Switch Off

The following guided practice is to help you disconnect from the overflow of everyday life.

To help you release any negative stress and anxiety and to uncover the calmness within.

If listened to at night it may also help you to get to sleep.

Find a comfortable supportive chair and if you have a blanket or a jumper to hand place it over your knees for extra warmth.

Allow your hands to relax,

Palms upwards in your lap and if it feels comfortable let your thumbs make a gentle connection with your index finger,

Your middle finger or with both.

Now take a deep breath in through the nose feeling the chest rise and expand.

Let it go focusing on the chest falling.

Deep inhale and this time through the mouth slowly release and allow your eyes to close.

Repeat and notice if the breath cycle feels more intense without visual distraction.

Now focusing on the sound of your breath from the outside in,

The gentle sigh that accompanies the cool intake at the nose.

Pause at the pinnacle and then hear the release pausing again at the end,

The nadir.

Inhale with your attention firmly on the sound like a wave gaining momentum.

And then crashing into the shore as you let go.

Not striving to achieve a special state but with each part of the body and mind allowing things to be as we find them.

Let go of the need to assess,

To judge and when the mind drifts away as it will just invite it back.

Don't give yourself a hard time.

Now bringing your attention to the parts of the body supported by the chair.

Awareness of the shoulders,

The shoulder blades gently held by the backrest.

Tracing your focus from the top of the spine to sensations across the middle of the back.

Zigzagging to each side of your body,

Working your way downwards to the lower back.

Imprinting on the back of the chair and then the hips and pelvis supported by the seat.

Have you been distracted yet?

Do the thoughts that brought you here want to carry you away at any point when you feel your mind drifting to plans,

To worries,

Challenges,

Decisions.

Anything that escorts you away from this seat this moment in time.

Then make the next inhale a little deeper and bring your attention to the heart center.

Imagine you are guiding the breath directly into the heart through an opening in the chest.

Picture the color green being ignited and lit up by the inhale and the color red appearing when you exhale.

Breathing in green,

Breathing out red.

Green on the rise,

Red on the outward flow.

Now coming back to your contact with the chair,

Feeling yourself lower into the seat,

Sinking a little deeper with each out breath.

Notice and label the sensations in your hips,

Your pelvis,

The upper legs.

The upper legs.

Be aware if there is a difference in the temperature and feelings in the front and the backs of the legs.

Pulsing,

Tingling,

Vibrating,

Numbness.

Awareness of the tops of the legs to the knee.

Sensations that are skin deep and now from muscle to bone.

No right or wrong way to feel.

Now breathing into the knees and exhaling from the back of the calves into the kneecaps,

Out of the calf muscles.

Now bringing full awareness to the feet from the heel of the sole to the tops of the toes.

Tracing a footprint in the ground and becoming aware of the sensations at the side of the feet and at the tips of each toe.

Noticing feelings along the inner edge of the feet.

Now the whole of the feet.

Now on each inhale,

Imagining you're drawing breath from the ground beneath your feet.

Drawing up to the knees and then reversing on the exhale.

Sending the breath back down out of your feet to the ground below,

Underground.

Hearing each breath in turn.

Now picture yourself as if sitting in front of a mirror.

Watching the gentle movement of the body and flow with your inhale and exhale.

Noticing your shoulders rise and fall,

The belly inflate and deflate,

The nostrils flare and release.

The whole body expand and contract.

Now seeing yourself from the perspective of a butterfly flying above your head.

Noticing your own stillness,

Your place within the room,

The space around you.

And now try to see yourself from behind your face.

Seeing your own eyes looking out,

Hearing,

Smelling,

Tasting.

Try to feel where your face ends and the room begins.

Can you move your gaze from the outwards vision to the seer who is doing the seeing,

To the hearer listening to sounds,

To who or what is feeling all the sensations that you've observed.

And now just trying to wait for the next thought as if sitting on the edge of the bluest pool waiting to dive in.

What will that thought be?

Where will it come from?

Will it be welcomed or will it be rejected?

And when that thought arrives just watch it without judgment,

Without inquiry.

Observe the thought dispassionately.

Notice how it ebbs and flows,

Drifting across your horizon like a passing ship.

At some point it becomes the center of focus and then moves into the shadows.

All thoughts created and melted into awareness.

One thought replaced by the next.

Intense in full frame and then defocused,

Disintegrating.

Returning to the heart center now.

Green in,

Red out.

Inhaling openness,

Exhaling closure.

Breathing in light,

Releasing darkness.

Inviting in joy,

Releasing resistance.

Opening to positivity,

Pushing away the negative lens.

Mind drifting,

Mind returning.

And now notice where you're feeling the breath most intensely right now.

Is it in the nose or the chest,

The belly or the throat?

Let the butterfly rest in that place and just observe the cycle of breath.

The inhale,

The moment of return,

The pause,

The interrupting thought,

Coming back each time to the breath,

The moment before thought,

The sound of the breath,

Sinking.

Knowing that at any time,

Even when the mind is traveling and the body is racing,

This is the one constant you can return to.

The flow of your breath.

Now let the butterfly fly away with your focus.

Follow its path and allow it to move to wherever your attention is drawn.

Hearing the breath,

Sensing the breath,

Deeper.

Now you can choose to keep your eyes closed and continue this inner journey as a pathway to sleep or gently sense the shape of the chair,

Your connection to your support.

In a moment,

We'll take a long inhale through the nose.

We'll hold the breath and as we release through the mouth,

We'll slowly open the eyes.

So breathing in now of four,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold.

And then as if blowing out a candle,

Exhale.

Inhaling through the nose,

Hold.

Blowing it away and now gently open your eyes.