Resting Back (With No Breath Awareness Prompts)

As we start,

The first thing that we notice usually as we're getting settled is what's happening in our body.

There are all the sense perceptions of the body.

The feeling of connection with our clothes,

With the floor,

The bed,

The chair,

Whatever it is.

So a big part of resting is being embodied,

Being in our body,

Not so much in the thoughts in our mind.

So let's start with that simple noticing,

What's happening in my body.

Generally,

We notice that there are some tight spots,

Or even if they're not tight,

We notice it's possible to relax them.

So we could soften things a bit as we're settling in.

We generally have a lot of outward-directed energy.

There's a lot of momentum going forward.

With this practice,

Let's keep coming back.

A lot of that forward momentum is through the mind.

A lot of that forward momentum is through the mind.

Our thoughts go into the future.

We are anxious about things.

We wonder how things are gonna turn out.

There's also the momentum in our body.

We walk forward generally,

Don't generally walk backwards.

We're going somewhere ahead of us.

We're looking at things ahead of us,

In front of us.

Our words come out into the air in front of us.

There's a lot of forward momentum during the activities in our lives.

When we cook,

We cook with our hands in front of us,

Not behind our back.

So our whole system is set up for this forward momentum.

And when we're resting,

It's a chance for that to come to a stillness.

Bring your attention into the whole back of your body for a moment.

And at a glance,

Notice what it feels like through the back of your body.

There's the sense perception of our body resting and connected with things.

If you're lying down,

You're gonna feel that through the whole back of your body.

The back of the head,

Neck and shoulders,

Lower back and down through the legs,

The back of the legs,

The heels,

Back of your arms,

Back of your hands.

And then notice the sensations along the front of your body.

Notice your forehead and eyes,

The whole of your face,

Your mouth,

Your chin,

Through your neck,

Down through your chest,

Stomach,

Front of your legs,

Neck,

Front of your legs,

Your toes,

Front of your hands,

Your arms.

And then bring your attention through the center of your body.

Being aware of the front and the back,

It should come down from the top of your head into the middle area behind the forehead,

Where your brain is,

And to the airy spaces of the nose and mouth,

Throat,

Through the neck,

Down into the chest,

The heart center,

That whole area that's protected by the rib cage,

Through the stomach area,

The navel center,

Lower belly,

The pelvic floor,

Through your hip joints,

Down through the big bones in the legs,

Down into the feet,

The soles of your feet,

And from your shoulders down through your arms and hands.

So we're aware again of our whole entire body,

Head to toes.

And notice if there's anything that's troubling you or that's preventing you from deeply resting.

Might be a physical sensation,

Some kind of energy or thoughts.

And then whatever that is,

If it's something physical,

We could maybe soften a bit around it,

Put our attention there for a moment.

It might be thoughts.

You could ask the mind to stop going forward for about 15 minutes.

That we'll be happy to entertain all of the future thinking after we're finished.

And for now,

What we wanna do is stay really focused in the present moment.

And we're allowing that forward momentum to come to a rest,

Including the thoughts.

And then bring your attention to your forehead and eyebrows.

Let all of those subtle muscles of the forehead and the eyebrows soften a bit as you pay attention.

You could move your eyebrows up and let them settle if you want.

Notice the energy or the sensation there.

And then let your attention start to go towards the back.

So come through the forehead.

The muscles and the eyebrows are right in front of the forehead.

So come back just a little bit.

So you're aware of the big bone of the forehead.

And then coming back a little bit more on the sides,

There's the temples.

Inside there's the front of our brain.

And let your mind,

Your attention drift back into the midbrain area.

The top of your head,

The sides of your head.

To the back of the brain,

Near the skull at the back.

Noticing the bones and then the skin and the hair and the muscle at the back of your head.

And let's settle in here for a moment.

Let your attention rest from the back of your head.

And then bring your attention to the front of the face again.

Notice the forehead and the eyebrows.

And this time we'll include the eyes,

Nose,

The cheekbones,

The mouth,

The chin,

The whole of the front of your face.

And then the tip of your nose.

Often some tightness has come back into the forehead and eyebrows.

As we pay attention to that,

That might soften.

And from the whole of the face,

Let your attention drift towards the back.

And then through the bones of the face,

The lips and the corners of your mouth,

Tip of your tongue,

Behind the eyes.

Moving our attention to the back,

Past the ears,

The ear canals,

The back of the tongue,

The space of the throat.

The back of the head again.

We're not really pulling our attention back.

It's more like we're allowing it to drift to the back.

And then let us settle here for a moment.

Notice the back of your head,

The back of your ears,

The very back of your head where it starts to come into the neck bones.

Notice the area behind your eyes.

Let yourself observe from there for a moment.

Use that as an anchor.

Keep your attention really focused behind your eyes through the whole back of your head.

And then bring your attention to the front of your face again,

Down through the front of your throat,

Front of your neck.

Relax through the whole of your vocal cords,

The muscles on the side of your neck,

The back of your neck.

Notice any sensations behind your neck.

There's that natural curve in the neck.

There might be air behind there.

There might be a pillow or something,

Your hair.

Let all of the muscles in the neck and the throat be at rest.

Be aware of the whole front of your head and neck and let your attention drift to the back.

And then notice what's happening again in the neck and the shoulders now through the front of your arms,

Your front of your shoulders,

Your hands.

And just let that settle back.

Let your attention come from the front of your hands or the top of your hands to the back of your hands.

Feel more the weight of your arms and hands on the floor or behind you,

However you're situated.

Let your attention drift to the back.

There's nothing that the hands have to do right now.

And notice the front of your shoulders.

The collarbones,

Very top part of your chest and shoulders.

And then bring your attention from the front of the shoulders to the back of the shoulders.

The back of the neck,

Top of the back.

And bring your attention to the back of the shoulders.

There may have been things in the past that caused some kind of contraction through the back.

And just as we're not moving out into the future,

We're not bringing the past either.

See if you could allow yourself to notice that area kind of fresh.

If there's anything that's getting in the way of completely relaxing the shoulders,

Take a look at that,

See if that could soften.

And then bring your attention back to the face,

Your throat and down into the collarbones,

To the whole front of your chest.

There's that layer of muscle over the rib cage.

There's the rib bones,

The little muscles between the ribs.

When we get into that area that's protected by the rib cage,

We're getting into the heart and the lungs.

Coming further back,

We're getting into the spine,

Muscles and ligaments that attach to the spine.

The rib cage at the back,

Muscles that cover the ribs.

We remain aware of the whole of the chest and our attention,

Our viewpoint is from behind.

Really noticing all the muscles in the upper back,

The mid back.

Notice your shoulders and shoulder blades,

Let them settle.

We're noticing the muscles in the back,

We're noticing,

We're not even asking the body to do a particular thing.

We're cultivating relaxation through our attention.

And we're also simply resting,

We're directing our attention to certain things in certain places and resting it there.

Bring your attention back to the front again,

To the face,

Your mouth and throat,

Down through the chest and the rib cage.

And settle your attention on your stomach area.

Just below the rib cage,

Down to the navel center,

To the lower belly.

When we bring our attention back,

Let it settle to the back.

You might notice sensations from our digestive system or something.

Other kind of energy.

Just keep moving our attention back,

Letting it drift to the back.

Noticing the spine,

The powerful muscles in the lower back.

The area behind the hips.

We keep our attention in the back of the body,

Even as we're noticing what's happening in the front.

If your eyes were situated in your lower back,

What would they be observing?

And then include your legs,

Starting at the front,

At the top,

The large muscles of the quadriceps of the upper legs,

The boniness of the knee and the shins,

The top of your feet,

Your toes.

And then let your attention drift towards the back,

Coming through the bones,

The muscles at the back of the legs.

Noticing how that feels to let your legs rest.

There's actually nothing we need to do in our legs right now.

And then notice your toes,

The tips of the toes,

The base of your toes,

The top of your foot,

The soles of your foot,

Down into the heels.

And bring your attention once again to your whole entire body,

Through the back,

From the back of your head,

The back of your ears,

The back of your neck,

Back of your arms,

Back of your shoulders,

Through the back of the muscles of the upper back,

Through the lower back and the area behind the hips,

Back of the legs,

The feet.

Notice the whole of your back.

We're aware of the front as well,

But it's so we're looking at it from the back,

Letting ourselves rest in the back.

And before we finish the practice,

Notice what it feels like to bring your attention to a rest,

To let yourself rest.

Let yourself rest back instead of resting forward or being active going forward.

We notice the whole front of our body,

And then we can let our attention drift towards the back.

Use that as an anchor.

And then take your time as you're coming out of the practice.

Notice what it feels like to open your eyes and have all of that color come in.

Notice how our attention starts to move forward into the day.

And then set your intention about maybe touching back into this a few times today.