Finding Peace Beyond Tightness Of The Mind & Body

A calming breath practice and body scan to help you ease bodily tightness and pain, slow down thinking, and relax your emotions. There is also guidance around how to work with an overactive mind to create inner peace.

Transcript

Taking a moment to get comfortable.

Finding a position that makes you feel alert,

But also at ease and relaxed.

A straight spine is always very helpful to stay alert.

Now starting with some deep breaths.

Take some nice deep breaths and allow them to be received in a softening belly.

Allowing your belly to expand and contract like a balloon.

Feeling the movement of breath in that soft belly.

Encouraging the rest of your body to relax.

And now deepening your breath,

All the way to the top of your body.

Making your exhales longer than your inhalations.

That might look like a count of one,

Two,

Three,

Four on the inhale.

And on the exhale,

You're going to feel a little bit of a stretch in your belly.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four on the inhale.

And on the exhale,

Maybe one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

So seeing if you can do that four,

Six rhythm of breathing.

Still a slow breath in,

And an even slower breath out.

Encouraging the body to relax.

Encouraging the muscles to become softer.

Slowing things down.

Continue to count.

Four in,

Six out.

Now letting your breath come back to a natural pace.

Notice that things might have gotten quieter.

Bring your attention to the top of your head.

And allow the muscles in your scalp to soften.

Allow the muscles across your forehead to loosen,

To let the lines across your forehead become smooth.

Now through the eyes,

Letting every muscle and all those micro muscles become soft.

Letting your eyes sink deep into your head.

Letting your cheeks become softer.

Allowing your jaw to release.

Allowing your jaw to release and relax.

Allowing your tongue to relax down to its root.

Letting your throat relax open.

And gliding down the neck.

Letting all those muscles around the neck release and let go.

And again,

Allowing those muscles around your neck to release and let go.

Moving down through the shoulders.

Letting the shoulders become very soft and heavy.

Letting them drop away from the neck.

Letting them open the chest and move toward the back.

Feeling that relaxation move through the upper arms and the lower arms.

Through the wrists,

Across the tops of the hands and through the palms.

And all the way through the fingertips.

Feeling the aliveness in the hands.

The space they take up,

Their temperature,

Any vibrating or tingling.

Whatever is there.

Being more and more interested in the sensation moving through your hands.

And now coming back to the base of the neck,

Top of the chest.

Relaxing those large muscles through the chest and again opening your shoulders.

Allowing you to breathe more easily into the chest.

And again,

Allowing those muscles to release and let go.

Letting those muscles move through the chest.

Moving down through the muscles,

Through the ribs,

Through the top of the abdomen,

Through the center,

Navel.

Remembering to keep the belly soft as you breathe.

Remembering that beautiful balloon expanding and contracting.

Letting that movement happen naturally.

Unrestricted,

Which relaxes the rest of your body.

Now bringing your attention to the top of the back,

Just below the neck.

And allowing those large muscles to let go.

To release.

And now,

Allowing those muscles to release.

And now,

Allowing those muscles to let go.

And allowing those large muscles to let go.

To release.

Between the shoulders.

Softening.

And softening again.

Moving down through the back.

From the upper to middle.

Middle to lower.

Maybe taking a couple intentionally deeper breaths and slowing your exhale to whatever feels natural.

Allowing any muscles that might be holding to soften and let go here with your exhalation.

Now moving,

Relaxing the muscles of the buttocks.

Moving through the thighs.

Letting those heavy thigh muscles release and let go.

Moving through the knees.

Through the calves.

Relaxing.

Letting go.

And feeling sensation across the tops of the feet.

Whatever's there.

And now back around the heels of the feet.

Across the bottoms of the feet.

And out through the toes.

And again,

Pausing here.

Paying attention to what sensation is present.

What temperature do you feel?

Do you feel any pressure?

Points of contact?

Where do your feet contact the socks?

Do you feel the socks that you're wearing?

If you're wearing socks.

Or do you feel the floor beneath your feet?

Or the seat beneath your feet if you're sitting cross-legged?

Just really paying attention to whatever sensation is present.

And allowing that to ground you.

And now allowing the feeling of gravity holding your body safely against what it is you are sitting on now.

And feeling how it holds you there.

And feeling that effect of gravity across your body.

Keeping that alert posture but at the same time letting anything that may be fighting like your shoulders to again drop down and relax.

And maybe open them as well.

Revisiting the eyes and the eyebrows to see if they may have tightened some with your focus.

And if they have,

You can take a moment to again soften.

Just letting go.

In this moment there's nothing to do.

Even though the mind might be busy there's nothing to figure out.

If there is any discomfort allow it to be.

For a moment.

If there's any discomfort in the body and there's one place in particular that is uncomfortable.

You might bring your attention to it lovingly without fighting it's being there.

And maybe see if you can send loving breath to that space.

When you prolong your exhalation you soften the muscles in your body.

So if you prolong your exhalation while sending that loving energy or just sending love to that space that may be in pain.

You can help release and relax that part of your body.

Imagine your body getting softer and softer.

Allowing your mind to become quieter and quieter.

And if there is distracting movement of the mind that's okay.

You're definitely not doing it wrong.

The mind moves and we are not the mind.

We are the awareness of the mind.

The awareness of the body.

It's like if a thought is a wave across the ocean and we get stuck on that thought it might turn us and topple us.

But if we zoom out and become the space of the ocean then we notice there are many waves moving all the time.

And at the same time dropping below the surface of the ocean is more and more stillness.

The ocean holds the movement but is not movement.

So too is like open awareness.

Not fixated on particular thoughts or addicted to them.

Though that is often our experience.

But just watching objectively,

Lovingly,

Letting the waves of thought move.

Knowing that we are bigger than each thought that comes and goes.

If we can be here from when thoughts were not here.

To when they come.

To when they go.

Then we can't be the thoughts.

We're the witness of them.

And this is very peace evoking because most of our misery and suffering comes from identifying with thinking.

So taking a few deeper breaths.

Really breathing deep into a soft belly.

Moving your awareness to the sensation of the expansion of your belly like that beautiful balloon.

Just relaxing and paying attention to the sensations.

Relaxing awareness open.

Allowing every sensation that exists within awareness to be here.

And again,

Every thought as well.

When we fight,

We lose.

When we fight the existence of thoughts,

They take us over and we suffer.

When we fight the existence of certain sensations that don't feel good,

They dominate our experience and we suffer.

So step one is just allowing.

Well,

Becoming aware first of what's there and then allowing it to be there.

And if you can become curious and interested,

Really instead of being resistant,

Lean into what are these thoughts without getting lost in them.

Or what is the sensation without getting lost in it?

And whatever it is,

Sending it love in the end.

Sending it love over and over again.

There's no wave in the ocean that is unacceptable.

Every wave has a place,

Has a part to play,

But ultimately comes from the ocean,

Returns to the ocean,

And is held within the ocean.

Reviews

Very soothing and slow voice, very relaxing and softening to the body and mind. Thank you 🙏🏻

Thanks, enjoyed the soothing guidance and your words of wisdom. Feel more balanced and at ease.

Beautiful ⚘You said our thoughts are like waves and every wave is perfect. Or there is nothing wrong with any of the waves.Also, you have a relaxing voice. Thank you!🙏