Remembering The Face Of Infancy

The body remembers a time before responsibility and stress. In this meditation, we meet the body today and gently attend to the tension in brows, jaws, and neck. Grateful to the body for its devotion to our well-being, we invite it to remember that earlier time of safety, in infancy, when it felt total ease. As the body remembers, it relaxes, releasing needless tension. We are restored to our innate freedom, our biological birthright.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this Mindful Biology meditation.

We'll be exploring how the body does its best to keep us safe by holding certain patterns of muscle tension around the face,

The jaws,

And the neck.

We'll experience these areas with compassion and gratitude,

And then we'll go further,

Deep into the body's memory,

To a time before there was a need to hold any tension in these areas.

For this meditation,

It's important that you set yourself up so that the body feels supported,

And in particular,

So that the head and neck can relax.

You might want to lie down with a pillow under your head and perhaps a roll of towel under your neck.

A reclining chair would also work nicely.

So settle into your comfortable,

Supported posture and close your eyes.

With the eyes closed,

Allow your attention to rest on the area of your eyebrows,

The bridge of the nose,

The lower forehead,

And especially the region just between the brows.

You might want to touch these areas gently and just feel your own dear body's skin,

The shape of the brows,

The bridge of nose,

The forehead,

And then let your hand relax again.

Notice what quality of energy you feel in this area.

Do the eyebrows feel like they're being drawn together or down?

Is there any sensation of tightness or contraction in the forehead?

What is the emotional tone that arises as you allow your attention to gently explore what's going on in this area?

Often,

The brows are an area that hold worry,

Where we tense when we're trying to plan or figure out what to do.

This is the body's way of doing its best to respond to your life and help you stay safe.

You might ask your body if some of this tension right now might be unnecessary.

You don't need to intervene or consciously relax.

Just ask the question of this body,

Of the tension itself.

Is it really needed right now here when we're meditating,

Supported?

Now move your attention to the area around the mouth and the jaws.

Notice how the lips are positioned and what they feel.

Is there any sense of tightness or huckering,

Maybe even a slight frown?

Is there tightness in the jaw muscles,

A holding or even a clenching?

The area around the jaws and the mouth tends to hold feelings of frustration and determination.

We can think of how we might want to bite through problems.

So the body holds tension here to help you solve difficult challenges,

To help you meet them and cut through obstacles.

Equally,

The jaws can be a place that holds back emotion,

That shields your tender feelings from outside view.

So sometimes tension here is protecting us from exposure.

Again,

The body is helping us,

Doing its best to keep us safe according to what it has learned and remembered throughout life.

What it needs to protect against,

What it needs to cut through.

So just feel whatever quality of tightness or holding there might be in this area.

Just allow yourself to notice it.

It doesn't need to be seen as a problem.

You don't have to try to relax.

The point is just to be present for the moment with what is.

Letting your body know that you're here for it,

Attending to it,

Listening.

But you could ask this dear body,

This complex of muscles around mouth and jaw,

If perhaps some of the tension is not needed right now.

If perhaps some could be let go.

Again,

You don't have to make that happen.

The body in its wisdom will know what feels safe.

We're only asking if perhaps in this time of support and meditation,

Some of the holding,

The gripping,

Or clenching,

However subtle,

Could be let go,

Perhaps.

And we'll continue by moving attention to the back of the head,

Right at the base of the skull.

Noticing if there's any quality of energy accumulation of holding or bracing.

A little tendency to draw the forehead back,

Jut the chin forward.

The tension that accumulates in this area is protective in the sense of defending us against blows,

Whether physical or emotional.

It's a way of stabilizing the head and neck,

Holding it steady against the forces that might knock it about.

Again,

It's the body's protective response to your life experience and what it remembers about what feels safe.

We can offer the body a note of gratitude for holding the head and neck in this stable way.

Even if there might be some times when it causes discomfort,

Neck strain,

Or headache.

You can feel how the body is holding this tension and be grateful for its effort to protect us.

And again,

We can ask if perhaps a little of this tightness,

This holding or gripping is unneeded,

Might it be safe to soften a little at the base of the skull,

At the top of the neck.

There might even be a natural tendency to shift or move the head a little to release that tension.

You don't need to force that movement,

But sometimes it'll happen on its own.

Just a little jiggling and repositioning,

A little settling as the body feels safe and supported and understands that right now,

It can let go a bit.

So we've visited the area around the forehead and brows,

Eyes,

Around the mouth and jaws,

The base of skull,

Top of neck.

Each of these areas works to keep us safe in its own way,

Responding to what it's learned in the past.

The tension in these areas is a kind of memory.

The body has learned to plan and focus tightly to solve problems.

It's learned to chew its way through difficulty,

So to speak,

To cut what binds us or to hold back emotion to keep us from feeling exposed.

It's learned to stabilize and guard and armor.

All of these memories are helpful and intelligent,

But we could ask how much of this is needed right now.

You can ask that of the mind and of the body,

Because there are other memories that the body holds,

Older memories,

But foundational ones.

This body,

When it was born and was just a little baby,

Did not need to knit its brows to plan or clench its jaws to break through difficulty or even hold its head and neck steady.

The little baby was held by a caregiver,

Perhaps a mother,

With tenderness and gentleness,

Head supported,

Nourishment supplied,

Warm,

Safe.

This body,

When it came into the world,

Had a different experience.

It hadn't accumulated all the knowledge,

All the memory of difficulty,

All the strategies for staying safe.

It was just that happy,

Soft,

Sleepy experience in those moments of being held,

Protected,

Warm.

So the body has that memory.

Of course,

The mind can't remember back that far.

Our memories don't go back to infancy in a mental way,

But they do in a somatic way.

The body knows and remembers a time before the knitting of the brows,

The clenching of the jaws,

The tightening at the base of skull,

The guarding.

The guarding.

Invite the body now to bring to the fore these older,

Earlier,

Formational memories.

These were the ones that started our individual lives going.

These are the ones that are deepest.

We've all seen babies resting,

How soft and relaxed they look.

We've seen the little smiles around their eyes,

Around their little mouths.

Maybe we've held babies and felt how released they are,

How trusting the head is,

Expecting to be supported,

Knowing that right now it is safe without tension,

Without strategy,

Without gripping or clenching or guarding.

So allow the body to remember its original,

Innate ease.

Little by little,

You can allow these older memories to coexist.

You don't need to actively soften any of the tension.

Just allow the body to remember a time before it felt the need to work so hard to keep us safe.

The body remembers a time before.

Just as we can remember multiple experiences in our conscious lives,

In our conscious lives,

The body can remember this older,

Earlier time when between the brows there was just softness,

When the forehead draped without effort,

When the eyes were wide and smiling,

Without any reason,

Just natural.

Allow your own eyes right now to remember,

Your own brows to tap into that deep,

Early experience.

No planning,

No worrying,

No fixing,

Just being wide and open.

Just remembering that adulthood isn't all that our bodies carry in memory.

They also carry their experience when they came fresh into the world.

Letting the eyes be the infant's eyes,

Baby's eyes that they once were and still are deep in memory.

And of course,

Around the mouth and jaws,

It was a very different experience for that early period of life,

For that little baby.

There weren't even teeth in the mouth back then.

Just a soft inner landscape,

Happy and waiting for nourishment for the breast.

There wasn't any clenching in the jaw muscles.

There wasn't any biting.

Sometimes the baby felt uncomfortable.

Sometimes it cried,

Sure.

But during those times when it was held and fed and supported and warm,

The mouth,

The jaws were soft,

Even,

Smiling.

This is a fact for all babies at some times.

And this is a memory for all bodies.

Allow the body to remember a time before frustration,

A time before planning,

A time before chronic emotional protection and guarding and hiding,

A time when the mouth was open and soft and smiling.

No reason,

Just spontaneous delight.

We've all seen babies with that spontaneous delight.

Allow your body to recover and savor that memory.

You can still remember the tasks and hazards of adulthood if it needs to.

But right now in this safe meditative time,

You can also remember the ease from way back then,

The jaw to go slack and the lips to soften,

Perhaps inviting a tiny smile to the corners of the mouth,

Softening the tongue,

Letting it relax,

The throat relax,

The way the baby relaxed.

The body has this memory and this ability.

You can trust it.

And then let your attention settle back at the base of the skull,

The top of the neck.

And remember how the baby doesn't need to hold its head up,

Doesn't need to guard and shield.

It just allows itself to be held.

Trusting that the surroundings,

Caregivers will support.

So right now you can let down that guard a bit.

Invite the body to remember the time before it believed it needed to work so hard to stay safe.

Time before the memories of all the difficulties of life,

All the times there wasn't safety.

Remembering a time when it was safe,

It was protected,

It was supported and held.

It could just be free.

No holding,

No guarding,

No stabilizing either.

Just trusting,

Just relaxing,

Just being.

Now allow the whole area of eyes and mouth and neck to blend together into the baby's experience of that early time in life,

When none of those areas were online in this protective way.

And instead,

We're simply free and fluid,

Relaxed and open.

We're simply trusting and being.

Isn't it pleasant to remember,

To let the body remember how it came into the world and how it can be again.

As we come toward the end of this meditative time,

We can take with us the memory of this experience.

The body will remember every time we bring a memory online,

We deepen it a bit.

So bringing this early memory of ease online makes it easier for the body the next time.

Makes it easier for the body to let go a bit.

You can lie here as long as you wish,

But if you'd like to get up,

Just wiggle your fingers and toes a little,

Move around a little,

Breathe a bit deeper,

And open your eyes.

Reviews

Thanks for this beautiful memory of ease in early childhood. Thanks a lot.