pressure to be more healed or to be feeling a different way to your current reality.
It can also be that sense of pressure to meet the expectations of others or to please other people in some way with your actions even when they don't quite align with what it is that you truly need in any given day.
Or it might just be that sense of time pressure or just needing to get something done quickly or not feeling you have a choice in that.
So all these pressures are very normal and natural to feel and I think we all experience different flavors of them.
So this meditation is not really about getting rid of all these pressures that might exist but allowing you space and time just to be able to let go of them in this moment and know that you have the next 10 minutes to do nothing but be guided and supported and we're going to be supporting you to release some of that pressure through the mind and the body in the next few minutes.
So I'm going to recommend you do this in a really comfortable position whether that's seated and supported or lying down.
So get yourself into a nice comfortable spot and when you're ready if you're comfortable to do so just allow your eyes to close down and just settle into your space feeling the support of whatever's beneath you making any little adjustments to get yourself even more comfortable.
And when we're holding on to any sort of pressure or expectation we're often holding our breath or holding some tension in our breath at the same time.
So to begin just encourage you to take three big sighing breaths so breathing in through the nose just letting it all go through the mouth twice more breathing in and letting go feeling your shoulders drop feeling tension release and breathing in letting everything drop and go on the exhale releasing relaxing into what's beneath you and recognizing for a moment that right now for this practice there's nothing you need to do you can be exactly as you are in this moment it is where you are meant to be all the fighting all the fixing all the grasping to change you can just let that melt away in this moment just knowing that you're seen and held as you really are in this moment and noticing what happens in your body as you give yourself that permission to be and to begin to accept where you are now or maybe it's just that relief in your body that sinking that softening of knowing you have this time of nothing to do nowhere to go no one to be seeing as you breathe if you can with every breath feel yourself surrender to the support beneath you releasing tension and just bit by bit being held and supported who was i now just guide your attention through different parts of your body just encourage you to focus your breath on each of those parts of your body taking a breath in and sending the breath there and then releasing on the exhale softening being supported so starting with the back of your head breathing into that area releasing surrendering to the support on the exhale down now to your jaw letting it drop on the exhale and into your shoulders now and down to your arms your elbows giving a nourishing releasing breath to each part of your body moving down to your wrists and your hands letting them fall and be supported feeling the back of your body back of your torso now now feeling you breathing into the front of your body maybe feeling your stomach or chest rise letting it all go into what's beneath you down into your glutes into your hips softening like melting butter down into your legs and finally down to your ankles and your feet letting them fall to one side maybe and now just imagine your breath flowing in through those feet all the way to the top of your head and as you exhale letting that relaxation flood down through your body back to your feet the whole body now and breathing in drawing up the air from your feet all the way up your body at the top of your head and then on that exhale your whole body releasing relaxing together grounding and then once more breathing in from your feet all the way to the top holding for a moment and your whole body relaxing on that exhale just bathe in that feeling and enjoy that sense of being grounded noticing the slow rhythm of your breath and knowing that as we bring this practice to a close that whenever you're feeling an overwhelming sense of pressure in your day in your life to know that you have this practice to come back to any time just to give yourself 15 minutes to be exactly where you are to ground and calm the nervous system to allow yourself to be fully supported so as ever take your time as you come out of the practice stay where you are and enjoy the feeling for longer if you'd like to and i'll look forward to interacting with you all soon have a wonderful rest of your day take care speak to you soon
