Hi,
This is Orla,
And in this practice we'll invite a space of deep relaxation where we can simply rest,
Let go,
And refresh our energy.
And there's never any pressure to relax.
Sometimes we treat ourselves a little like a self-help project.
In this space,
We allow ourselves to be just as we are,
And we offer over and over the invitation to know that it's okay to let go,
That it is okay to rest.
So it's a very gentle space we create with our body.
So I invite you to take a moment to find a really comfortable position for your body,
Maybe taking a little more care than usual of how we position our legs,
Our arms and hands,
Sensing your spine,
Your hips,
Your head,
And your face.
Sensing where your body is in contact with the furniture,
The floor,
The earth,
Wherever you are.
Sensing the imprint of your body.
And on your next out breath,
You might see is it possible to increase the weight of your imprint so that you rest a little more heavily against the earth.
Really allowing yourself to be held in this moment.
And we'll gently sink our awareness down through our body,
Witnessing our body with such kindness,
Unconditional care.
So this isn't so much a space to judge or even to try to fix anything.
This is unconditional acceptance,
Taking time to understand how it feels to be you in this moment and simply to offer care.
So starting up at the crown of your head,
Aware of your hair resting in your scalp,
Your scalp resting on your skull,
Sensing your whole head,
Sensing your face with a very delicate awareness as it touches your face,
As though someone pulled a silk scarf gently across the skin of your face.
It's very delicate,
Light attention.
And sensing your neck and throat,
The top of your shoulders,
Your shoulder blades.
Sensing your two arms all the way down to your left hand and your right hand.
Sensing your upper chest and gently soaking down through your torso,
Aware of your heart,
Your precious heart,
Your lungs,
All your internal organs,
Soaking down past your belly button,
Deep into your lower belly and washing gently through your hips,
Into your thighs,
Your knees,
Your calves,
Your ankles,
Pooling your awareness into your right foot and your left foot,
Allowing yourself to breathe easily and naturally.
On each out-breath,
Whenever you notice an out-breath,
You can explore,
Is it possible to release a little bit more weight?
Is it possible to rest a little more deeply against the earth?
Drawing your full attention towards your right foot now,
Still aware of your whole foot,
But it's in contact with different textures or the air of the room.
Aware of the top of your foot,
The top of your toes,
And drawing back to the heel of your foot.
And then from the heel,
Gently drawing your awareness along the sole of your right foot,
As though you were mapping out this landscape.
Sensing the shape of your footprint,
Coming into your toe pads to finish your footprint off,
You can press or wiggle them to see if you're really there.
Sensing the living presence of your foot and allowing it to fill with a heavy,
Relaxed energy so that this weighted quality begins to saturate your foot,
Bringing a sense of ease,
Of letting go,
And allowing your awareness to discover where your left foot is.
So enfolding your left foot in your awareness,
Sensing the top of your foot,
The top of your toes,
Drawing back to the heel,
Your attention poised at your heel for a moment,
And then slowly drawing your awareness along the sole of your left foot,
Sensing the elegant curve of your arch,
Mapping out this landscape,
Coming into your toe pads so that you can complete your footprint,
And holding your two feet in your awareness.
They cross so many different environments during your day.
They speed up when you're feeling under pressure for time.
They balance and counterbalance with very small motions when the terrain is unstable,
Taking really good care of you.
Our feet do so much for us.
Moving through the day is so much easier because of our healthy feet.
So allowing your feet to fill with this heavy,
Relaxed energy,
Making this moment a gift for your two feet so that they can receive this easeful,
Weighted energy,
This invitation to know that it's okay to let go,
So that your left foot and your right foot can rest deeply for a moment.
And we invite this heavy,
Relaxed energy to begin to infuse gently through the body,
Coming into your ankles,
Furling around every nook and cranny,
Curling and unfolding,
Curling and unfolding,
Bringing this invitation to let go,
To receive.
And soaking into your calves,
Aware of the bones of your calves,
The muscle,
Soft tissue,
Connective tissue that enables so much flexibility,
The warm blood moving through nourishing everything,
The skin of your calves in contact with maybe different textures or the air,
So that you soak your awareness into your two calves,
Inviting them to fill with this heavy,
Relaxed energy,
Inviting them to know that this is a safe moment to let go,
To release their weight to the earth,
To allow themselves to be held.
And from your calves,
This energy can begin to curl around your knees,
Enfolding these joints,
Penetrating deeply to bring a sense of ease and release deep into the joints.
This heavy,
Relaxed energy,
Supporting your knees just as they are.
So whether they are craving a sense of warmth or coolness,
A sense of spaciousness or soothing,
Allowing your two knees to be offered just what they need.
And from your knees,
Finding your thigh bones,
Soaking into these longest bones of your body,
Following them all the way down to your feet,
Soaking into these longest bones of your body,
Following them all the way deep into your hips,
So that you can sense the length of your thighs,
Aware of the strong muscles,
Soft tissue,
The connective tissue that enables us to move and dance,
Run,
So much motion because of these muscles.
So filling our thighs with this heavy,
Relaxed energy so that it can completely saturate our thighs,
So that your two entire legs know that it's okay to let go.
On your next out breath,
Just sensing,
Is it possible to rest a little more deeply against the earth?
So your legs became just a tiny bit heavier.
And this heavy,
Relaxed energy can begin to soak into your pelvis,
So aware of this lowest part of our torso,
Your lower back,
Your lower belly,
Your pelvis,
Filling with this heavy,
Relaxed energy.
Filling with this heavy,
Relaxed energy.
And on your next in breath,
You might sense just a gentle infusion of spaciousness into your lower belly,
So that every organ has the space it needs to really thrive.
Allowing this heavy,
Relaxed energy to soak through our internal organs and move gently up our torso,
Your intestines,
Your pancreas and liver,
Your stomach,
Your heart,
Your stomach,
Your extraordinary lungs,
Your precious heart.
Sensing your spine from the very lowest part of your back,
Sensing it growing upwards,
This line of strong energy moving up your back and spreading outwards into your rib cage,
These bones that enfold our most vital organs,
Keeping them so safe.
Sensing your shoulder blades,
Top of your shoulders,
Your neck,
Maybe sensing the muscles that strap around your neck.
Often our shoulders and neck and muscles kind of learn to move together,
They tighten together and they can also release together.
Allowing this heavy,
Relaxed energy to soak deeply into your shoulder blades,
The top of your shoulders,
As though someone rested a hand there,
To begin pouring down your arms,
To gently infuse around your neck,
Sensing these strong muscles of your neck,
Allowing this easeful energy to soften and release,
All the way up,
Sensing into your jaw,
So that there can be a deep,
So that there can be a deep quality of softening and releasing in your jaw,
In your neck,
Your shoulders,
Your chest.
Everything can open,
Can release,
In order to receive.
And from the top of your shoulders,
You can allow yourself to follow this heavy,
Relaxed energy as it soaks down your arms,
Aware of your upper arms,
Your elbows,
Your forearms,
Your back,
Sensing these many bones,
These joints,
Muscles,
Soft tissue and connective tissue,
Sensing the warm circulation of blood constantly moving through,
And the skin of your arms,
As we soak fully into our arms with this heavy,
Relaxed energy,
Soaking into your wrists,
Aware of these fine bones in your wrists,
These little joints that can feel under pressure very easily,
Breathing into your wrists,
With a sense of spaciousness and ease,
No jobs to do,
Nothing to hold,
Soaking into the palms of your hands,
Soaking back to the back of your hands,
So that you can hold the whole center of your hands,
Soaking into your thumbs,
Segment by segment,
All the way to the tip,
Discovering where your knuckles are,
And from your knuckles,
Soaking into your fingers,
Segment,
And from your knuckles,
Soaking into your fingers,
Segment,
And from your knuckles,
Segment by segment,
All the way to the very tips of your fingers,
Your fingerprints,
Your fingernails,
And the very tops of your fingers,
So that your two hands can rest deeply in this moment,
This heavy,
Relaxed energy,
Inviting them to know that it's okay to let go,
It's okay to have nothing to do for a moment,
To allow ourselves to be a human being,
Not a human doing,
A human simply being,
And gently shifting your awareness,
Again,
To come to your chest,
And the area of your heart,
You might sense a pulse,
Or a beating,
Or an energy,
And you might sense none of those things,
That's okay,
You know that your heart is beating strongly and steadily for you,
Your heart has been beating for you,
Since before your lungs could breathe air,
It's been beating for you for such a long time,
So we can make a gift of this moment to our heart,
Enfolding it in our care,
Our boundless gratitude for everything that it has made possible,
Acknowledging the difficulties that our heart has met,
Has experienced,
Maybe difficult environments,
We've moved through different air that has been not so healthy for our heart,
We've been in different conversations,
Different moments,
Not so healthy for our heart,
Our heart has experienced many sorrows,
Many different flavours of pain,
Experienced heartbreak,
So with this invitation to rest and release,
We surround our heart with unconditional care,
With a sense of reverence for all that it has experienced,
And for its brightness,
Its kindness,
Its love,
Its hope,
Its creativity,
Its courage,
We are so grateful for our extraordinary heart,
And may we find ways to take really good care of our heart every day,
Our beloved heart,
And allowing your awareness to move again,
To gently move through your neck,
This precious area where our voice takes form,
May we speak lovingly,
May our words have clarity,
May our words deepen love and understanding for ourselves,
For others,
For this planet,
May our words bring support and ease,
May they bring joy and hope,
So filling your neck with this invitation to release,
Let go,
To allow this warm loving energy,
To bring a sense of deep relaxation through every cell of your throat and neck,
Then at the nape of your neck,
Allowing your awareness to move gently up the back of your head,
Where your hair resting in your scalp,
Resting on your skull,
Resting on your skull,
Knowing that your brain is resting inside,
Allowing this invitation to be offered to your whole head,
This heavy relaxed energy,
To infuse gently through bone,
Through bone,
Brain tissue,
Through muscle,
Through neurons,
That the very neurons receive this gentle invitation to know that it's okay to rest,
May they form a pathway to ease and rest that becomes very familiar to us,
Grateful to our brain for its ability to form habits,
May we shine a gentle light of awareness on our habits,
So that we can cultivate a sense of peace and calm,
The most wholesome,
The most beautiful habits,
And that we can gently untangle,
Gently dissolve our less wholesome habits,
This extraordinary brain of ours,
And then sensing the very top of your forehead,
Again washing your awareness gently across your face,
And then we'll focus for a moment simply on our forehead,
Aware of the top of your forehead,
All the way down to your eyebrows,
Can you sense the inside of your forehead,
The part that rests against your skull,
Can you allow this heavy relaxed energy to infiltrate your forehead,
To allow it to smooth and release,
To let go utterly,
No concentration required,
No calculations required,
No calculations required,
A moment of freedom for our forehead,
And then sensing your eyebrows,
Your precious eyes,
Your eyelids and eyelashes,
The tiny muscles all around your eyes,
That support the brightness of your smile,
Aware of your cheeks and ears,
Gently soaking your awareness into your jaw,
So that this heavy relaxed energy can infuse cell by cell,
If needs be,
If we find areas that are tight or held,
Allowing the slow infusion,
The softness,
This simple invitation to know that it's okay to let go,
And appreciating all our senses,
The kaleidoscope of colors that your eyes offer to you in every moment,
So beautiful,
So beautiful,
The nourishment of the sounds that your ears bring to your awareness,
Birdsong and laughter,
The voice of a loved one,
Waves rolling in along the seashore,
Wonderful music,
The sound of the ocean,
The sound of the waves,
Wonderful music,
Deep silence,
May we know how to nourish ourselves through our senses,
And expanding your awareness to fill your entire living presence,
With this heavy relaxed energy,
With this invitation to know that it's okay to let go,
And on any out-breath might explore,
Is there a tiny bit more weight that I can offer to the earth,
Allowing myself to be held in this moment,
Almost as though the earth pushed up slightly to hold you a little more completely,
Allowing yourself to be held,
Knowing that you are the earth,
You are a manifestation of this precious planet,
You are a manifestation of this precious planet,
And you have this planet's ability to release,
To refresh and renew,
To heal,
To grow afresh,
To flourish,
Allowing the vibrant life force of the earth to light up every cell in your body,
Such extraordinary energy,
Loving,
Healing,
Renewing,
Bright energy,
Flushing through every cell of your being,
And if there's any part of your body where you sense a tension or a holding or a numbness,
You can imagine that as being formed of ice,
And then consider ice to water,
Water,
Is it possible for a sense of fluidity where there was once solidity,
Water to vapor,
Is it possible for a sense of aeration where there was once liquid,
Just inviting this spaciousness into your body,
This vibrant,
Vital energy of the earth to fill every cell with bright energy that heals,
Restores,
Restores,
Refreshes,
Brings new possibilities,
So that as you breathe in,
You can open into newness,
And every out breath,
Just releasing anything that can be released,
It might take the form of a tension in a muscle,
Or a stale thought,
An old belief that we've held for too long,
An old fear that we can release now,
Breathing fresh possibility into every cell,
You can rest here for as long as you want,
May we always know the way home to our body,
May we know how to release tension every day,
So that we can refresh and renew ourselves,
Opening ourselves to healing,
To bright joy,
To a deep sense of connection,
Thank you so much for practicing together,
Take good care of your precious heart,
