I am coach Rachel Vannette and this meditation is for you if you are struggling with a restless body or restless mind.
Your thoughts are feeling racing,
Sharp or anxious.
This will help to calm and to center them.
If your body feels unpleasantly energized,
Light or fidgety,
Especially before bed,
This will help to ground you and relax you.
We'll begin by sitting with your back supported,
Your feet in contact with the floor,
Your spine long and not rigid.
Think about pulling the crown of your head up gently towards the sky,
Making you a little bit taller.
Once you're in that position,
We'll take three breaths.
There's no need to lengthen the breath.
They can be three natural breaths.
Now bring your awareness to your body and how that unpleasant energy is manifesting.
Are you feeling a need to move around and shift?
Where is the discomfort in your body?
Now we'll perform an assessment of where we're beginning from.
On a scale of one to 10,
With 10 being extremely uncomfortable body energy and need to get up and do things,
And a one being extremely uncomfortable fatigue,
A desire to lie down and sleep even,
And a five being an optimal level of energy,
Where are you right now on that scale of one to 10?
Now bring your awareness to your thoughts.
How is that unpleasant energy showing up?
Are you feeling a need to think things out as quickly as possible,
Or are you finding that your thoughts are distracted and jumping from thing to thing?
On a scale of one to 10,
With 10 being fast racing,
Anxious thoughts,
And a one being slow,
Vague thought,
And a five being an optimal thought speed,
Where are you right now on a scale of one to 10?
Ten being fast,
One being slow.
So we have those two numbers in mind,
And our goal is going to be to regulate ourselves closer to a five,
To that optimal energy level.
And to start,
We'll just take another three breaths,
Natural breaths,
No need to lengthen them or deepen them beyond what your body is asking for in this moment.
And once you're through those three breaths,
You're going to bring all of your presence to the soles of your feet.
Feel the sensation of your feet on the floor.
You might feel the texture of the floor or your sock or the inside of your shoe.
You may notice whether the skin is warm or cool against whatever you're touching.
All you're doing now is holding your awareness in the soles of your feet.
And now imagine that the soles of your feet are melting into the ground,
So we're softening and spreading that contact.
Think about releasing and relaxing and hold your presence there.
And now bring all of your presence to the backs of your thighs and your sit bones,
So wherever your body is in contact with the chair,
Hold your awareness there to whether that feels warm or cool,
What the texture is that you're noticing of your clothing.
Feel the support beneath you.
Now imagine that the backs of your legs and your sit bones are melting,
Softening into the chair.
The contact is relaxing and you're holding your presence there.
All of your presence in that support of the chair softening.
If at any point you find yourself dropping below a four in energy,
You can stand to mobilize energy through your system again,
Just long enough to return to that sense of balance.
We don't want to become too,
Too tired yet.
And now bring all of your presence to where your back is in contact with your chair or the wall.
Hold your awareness there to that gentle pressure of your muscles in your spine being supported behind you.
If at any point you notice your attention drifting away from that presence,
That's okay.
That's normal.
Just gently bring your awareness back to the contact point.
There's no judgment.
All of our presence is on our back and that support through our elongated spine.
And now imagine that your back is softening into the wall or into the chair.
That contact and presence is melting out and away.
Soften into that support behind you.
And lastly,
We'll bring our attention to our hands.
Wherever your hands are now is fine.
If they're touching each other,
If they're touching your lap or the arms of a chair,
Or if they're off to the side of you,
That's just fine.
Wherever they are,
You'll bring your presence to where they are making contact,
Where you feel that sensation of support or touch.
Notice what that feels like.
More and more cool with the texture you notice on your skin.
And just as we have before,
You'll now melt and soften that contact,
Relaxing into it.
We're thinking about melting out and away from each of those positions we're feeling contact in our hands.
Now hold your presence there.
And now take three natural breaths.
And gently when you're ready,
Open your eyes.
And now we reassess.
So on a scale of one to 10,
With 10 being extremely uncomfortable body energy,
A need to get it up and fidget and do things,
Difficulty sitting still,
And a one being extremely uncomfortable fatigue,
A want to lie down,
And a five being an optimal level of energy.
Where are you right now?
And again,
Bringing our awareness to our thoughts on a scale of one to 10,
With 10 being fast,
Anxious or racing thoughts,
And a one being vague thought that feels really slow and lethargic,
And a five being an optimal thought speed.
Where are you right now?
Our hope is that this exercise brought you closer to a five than when you started.
This has been an abrasion.
Have a wonderful day.
