Rest, Reset, Receive

Enjoy a guided journey to invite the body to rest, the mind to reset and the spirit to receive. Whether or not it's bedtime, you will find this to be a nourishing practice. This class features readings by Thich Nhat Hanh and a guided meditation that was recorded Live on the Insight Timer.

Transcript

I invite you to find a position of ease.

That might mean laying down in your bed.

That might mean you are standing up because it's the middle of the day and you don't want to fall asleep even though you do want to experience some rest in your body.

Or you might just be sitting on your couch or on a chair.

There's no right or wrong way to practice this body scan.

There's just a more or less present way.

My invitation for you is to recognize that you have the opportunity to really be here now as Ram Dass,

My teacher,

Would say.

You have the opportunity to really experience what's happening in your body beyond your thoughts where you usually get caught up.

So let's begin with our feet.

Simply notice the temperature of your feet.

Are they warm or cool?

Do they feel clammy or dry?

Are they tingling if you've been sitting cross-legged and they're falling asleep?

We're not here to judge our feet or to change them or to move them.

As we invite rest into our body,

It's all about letting whatever is there be okay and then relaxing as much as you would like in each moment.

So letting your attention be on your feet.

And as you notice your feet,

See what happens if you direct your breath into your feet.

Seeing if the temperature changes.

Seeing if they feel a little bit heavier.

Maybe you don't notice anything.

There's no right or wrong way to do this practice.

It's just a matter of feeling in your body and inviting each part of your body to rest and to reset.

So sending gratitude now into your feet.

And just for a moment,

Recognizing where your feet have carried you today,

Yesterday,

All the days of your life.

So letting that gratitude anchor you into the earth,

Being present with your feet,

Really feeling them,

Whatever your experience is as it changes from one moment to the next.

And holding your feet with such compassion,

Such gratitude.

And taking a moment to just feel your feet.

And drawing your awareness up into your ankles.

Drawing your ankles.

Probably don't pay a lot of attention to them.

Just seeing what sensations are there if you can feel anything.

Perhaps if you're wearing socks,

Noticing the compression from the socks.

And sending that gratitude that was in your feet,

Drawing it up with your next breath into your ankles.

And then as you breathe,

Just breathing some relaxation into your ankles.

We're inviting in ease.

We're not forcing.

We're giving our body the opportunity to rest,

The opportunity to reset,

And the opportunity to receive.

Feeling the nourishment of the conscious attention and the feeling of gratitude in the ankles.

And then drawing it up into the calves and around into the shins.

Noticing whatever sensations are here.

It might be pressure if you're laying down or sitting.

We're not trying to change anything.

We're just experiencing.

And with this breath,

Inviting in ease.

That same ease that you feel in your feet and in your ankles.

Drawing it up and allowing it to penetrate into each cell of your calves and your shins.

And then inviting in the same sense of gratitude.

Breathing gratitude into this part of your body for all the ways it supports you in each moment.

And noticing if at any point you're starting to feel sleepy,

Letting yourself recognize for a moment.

Oh,

I feel sleepy.

I feel tired.

Just having the awareness.

Or if you start to feel just really relaxed,

Just naming that.

Mindfulness is about being curious,

About being the observer of our lived experience from moment to moment.

And one important way we do that is by naming without judgment whatever we're experiencing.

As we recognize that it changes and shifts with every breath.

So with this breath,

Bringing your awareness up into your knees.

Feeling the front of your knees,

Feeling the back of your knees.

Breathing into your knees and inviting in ease.

Perhaps you have some pain that often comes in your knees.

If you're feeling it in this moment,

As you direct the breath into your knees,

You can see that that pain might shift and might even begin to lessen as you release the tension you're holding around the pain.

You can do that with any body part.

And then pulling up that sense of gratitude from the feet,

Through the ankles,

The calves and the shins,

And now into the knees.

And feeling so much gratitude,

Just breathing in that gratitude into the knees.

Noticing what it's like to consciously thank your body for what it does effortlessly for you in each second of your life.

Feeling into your thighs,

Letting your attention wrap all the way around.

And noticing if you're clenching or holding any tightness here.

And offering some ease,

Offering some relaxation,

Offering your whole leg from bottom to top,

From top to bottom,

The opportunity to rest.

The opportunity to reset with more ease,

And the opportunity to receive,

Receive the gratitude now sending into your thighs.

So much gratitude for the work that they do every day.

And as you breathe in,

Drawing the gratitude up from the bottoms of your feet all the way to the tops of your legs.

And as you breathe out,

Letting it come back down and wash over your whole lower body.

We'll sit in silence for a moment and just feel whatever is here now as we rest,

As we reset,

And as we receive.

Now,

Drawing your awareness up into your hips,

Your glutes,

Your pelvis,

And your whole reproductive area.

Noticing the weight and the heaviness of your body.

Noticing whatever sensations are here in the physical body.

And in this next breath,

Inviting in a letting go.

In a little more ease,

A little more relaxation.

Recognizing all the hard loving work that these parts of your body do for you.

With your next breath,

Drawing that gratitude that you've been cultivating up and into the hips,

The glutes,

The pelvis,

The whole reproductive area.

Feeling grateful for whatever arises.

Feeling grateful for the ways that you are taken care of.

For the ways that your body knows exactly how to function without you having to tell it what to do.

And now,

Drawing your awareness up into your abdomen and checking in here.

A lot of you are feeling heavy emotions and sometimes those emotions store in our abdomen.

It can be a tightness.

It can be a knot,

Like a clenching in the gut,

A holding.

Can feel sometimes like you're going to throw up.

Other times it feels empty.

So whatever was there earlier,

It might not be there now.

There might be something else there.

So just take a moment to be with the sensations in your abdomen.

And remembering that part of mindfulness is bringing in kindness and compassion and a willingness to be with what is.

I invite you with your next breath as you breathe,

You consciously feel your belly expand.

And as it expands,

You become more aware of all the ways that it is helping you live,

Be vital and alive in this moment.

And as you breathe out,

Let go and release anything that might be clenching or tight there that's ready to be let go.

So breathing in and just feeling whatever sensations arise,

Feeling yourself breathing in,

Consciously breathing in.

And then as you breathe out,

Inviting in a little more ease,

A little more relaxation,

A little more peace.

And then with your next breath,

Drawing that same sense of gratitude up from the bottoms of the feet,

All the way up the length of the legs,

Up through the hips,

All the way into the abdomen.

And send gratitude to all of your internal organs for the miraculous ways in which they keep you alive,

Healthy and vital in each moment.

Every part of your body here that knows intuitively what to do signals to you when it needs something and is constantly trying to find balance,

Constantly trying to heal,

Constantly trying to protect you and keep you safe.

Your body is always listening to you.

And in this moment,

You can reciprocate.

You can listen to your body.

And sweeping your awareness around into your back now,

Noticing the sensations in your back as you feel your back against your chair,

As you feel your back on your bed.

And as you scan,

You might notice that there's some tightness or some tension in different places in your back.

You might even feel the weight of the world pushing down on you.

So as you see what's alive in your back,

Remember that these sensations in your body that you might attribute to some form of pain are messages.

They're signals that your body is sending to you,

Perhaps telling you to slow down,

Perhaps telling you to breathe more deeply,

Perhaps offering you an invitation to sit in a different way or move in a different way.

Your body is listening.

It wants to support you.

It wants you to be healthy.

So giving yourself permission now to listen and to send your breath into your back.

So sending your breath into your back and as you do that,

Noticing if those places that had tightness or tension might begin to soften.

We're letting go of the stories that we tell ourselves about pain,

About tension.

We're letting go of the thoughts that we've been wrapped up in all day.

And instead we're just being here now,

Loving what is.

So breathing into the back body,

Inviting in ease,

Inviting in relaxation.

And as you breathe out,

Just letting go a little bit more,

Resting,

Resetting,

Receiving.

And then inviting in gratitude,

Drawing it up from your feet all the way through the other parts of your body you've sent this gratitude into already and into the whole length of your back for the ways it has held you up and supported you today,

Every single day of your life.

Sending gratitude for the signals that your body gives you,

That your back tells you to move your body,

To shift your body,

To pay attention,

To listen to the messages so that you can find balance,

Find ease,

Find equilibrium inside of you.

Letting yourself be filled up with this gratitude and letting it come around into the chest.

Breathing for a few breaths,

The rise and fall of your breath in your chest.

You might notice that the sensations in your chest feel heavy,

Feel constricted,

Feel tight.

Maybe there's a feeling of there being some armoring here.

Or perhaps your chest feels numb,

Dissociated even,

Feels hard to access your emotions.

And perhaps you're noticing feelings of ease,

Openness,

And relaxation.

Whatever is in your experience,

Letting it be okay,

Loving what is,

Releasing the judgment that you should feel any certain way in this moment.

And instead,

Coming back into what is real,

Which is the feeling of your chest rising and falling.

Feeling ease,

Sending peace into your chest,

Into your heart center.

And then tuning in beyond all of the surface emotions that are impermanent,

That are always coming and going.

There is within you an internal nature that is your own basic goodness.

That's the place where this gratitude you've been feeling actually stems from.

And if you'd like in this moment,

You can bring a hand to your heart and simply feel into your natural open-hearted presence.

Basic goodness that lives within you,

That sometimes you forget about because you're swept away in storms of strong emotions.

Yet you can always access by coming back to the body,

Back to the breath,

And back to gratitude.

So breathing in and feeling this gratitude for your basic goodness filling up your chest.

And as you breathe out,

Letting it wash down across your whole body.

Breathing in,

Filling up with gratitude.

Breathing out,

Letting it flow out.

And then drawing your awareness from your heart,

Drawing this gratitude,

This presence into your shoulders and into your neck.

And noticing if perhaps there's still a bit of the weight of the world on your shoulders.

And if that's real for you,

Just being with it for a moment and recognize the weight you've been carrying.

Feeling in your throat if it feels tight or constricted,

Like you've been holding yourself back from speaking the truth.

The shoulders and the neck,

The throat are places that we often find tension and we can often get frustrated at.

We just want the frustration.

We just want this physical pain in our shoulders to go away.

We just want our throat to feel free and open.

We just want our neck to not hurt.

And when we get caught up in those stories,

That's when we create more suffering.

So this practice of resting,

Resetting,

And receiving allows you to find a different way of relating to what's going on in your shoulders,

In your neck,

And your throat by inviting in the breath,

By inviting in a little bit more ease.

So with your next few breaths,

Just breathing into these areas.

And as you breathe out,

Inviting in that relaxation,

That ease.

And then with your next breath,

Drawing that gratitude up from your feet,

Up into your heart center,

And into your shoulders,

Your neck,

And your throat.

Being so grateful for the way in which they hold you up,

They allow you to speak your truth and look around at the world.

They allow you to sing,

To laugh,

To talk,

To move.

And letting those feelings of gratitude and relaxation flow down the length of both of your arms.

Feeling the sensations in your arms and inviting in ease.

Noticing your hands,

If they're warm or cool,

Clammy or dry,

They're tingly.

Into the palms of your hands,

Where you might notice some sensations.

It might be a little tingle there,

A buzz or some energy flowing.

Or maybe you just feel a subtle sense of warmth.

For whatever is there,

Let it be there.

Send it relaxation.

Send it ease.

And with this breath,

Send it that gratitude,

Letting it wash over every cell of your arms,

Down your hands,

Out the tips of your fingers,

And out the palms of your hands.

Eliminating gratitude.

And then drawing that gratitude up now into your face.

Drawing that relaxation into your face.

Checking your jaw.

Seeing if you can unclench your jaw.

Letting your tongue be heavy in your mouth.

Letting your eyes just be softly closed.

Relaxing the muscles in your cheeks.

Even letting your ears relax.

Unfurling your forehead and your eyebrows.

Letting all the tension and all the tiny muscles of your face begin to melt away as it would like.

Resting from head to toe.

Sending the energy by inviting in this ease,

This relaxation.

And noticing all the way to the tip top,

The crown of your head.

Seeing if there are any sensations there.

Maybe a sense of expansiveness,

A tingling,

A warmth.

Or maybe just the sense of your hair on your head.

Letting whatever is there be there.

And from head to toe,

Inviting in waves of relaxation with each in-breath.

And with each out-breath,

Letting gratitude flow.

Flow down from the top of your head and perhaps envisioning it as a white or a golden light that is enveloping every single cell of your body.

That is allowing you to rest.

Allowing you to reset.

Nourishing you as you receive.

As your physical body receives your attention,

Receives your gratitude,

And receives your love.

Reviews

Perfect meditation:-)

One of the best meditations I’ve done on here. Your voice is super soothing and loved how you gracefully expounded on each section.

Such a lovely body scan, sweet, nourishing and loving

Very peaceful with good reminders of gratitude Sweet

Thank you!✨

Very nice 👌🏻 I fell asleep! looking forward to doing again 😊

That was so relaxing. Thank you!!!

👣 Even my feet are happy 😂!

Found it difficult to give myself gratitude, but the relaxation was immense, and gratitude did come eventually. Will be back to this one for sure, thank you 🙏

Thank you for helping me fully find rest, ease and to listen. I was able to focus on the present, discovered calm and in the moment, hear the different bird sounds around me, then listened to how anxiety felt being interrupted in my rest from a famy member and how to navigate & soothe the body after.

Easy listening

That felt so good! I could feel the gratitude for my body - it felt like falling in love! Thank you

Put me into a tranquil moment of stillness. Absolutely loved it. Thank you 🙏 💕

Lovely. Very calming.