Welcome to the Mindful Movement.
I'm Sarah Raymond.
Let's begin.
I invite you to make yourself comfortable.
Choose a position where your body feels fully supported.
Take a moment to look around your space to recognize signs that you are safe here.
Make any adjustments you need so that your body can truly settle.
Before you close your eyes,
Allow your head to remain still.
And move only your eyes slowly to the right.
Hold your gaze there and take one long,
Slow breath in through your nose.
And a long,
Slow breath out through your mouth.
Now move your eyes to the left.
Hold your gaze there.
And take another long,
Slow breath in.
And a long,
Slow breath out.
Now lift your gaze upward,
Eyes looking toward your eyebrows.
One more long,
Slow breath in… And a long,
Slow breath out.
And as you breathe out,
Let your eyes gently close.
Feel the settling that has already begun.
Your eyes are at rest.
Your breath is finding its own rhythm.
There is nothing you need to do right now.
Nothing that needs managing,
Correcting,
Or explaining.
You have arrived.
And you can simply receive this practice.
Allow my voice to be your guide as you rest here.
There is no need to concentrate too intensely.
Or follow every word perfectly.
If your awareness drifts,
That is welcome.
Your body and your deeper mind are listening.
Even when your conscious attention softens.
You may flow in and out of hearing,
And that's okay.
Take another full breath in through your nose.
And as you exhale through your mouth,
Let it carry a sigh.
Let that sigh release whatever you have been holding today.
Another breath in.
And this time,
As you exhale,
Let your shoulders drop.
Let your jaw soften.
Let the weight of your body be received completely by the surface beneath you.
You are here.
You are safe.
And this practice will meet you exactly where you are.
Now is the time to receive an intention for this practice.
A simple truth that will be planted in the fertile ground of your subconscious mind.
As your body moves into deeper and deeper states of rest.
You can use the intention I offer.
Or if another arises that feels more true for you.
Let that be your guide.
The intention is this.
I am safe to trust myself.
Let it settle into you without effort.
Simply allow it to land.
I am safe to trust myself.
I am safe to trust myself.
Let it rest now.
We will return to it.
Begin to bring your awareness to your physical body.
Visualize yourself resting here.
Your whole body being supported.
Your weight given over to the surface beneath you.
There is nothing your body needs to hold right now.
Let your bones settle.
Let your muscles release their effort.
Let every part of you be held.
As I name each part of your body,
Simply bring your awareness there.
You do not need to move anything or change anything.
Your attention arriving is enough.
Each time your awareness touches a part of your body.
That area receives permission to soften.
To let go.
To be exactly as it is without judgment.
Bring your awareness to the top of your head.
Your forehead.
The space between your eyebrows.
Your eyelids already resting.
Your cheeks,
Your lips.
Your jaw.
Your tongue resting in your mouth.
Your throat.
Your right shoulder.
Right upper arm.
Your right elbow.
Right forearm.
Your right wrist.
The palm of your right hand.
Each finger of your right hand.
Your whole right hand.
Your left shoulder.
Left upper arm.
Left elbow.
Left forearm.
Your left wrist.
The palm of your left hand.
Each finger of your left hand.
Your whole left hand.
Both hands resting,
Palms open.
Fingers soft.
Held equally.
Resting equally.
Bring your awareness to your chest and heart space.
Your ribcage.
Your belly.
Your lower abdomen.
Your hips,
Your pelvis.
Your right thigh right knee.
Right shin,
Your right ankle.
The sole of your right foot.
The toes of your right foot.
Your whole right leg at rest.
Your left thigh.
Your left knee.
Left shin,
Left ankle.
The sole of your left foot.
The toes of your left foot.
Your whole left leg at rest.
Now feel your whole body as one field of awareness.
The front of your body.
The back of your body.
The right side.
And left side.
Your entire body resting.
Being breathed.
You do not have to hold this body together.
It is held.
Stay here for a moment with this sense of wholeness.
Your body is complete.
You are resting in the physical layer of your being.
And it is safe to be here.
Let your awareness now shift from the body to the breath.
Simply notice that breathing is already happening.
That it has been happening this entire time without your direction.
Without your effort or your control.
There is a profound intelligence in this.
Your body knows exactly what to do.
It does not need your management.
It arrives when it is time to arrive.
It releases when it is time to release.
And in between each inhale and each exhale.
There is a natural pause.
A small,
Still moment.
Where nothing is happening and nothing needs to.
Rest in this rhythm.
Inhale arriving.
Exhale,
Releasing.
And the pause between.
Your breath is not just air moving in and out of your lungs.
It is energy moving through you the way water moves through a landscape.
Finding every curve,
Every hollow.
Every place that is ready to receive it.
You may begin to sense this subtle aliveness in your hands.
In the spaces behind your eyes.
In the quiet warmth of your belly.
Life is moving through you right now.
Faithfully,
Without any instruction from your thinking mind.
This is what trust feels like in the body.
Something essential is happening without your oversight.
And it is working.
It has always been working.
Your breath has been with you since the very first moment of your life.
Asking nothing and giving everything.
You can let it carry you now,
The way it always has.
Steadily,
Faithfully.
Without needing to be watched.
You may notice that your breath has slowed.
You may notice more space between your breaths.
And with that,
More space between your thoughts.
This spaciousness is not something you have to create.
It is what naturally appears when effort is no longer needed.
Let your awareness rest here.
In the rhythm and the space.
As the breath breathes you.
As your body rests and your breath settles.
You are invited to move into a subtler layer of your experience.
Here you will explore sensations in their opposites.
Allowing your awareness to hold each one.
Without preference or judgment.
Feel heaviness.
The full weight of your body connected with the surface beneath you.
Drawn by gravity.
Sinking into the earth.
Heavy.
Dense.
Held.
Stay with this sensation.
Now feel lightness as if your body could float.
As if the weight has dissolved and you are buoyant.
Expansive.
Unbound.
Light.
Effortless.
Open.
Now feel both at the same time.
Heaviness and lightness held in the same body.
In the same awareness.
Let them exist together.
Feel warmth.
Spreading from the center of your body outward.
Like sunlight reaching your skin from within.
Your heart warm.
Your belly warm.
Your hands warm.
Now feel coolness.
Fresh and clear like air after rain.
Moving across your skin,
Through your body.
Cool and spacious.
Now hold both warmth and coolness as one experience.
Feel the sensation of holding on.
The familiar effort of gripping.
Managing.
Bracing.
It lives in your hands,
Your jaw,
Your chest.
The energy of making sure,
Of keeping things together.
Of being ready.
Let yourself feel it fully,
Without judgment.
Now feel the sensation of letting go.
The softening that happens when the grip releases.
When your shoulders drop.
When your held breath finally exhales.
Simply the absence of effort that is no longer needed.
Feel how your body responds to this.
The relief of it.
The space that opens.
Now hold both.
Part of you that learned to hold on.
And the part of you that is learning to let go.
You do not have to choose between them.
You can honor the holding for what it gave you.
And welcome the letting go for what it offers now.
Rest in the awareness that is large enough to contain both.
It simply holds what is.
The way the sky holds weather without becoming the storm.
Allow your awareness to soften further now.
Beyond the body.
Beyond the breath.
Beyond thought and emotion.
Let your inner vision open gently,
The way eyes adjust to a new kind of light.
You have been walking for a long time through dense terrain.
The undergrowth of overthinking.
Of scanning for what might be wrong.
Of bracing for the reactions of others.
Of carrying what was never fully yours to carry.
This terrain has been your familiar landscape.
And it has taken so much energy to navigate.
So much effort spent watching your footing.
That there has been little room to simply stand and look up.
And now,
Gradually,
The density begins to thin.
The tangled thoughts begin to space themselves apart.
The path beneath your feet grows steadier.
And you realize you are stepping out of the undergrowth and into an opening.
A clearing.
Feel the ground beneath you here.
It is warm and solid.
This is Earth that holds your weight completely.
Dry and firm and alive with warmth.
You can feel it through the soles of your feet.
The steady,
Reliable support of the ground that will continue to support you.
This ground does not ask you to earn the right to stand on it.
It simply holds you,
Because that is what ground does.
Stand here for a moment and feel what it is like to be on solid ground.
Your body registers this stability.
And something in your nervous system begins to recalibrate.
Look around this clearing.
There is space in every direction.
Open sky above you.
You can see clearly.
For the first time in a long time,
You can simply be here.
Unhidden.
Taking up your full space.
Standing at your full height.
Notice what your body does with ease and clarity.
Something in your heart opens.
Your breath deepens without being asked.
Your shoulders widen.
You are simply present,
And the clearing holds you as you are.
From this place of steadiness and space.
You begin to notice something at the center of the clearing.
A body of still water.
A calm,
Small lake,
Perfectly undisturbed.
Its surface is so still that it reflects the sky with perfect clarity.
The trees at the edges.
The light above.
Everything mirrored back with a beautiful clarity that is only possible when the water is not being churned or stirred.
Walk toward it slowly.
Feel the solid ground with each step.
And when you arrive at the edge,
Look down into that still surface.
What you see reflected there is yourself.
Not the version of yourself that has been edited for the comfort of others.
Not the part of you that monitors every word and replays every conversation.
What you see in this still water is the self that exists when there is ease.
Clear,
Present and whole.
And from this stillness,
Certain things become very clear.
Because when the water is calm,
You can finally see what was always there.
You can care deeply about the people in your life and still belong to yourself.
These are not competing loyalties.
They are the same steady ground.
Other people's feelings are their own to weather.
You can witness the storm without becoming it.
You can stand beside someone in their rain without believing you caused it.
Your choices are valid.
A decision made from your own center,
With care and honest intention is enough.
It has always been enough.
You are allowed to rest without earning it.
You are allowed to choose yourself without it meaning you have abandoned anyone else.
You are allowed to stand in this clearing.
On this solid ground in front of this still water.
See yourself clearly.
And to trust what you see.
Stay here as long as you need.
Let the stillness of this water settle something in you that has been churning for a very long time.
You are allowing yourself to be fully you.
Without judgment.
Without the need to edit what is reflected back.
Let the clearing dissolve gently now.
Let the images soften.
What they offered you is already settling into your body.
Into your nervous system.
Into the deeper layers of your being where real change takes root.
What remains is spaciousness.
Pure,
Open rest.
Simply the experience of being.
Aware and at ease.
Held by something larger than thought.
Allow yourself to settle into this spaciousness completely now.
Feel what your body is like in this moment.
Notice how still your mind has become.
Naturally at rest.
The way water becomes still when nothing is stirring it.
Clear and present and unburdened.
This is your mind's natural state.
It has always been available beneath the noise.
Feel your heart open and unhurried.
Your heart is simply beating in your chest.
Steady and unguarded.
And there is room around it.
Room that belongs to you.
Feel your throat,
Soft and relaxed.
Your throat can simply rest.
And in that rest,
There is an extraordinary relief.
You are understood by your own body.
You are known by your own stillness.
Feel your hands,
Open and unclenched.
Your hands are simply resting.
And they are still your hands,
Capable and strong.
And ready,
Even in their openness.
Feel the whole of you resting here.
This calm body.
This clear mind.
This open heart.
This is you.
This is what is already here when the layers of effort and vigilance and over-responsibility are allowed to rest.
You are not building something new.
You are uncovering what has been here all along.
Faithful and patient.
Waiting for exactly this kind of stillness to be felt.
From this place.
You are as natural as breath.
As steady as the ground.
As clear as still water.
And your body is learning this now.
Your nervous system is recording this experience as a felt state that it can return to.
Each time you rest here.
The pathway back becomes more familiar.
More accessible.
More natural.
Your body is remembering that this is possible.
Rest here.
Simply be yourself,
At ease.
And let that be enough.
Now in this open,
Receptive space.
Allow your intention to return.
Feel it arriving as something your body already knows.
I am safe to trust myself.
Feel it settle into the ground of your being.
As a truth that has been waiting for enough stillness to be heard.
I am safe to trust myself.
I am safe to trust myself.
Let that intention rest now,
Planted into the deepest soil.
Where it will continue to grow long after this practice ends.
Begin now to bring your awareness gently back.
Feel your breath without changing it.
Reconnecting with its faithful rhythm.
Begin to notice the room around you.
The sounds,
The temperature.
Quality of the light,
Even behind closed eyelids.
Let the world come back to you at its own pace.
There is no rush.
Begin to move gently.
Stretch your fingers,
Your toes.
Take a slightly deeper breath.
And feel it expand your ribs,
Your chest.
Your whole body waking up with care.
When you are ready,
Allow your eyes to open.
Let the light of this moment be the first thing they meet.
You are present.
You are steady.
You are held by the ground beneath you,
By the breath within you.
By the knowing at your center that has always been there.
And you can return here to this clearing.
To this stillness.
To this trust whenever you need.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
You
