Pause is the most important part in recovery.
Taking a day,
A rest day can be so challenging.
I understand this,
But giving back to self,
Giving back to your healing,
Extends how far you can really go.
Taking time for yourself to just settle and be in this beautiful stillness.
If you haven't done a sound bath or sound healing before,
It's extremely powerful.
The sound waves have the ability to help our bodies come into balance.
It helps to shut off that fight or flight reaction that stress causes,
Increased heart rate,
The cortisol,
The anxious feelings that we have.
Sound has the power to move that in the body with the meditation practice together.
Working with breath,
We find ultimate stillness and the potential for true healing within the body.
So we begin our practice today,
Working with our breath first,
Connecting with ourselves,
Just checking in to where we are today as we are here.
And so I encourage you to settle into your spot now and find some stillness in the body.
So you can start to explore the breath,
The breath moving naturally with each inhale and each exhale.
Just checking in what's happening within the body and the breath today.
Can you feel the ability for the breath to move freely?
Is it getting hung up anywhere?
That can happen easily as we stress and run from one call to the next or one chore to the next or worries.
It can build here in the chest and restrict us from having full breath.
And as we settle in,
We'll begin the practice the active breath work of an equal count breath.
This allows the body to begin to focus to settle into the practice.
And as we do that,
We will offer an equal count breath.
Five,
Inhale,
Five,
Hold and five,
Exhale.
Listening to the beat as the drum goes,
Allowing the count to naturally occur.
It will be a little like this.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Five,
Inhale,
Five,
Hold.
Inhale,
Five,
Exhale.
So let's begin together.
Gently closing the eyes,
Beginning to notice the breath coming in through the nostrils,
Feeling that movement.
And begin with the next inhale the count.
Five in,
Five hold,
Five exhale.
Five in,
Five hold,
Five exhale.
Three more rounds.
And release the breath.
Releasing control of breath and simply being with breath.
We begin to connect with the movement within the abdomen and the chest.
Seeing if you can find the pause,
The natural hold that takes place between the in and the out.
Sensing into that and experiencing it.
… Allowing the sound to enter with each breath,
Like waves washing through the body,
Allowing the dissolving and the releasing,
The sound seeking out the tension,
The gripping emotions or feelings and thoughts that get stored in the body.
We notice this in the places like our jaw.
Can you offer up a letting go of all the muscles in the jaws surrounding the cheeks,
Allowing the tongue to fall away,
Settling in?
All the muscles in the face,
The brow,
The shoulders melting away from the ears.
You walk around and hold so much weight here.
To allow them to settle and just be.
The back of the neck.
The upper back.
Imagine each vertebrae and the muscles melting and releasing their grip.
And as you travel down the mid back.
Can you imagine this space opening and allowing so that the lungs can fully inhale and expand?
So that you feel the ribs create space.
The breath moves freely from the collar bones through the abdomen as you trace down the spine to the lower back.
And the muscles above the hip bones.
Imagine them just releasing and unhinging.
And as you breathe into the abdomen,
Feeling this space opening up.
Feeling the legs and the thighs.
As you feel the muscles you settle in and allow gravity to work to pull you downwards.
There's no work for your body to do right now.
What would it be like if you could just settle in this moment?
Feeling the shins and the calves.
And the feet,
Perhaps they separate and fall away from each other.
And begin to offer up your entire body to relaxation as the sounds wash through like waves onto the shore.
With each inhale bringing in this potential for healing,
A clearing.
With each exhale the release.
Reaching for the moments of silence between each sound and settling in and offering up.
Imagining the wave lifting your body and taking it back into the ocean.
The ocean of breath.
The ocean of healing.
Imagining each sound as a wave.
Riding that wave all the way through.
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Reconnecting with yourself in this space.
Feeling for movement of breath.
Feeling any space that's been created between breath or thoughts.
I'm beginning to bring movement to the body.
Connection to the floor.
And reconnecting with that breath.
If you stayed with this practice,
I appreciate you.
And perhaps you offer up some gratitude for yourself for pausing.
There are so many other things that you could be doing with your time and your energy.
And you chose to settle into the stillness.
To offer recovery to your body,
To your mind,
To our emotions.
We're all carrying so much around with us.
So as I bring my hands to my heart center,
I offer up so much gratitude for you and for being here with me this evening.
