Welcome to a winter solstice embodiment practice.
My name is Sarah and let's dive right in.
So fully coming into your space,
Checking anything off the to-do list that needs to be done so you can be present with your body,
So you can be present with your process.
Tuning into the sounds outside of the room,
Outside of the building.
And slowly beginning a zooming in until your awareness is focused on the sounds within the room,
And the sounds of your body,
And the sounds of your breath.
And throughout this exploration,
I will be using the phrases,
Releasing your voice and releasing your breath quite a bit.
And what I mean by that is to give up your conscious cortical control and to hand over the breath and the voice to your inner wisdom.
Hand over control to your current process and to allow whatever breath or sound or noise wants to move through to move through.
So you will be hearing some of my process and if that's at all distracting to you,
I'm just going to invite you to turn down the volume just a little bit so you can really sink in to you.
So beginning in whatever position you feel you need to begin in.
Just contacting the sensations of the body.
Noticing what is there and giving it permission.
Pertension to move,
To breathe,
To sound in whatever organic way feels appropriate and good to you right now.
Inviting in some softness.
Inviting in some ground.
And inviting in this darkness,
The darkness that we've been surrounded with the last several weeks.
Given that today is the winter solstice,
It is the shortest day of the year,
The longest night.
And while more light is coming,
It is still going to be a process.
A gradual invitation in.
So for now,
I really want to encourage us to be present with the darkness.
Be present with the shadow.
I think a most beautiful gift that we can offer ourselves is presence to what wants to die.
What wants to let go.
What wants to whatever has had its time and whatever is ready to decompose and to release.
Releasing the breath.
Releasing the voice.
Maybe finding a moment of stillness here.
Offering yourself a gesture.
Palms open to receive,
Hands on the heart to cradle.
Hands across the eyes and face and sorrow.
Trust what is arising.
And we're going to begin to wake up the portals,
The endpoints of the body,
Beginning with the feet.
A lot of our tissues,
Our flesh.
So much of this beautiful creature we inhabit has these terminal points,
These portals where things can get caught up on their way out.
It can be profoundly helpful to work with these individually.
So finding the feet wherever they are.
Can you find the feet?
Can you find the heels,
The arches,
The balls?
Where are your toes?
What about the tops of the feet,
The ankles?
Can you grant them the movement they want,
The breath they want,
The sound they want?
Can they be soft?
Can they give up any doing to yield into the earth,
Into your space,
Into your hands?
Are you getting me on there?
Can they find a push?
Can you push from one foot the other foot from both feet?
Can you find the subtleties within that push?
Can you grasp with your toes?
Can you pull in towards the pelvic floor?
Towards your core?
Can you change directions and slowly,
Tenderly reach out with the feet,
With the toes,
With the heels?
Can you release the voice?
Can you release the breath?
Can you find the gateway where you are continuously allowing,
Allowing the sweet body to do what it needs to do for our time together?
Drawing awareness now up into the pelvic floor.
Feeling the sensations here.
Allowing the system to move,
To breathe,
To sound.
Feeling into the aliveness here.
Inviting some softness.
Maybe inviting some push.
Finding that push travel up towards the head,
Along the sweet line of the spine.
Finding the full range of movement or of softness here.
This fundamental connection between our head and our tail.
Can you find ground at your pelvic floor and allow that ground to push up through the crown of the head?
Maybe placing some hand,
Maybe both hands at the crown of the head,
Maybe cupping the face,
The jaw.
Allowing breath and sound to move through.
Feeling the eyes releasing the jaw,
The mouth,
The tongue,
The throat.
Maybe spending some extra time finding some sound here at the throat.
Letting go of any ideas as to what it might sound like,
What you might desire it to sound like.
Letting the vibration in the throat stimulate and tone the vagus nerve.
Knowing whichever frequency you've chosen to balance out the nervous system.
Thinking now to tap into desire.
And planting the seed,
What do you want?
What are you wanting from this beautiful,
Unpredictable,
Incredible life?
What does that desire feel like in your body?
Dancing with the aliveness in the hands now.
Allowing the hands to release what they need to.
Before finding a gesture,
A gesture that evokes this desire.
A gesture that invites more in.
Inspites more of whatever you want.
Realizing the breath,
Releasing the voice.
Really feeling into these portals,
These places of transmutation.
The hands,
The feet,
The tail,
The head.
And joining them in their dance.
Their dance of death and rebirth.
If it feels resonant in your system,
Finding your way towards stillness.
Above all else,
Tending to what you need.
What your body needs.
What your heart needs.
And tuning into the heart.
Feeling into the steady rhythm.
That is your drumbeat.
The rhythm of your life.
Swirling into the rhythm of your breath.
Allowing these sacred tides to carry you.
And we will settle here for about five minutes of silence together.
Thank you.
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