So just coming into a really comfortable position of rest,
Relaxation,
And just inviting your body to settle down,
To become limp,
To soften.
As if your body can just start to sink into,
Well it depends where you're lying and you're listening to this afterwards,
At another time you might be in a chair,
On the sofa,
On your bed.
Just inviting the weight of your body to sink and settle down.
Just notice that changing pattern of touch and pressure between your body,
The mat,
The cushions,
Whatever it is that you're in contact with.
And especially down in towards the earth,
That sense of feeling held.
And so inviting in a sense of welcome and just arriving,
Allowing the whole body to relax,
The weight of the feet,
The weight of your legs,
Your hips,
Your back,
The shoulders,
Your arms,
The weight of your head,
Just allowing the full weight of the body to soften.
And at any point if you feel a little fidgety or you want to change your position,
You can move as you need with an intention just to come back into this soft and relaxed and lovely place of calm and stillness.
So bringing awareness to your breath and just inviting,
Noticing,
Just notice how the breath flows comfortably in and out,
No real effort.
Just inviting,
That noticing in,
The breath flowing.
And the breath might be deep or light,
Whatever comes naturally and comfortably just now.
So we can imagine that the breath is flowing in and out of the navel,
In and out of the tummy button.
And as the breath comes in,
Maybe the belly's expanding a little bit.
And as the breath flows out,
I'm not quite sure if it's flowing out through the tummy button or the breath is just flowing down into the earth.
I don't know.
So just exploring that,
How does it feel or make sense in your body?
And then for some people,
They might prefer to breathe up and down the spine so that on the inhale,
The awareness is flowing all the way up the spine and on the exhale,
Flowing all the way down.
And it might be really nice just to imagine that as you breathe out,
The breath and the awareness can flow all the way down,
All the way down the spine,
All the way down the legs and out through your toes.
So with every breath out,
The body's relaxing that little bit more,
Letting go of the weight of the head,
The neck and the shoulders,
The arms becoming heavy,
The ribs,
The spine,
The back,
The belly,
The hips,
Into the legs,
Into the feet.
And in this space of feeling relaxed and very comfortable,
We're going to take the awareness just a little trip just to give the mind something to do so the body can get on with relaxing and renewing and resting and regenerating.
And so bringing the awareness into the eyebrow center,
Becoming aware of the eyebrow center,
And then from there down in between the collarbones.
Coming out now into each shoulder awareness,
Just in the center of each shoulder,
And then in the crook of each elbow,
In the wrists,
In the palms,
In the tips of your thumbs,
Your index fingers,
Your middle fingers,
Your ring fingers and your little fingers.
Now taking the awareness back into the wrists,
The elbows,
The shoulders,
Back into that space in between the collarbones,
Coming down the body into the chest,
The center of the chest,
Awareness in the tip of the left breast,
In the tip of the right,
Coming back into the center of the chest.
Bringing the awareness down the body into the navel,
Down again into the pelvis,
And in the very center of the pelvis,
Just behind the pubic bone,
And into each hip,
The left hip,
The right hip,
Awareness,
Relaxation flowing down now into the knees,
The left knee,
And the right knee.
Into your ankles,
Left and right,
Into the arches of the feet,
And into the big toes,
The second toes,
The third toes,
The fourth,
And the fifth toes.
This are little points of awareness in your toes,
From the fingertips to your toes,
From the eyebrow center to your toes,
From your shoulders to your toes.
Bringing the awareness back up now into the insteps,
Into the ankles,
Into your knees,
Into your hips,
Into the center of the pelvis,
Into your navel,
Into the center of the chest,
Into the space in between the collarbones,
And into the eyebrow center.
Imagine that point just there,
Very light,
Almost as light as a feather on the eyebrow center.
You can imagine the breath flowing from there,
Or maybe the center of the head,
Something like that.
We're going to form some triangles with our awareness as we breathe.
Breathing all the way down the body,
Down both legs,
Into the tips of the toes,
And all the way back up to the apex.
It could be in the center of the head or in the eyebrow center,
Whatever feels the right place,
And then you're breathing all the way down and all the way back up.
Each breath lulling the body into a more relaxed,
Languid place.
Then the next time that the awareness is up,
At the eyebrow center or in the center of your head,
You're just going to pause.
On the next breath out,
Just bring the awareness all the way down into your ankles,
And from your ankles all the way back up.
Just following the ebb and flow of the breath,
Breathing the body into a more restful place.
The next time the awareness is back up in the head,
You're just going to take the awareness all the way down into your knees,
And then all the way back up into the eyebrow center,
The center of the head,
Or wherever feels the right place for you.
The next time the awareness is back up in the head,
We're just going to pause,
And then bring the awareness all the way down the spine into the pelvis,
All the way back up,
All the way down on the breath out,
And all the way back up on the breath in.
As if each breath is gently soothing the body,
Bathing the body in rest and relaxation.
The next time the awareness is back up in the head,
Just pausing,
And then breathing all the way down to the navel,
Your tummy button and back up.
And the breath may be quite light now.
You might be noticing it's almost no breath at all and just feeling quite light and quite heavy and quite soft.
And then bringing the awareness back up.
The next time,
Just breathing down into the chest and back,
Down into the center of the chest,
Back up into the eyebrow center or the center of your head,
Whatever feels like the right place.
And then very light now.
Next time the awareness is up in the center of the head,
You're just going to breathe down to that soft space in between your collarbones and back up,
Very short space.
Soft face,
Soft jaw,
Allowing the full weight of the head to relax,
Letting go of holding in the neck,
The shoulders.
And then bringing the awareness up into the center of the head and just for the last few breaths,
Just breathing between the center of the head and the base of your nostrils.
Just a little triangle from there.
And then just bringing the awareness back up into the eyebrow center and from there up into the crown of the head.
Just almost as if you're above your own body and you're just aware of the whole body lying on the floor or wherever it is that you're lying right now.
And at the same time becoming aware of the shape of the body lying down where it feels heavy,
Where you can feel touch and pressure,
The different patterns of sensation,
Maybe a dense warmth or a warm vibration or buzzing or tingling.
And then starting to breathe a little deeper,
Starting to bring yourself to a more awake state.
So we could just wiggle toes,
Wiggle fingers,
Maybe even run the tongue around the teeth,
Whatever feels like a comfy way just to bring yourself into a more awake and alert and present state.
And then what can be quite nice is if you're lying on your back,
You can just take the arms all the way overhead,
Stretch the whole body out,
Making the body deliciously long.
Just when you're ready,
No rush.
And then it might be quite nice to hug the knees and rock from side to side.
The eye mask,
You just take your time taking it off and letting the light slowly back in,
Maybe lift the eye mask a little bit so that you can get a sense of the light behind closed eyes.
And so just in your own time,
Hugging the knees,
Rocking from side to side,
Nice and easy.
This practice of deep relaxation inspired by just simply the breath is now complete.
This practice is now over.
Thank you for listening.
