Welcome to this guided shavasana practice.
You can do this meditation also while sitting but the ideal suggestion here is to lay down.
And when you lay down you want to make sure that you are not too warm and not too cold.
As well as you want to lay your body down mindfully,
Meaning don't be in a position that gives you pain or strong discomfort.
A bit of discomfort is part of meditation.
But take a moment to get comfortable and also straight.
So you can do that by looking over your body as you lay down and seeing if you are in one line.
Another important and also pleasant part of laying down properly is to extend your lower back so that it lays more flat on the floor.
A simple way to do that is to,
As you lay on the floor,
To put your feet on the floor.
So bending your legs with your feet on the floor and then lifting up your butt.
And then with your hands kind of grab your butt and move it away from your lower back in the direction of your heels.
And then while keeping that extension then slowly bring your lower back down again.
And then you'll find that your lower back is extended and laying more flat on the floor.
Another pleasant thing to do is to do a similar thing but now with your elbows on the floor with your hands pointing towards the ceiling.
And then pressing down with your upper arms on the floor.
And then you notice that your upper back lifts a bit off of the floor.
And then you can shift your shoulder blades a bit more towards your hips,
So away from your head.
And this will open up your chest a bit more.
Those are the major adjustments.
And then find any minor adjustments you can make to make it more comfortable.
And find a balance so that you don't start fidgeting without end.
You just find a comfortable position and then you let your body go.
So once you've done that allow yourself to settle.
So there's always this balance again of finding a healthy comfortable position and then letting it go.
Okay,
So now we're letting any discomfort that remains be part of the practice of accepting what is.
Allow the steady pull of gravity to relax your body.
Relax your body by accepting gravity's pull.
Not resisting gravity.
Gravity.
It can be quite pleasant to notice those little muscles or maybe big muscles.
Once you become aware of tension,
You become aware of a place where you can let go.
So let's take a moment to do that with some intentionality.
This is not a body scan but you're just kind of surveying all that is touching the floor and let go what you notice is able to let go.
Let's imagine if just for the duration of this meditation that there's no meaningful distinction to be made between what we call the body and the mind.
So that relaxing the body is relaxing the mind.
There's no distinction between the two.
Distinctions are creations of the mind.
And they are welcome but right now we're not taking them too seriously.
And I want to invite you to let the relaxation happen beyond the surface area of your body.
A good place to do this is at least the head.
So go from the outside in.
See if you can intentionally relax the muscles and the tissues of your face.
We tend to hold a bit more tension in the head and the face.
So notice the skin around your eyes.
Also the cheeks and the mouth area.
Just feel that you can allow that to become soft.
Can you also feel your ears,
The skin,
The area around your ears and let that part of your body melt.
And then we're going a bit deeper.
Can you also,
Maybe not exactly feel,
But sense your brain.
And allow your brain to rest more in the back of your skull,
Closest to the ground.
Don't overthink it.
Just will it to release.
Maybe rather than will,
Again allow.
Because it's actually the opposite of willfulness that we're going for here.
It's a letting go.
And do the same with your eyes,
Your eyeballs.
Let them fall slightly away from your eyelids.
If you think that's impossible,
Ignore that thought.
Just do it.
Let your eyeballs go.
Let them really rest.
And then do the same with your body as a whole.
We're not going to do a body scan in this meditation,
But just feel your entire body.
And then especially on the exhalation,
Just let it drop to whatever degree is available down to the floor.
And just breathe there for a few cycles.
And now keeping true to our intention to not make any distinction between the body and the mind,
I want you to extend the relaxation again from your body to include the mind.
And that means if there are any thoughts,
Worries,
Maybe recurring themes,
We can relax them by on the one hand completely allowing them.
We're not fighting thoughts.
We're not wanting thoughts or problems not to be there or something.
But whatever is there,
Just do not react at all to it.
It's not wrong.
It's not right.
It's not something we have to do anything about.
We're just ignoring it.
And we're going to ignore it by paying attention instead to the feelings and sensations on and in and of the body.
So being aware of the sensations and feelings,
We're not interpreting them.
We're not analyzing our feelings.
If analysis happens,
That is fine.
That's a part of what we ignore.
But we're just sensing what we sense with our senses.
That's all.
And I want to give you one further suggestion.
As you're feeling whatever you can feel,
It could be the air that moves in and out through your nostrils or any sensation,
Pain,
Itch,
Heat,
Trembling.
The way I invite you to pay attention to it is to watch it as it arises.
As it persists.
As it changes and fades away.
So all these,
Let's say,
Physical phenomena,
Physical sensations,
They come and they go and they change while they're there.
So that's the invitation for a few minutes here.
Ignoring thoughts.
Investigating feelings without interpreting them.
And investigation means we're just watching them as birds that are flying through the sky of our awareness.
Try doing this while laying absolutely still and relaxed.
And I'll give you now a few minutes of silence to do that.
Very good.
And then without rushing,
I slowly invite you to come out of this practice.
So what you've been practicing here is actually the emptiness,
Seeing the emptiness of feelings and sensations and also equanimity by not reacting.
So to come out of Shavasana,
Do it in your own time.
But a good way to do it is to first slowly open your eyes on an inhalation.
Don't look around,
Just have a soft gentle gaze.
And then you can bend your legs and roll your knees up slightly and then roll onto your right side.
That is the best way for your heart to come out of Shavasana.
And then when you feel ready,
You gently roll up,
Pushing your arm into the floor to do so and let your head be the last thing to straighten.
And then I thank you for practicing with me and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.
Thank you.
