This practice is for the middle of the day,
When your body is asking for something that isn't coffee.
Isn't distraction,
And isn't just pushing through.
It is asking for rest,
Real rest,
The kind that restores something the day has been spending.
Welcome to the Mindful Movement.
I'm Sarah Raymond.
I invite you to make yourself comfortable.
Lying down or seated in a way you can truly rest and let your nervous system feel safe and calm.
Let whatever holds you receive your weight fully.
You are allowed to be heavy here.
You are allowed to let go of effort.
Before you close your eyes,
Take a moment to look around your space.
To orient yourself to your surroundings.
Perhaps look for any exits.
Or any familiar components of your environment.
Take a few long,
Slow breaths as you do.
Now,
Without turning your head,
Move your eyes gently to your right.
Looking as far to your right as you can.
Take a breath here.
Now let your eyes move all the way to your left.
And take a breath here.
Now let your eyes look upward without moving your head for just a moment.
One more breath in.
And as you release,
Let your eyes close completely.
And rest.
Allow your nervous system to sense the safety.
Support and rest that is available.
A small,
Clear signal that says the scanning is done.
You can stop monitoring now.
Whatever needed watching has been watched.
And this moment is safe.
Before you descend fully into rest.
Set the intention for this reset.
A single thought to plant.
A seed to carry into the deeper layers.
The thought is this,
I am allowed to rest.
Say it once in your mind.
In your own voice.
I am allowed to rest.
And once more,
I am allowed to rest.
You don't need to earn it.
You don't need to have done enough first.
This rest belongs to you simply because you are here.
And because rest is a requirement of the body.
Let the intention settle and release.
We'll return to it at the close.
This reset will meet you simply where you are.
Your mind may still be moving.
This is to be expected.
Notice it first with acceptance.
Notice the state of your thoughts and attention.
Simply notice that this is the outermost layer of your awareness.
And just as the surface of water is not the whole of it.
The busy thinking surface is not the whole of your mind.
Beneath it,
There is something quieter and slower.
A sense of rest within you.
There is a calm waiting to be welcomed.
Give yourself permission now to slow down and rest.
Your body is beginning to know this.
Your breath is already slower than it was a moment ago.
Without you having to ask anything of it.
Something in your nervous system has registered the permission to slow down.
And let go.
Something begins to change in the quality of your awareness.
You may notice your thoughts are becoming slower and further apart.
A thought arrives and it passes more easily than before.
The space between thoughts opens slightly.
The way the energy in a room opens when someone quietly leaves.
This is your nervous system beginning to shift.
Notice your body.
Your hands.
Your legs.
The weight of your back against whatever it holds.
There is a warmth that has been there all along.
But you can feel it now.
In a way that wasn't available before you slowed down for rest.
Your face is soft.
The small muscles around your eyes.
Your jaw.
Your breath moves through you and your body receives it as something nourishing.
Something that replenishes.
Each exhale releases a small fraction of what the morning has accumulated.
Let your attention continue to drift inward.
The way your awareness moves when you are almost,
But not quite,
Asleep.
The quality of it changes.
From sharp to soft.
There is a gentle blurring of the edges.
You are simply allowing this gentle shift.
And your body knows this state.
It has been here before.
In the moments between sleep and waking.
In the soft blur.
You've been here before and you are returning.
As your mind slows down.
And your body relaxes.
Something deeper within you releases.
You may not be able to name what exactly.
Only that something which was slightly held.
Simply let's go.
It releases the way a breath releases.
The thinking mind is no longer in charge.
If thoughts arise here.
They may have a different quality than the ones at the surface.
They may be less linear.
More like images or feelings that drift through.
Without quite completing themselves.
You don't have to follow these thoughts anywhere.
You don't have to make sense of them.
You only have to be here.
Receiving whatever is moving through.
Letting it pass without reaching for it.
Your body is very heavy now in a way that feels soothing.
The surface beneath you is receiving all of the weight and you are able to let go of all effort.
Sense the area around your heart now.
There is a quality of peace.
That comes at the threshold.
Between wakefulness and sleep.
When the body is deeply at rest.
While the mind is still just barely awake.
Watching from somewhere very still.
This is a place of deep rest.
A place that touches the edges of sleep without crossing over.
The dreaming state that doesn't require dreams.
A state of deep rest and restoration.
Your mind is restoring,
Reorganizing,
And repairing.
Allowing what accumulated to begin to settle and integrate.
There's nothing required of you in this moment.
Except to be present.
And at rest.
Simply here,
Simply breathing.
From the deepest place of rest,
The intention returns.
I am allowed to rest.
In a body that has been resting for some time now.
Those words mean something slightly different.
Than they did at the beginning.
There is a deep sense of truth.
A truth your body has been demonstrating.
I am allowed to rest.
Let it settle into you as something already known.
As a belief experienced.
Gently now begin to let your breath deepen on its own.
You may notice it wants to.
Your body having rested.
Is beginning its own process of return.
Let your awareness expand slightly outward.
To the sounds in the room around you.
Quality of the light behind your closed eyes.
The temperature of the air on your skin.
Notice that you are aware of these things again in a new way that is slightly different from before.
Slightly more at peace.
Your senses come back to a full awareness,
Feeling fresh.
Bring a little more life into your fingers.
A small movement.
And let that small motion spread through your hands and into your arms.
Take a long,
Slow breath in now.
Let it fill your chest.
And then release it completely.
Something is different in you.
Than when you arrived.
Your nervous system has reset.
When you are ready,
Let your eyes begin to open.
Slowly into the full brightness of the day.
You have just given your mind and your body something nourishing.
You can return here.
The path becomes more familiar each time you take it.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
