Welcome to your winter spell,
A practice of rest,
Of deep listening and inward turning.
This is our spell of stillness,
And with stillness in mind our whole practice today will be laying down upon the earth,
So you can lay down upon your bed,
Upon the earth,
Upon any soft space and allow the eyes to gently close,
And let the body become heavy,
Held by the earth,
Our invocation for winter,
Stillness supports me,
Quiet nourishes me,
Stillness supports me,
Quiet nourishes me,
Place a hand upon your heart and one upon your belly and feel the rise and fall,
Feel the rhythm under the hands,
Feel the warmth and weight of the hands upon the rhythm of the breath,
Gently bending the knees to pop the soles of the feet upon the earth,
Knees shining skywards we'll let the knees fall over to the right and the gaze over to the left as we settle into a supine twist the hands may stay upon the body or you can open them wide,
Wherever they wish to land we'll journey to the other side as we take the knees over to the left,
Let them fall,
And the gaze over to the right supine twist,
Passive twist,
Once we settle in,
All we need to do is breathe as we draw the knees and gaze back up towards the sky,
Hug both knees in towards your heart in a little tuck we'll pick a direction and we'll take some circles with the knees as if we're drawing a circle on the ceiling a few circles one way,
And a few circles the other way and then as we hug the knees back towards the heart,
Let's take both hands around just your right knee or right shin and send the left leg long along the earth,
Hugging the right knee to heart and then extending the right leg so the sole shines skywards the hands can come round the back of the thigh or higher up towards ankle or toes if you like perhaps enjoy giving the toes a little wiggle and the feet a little circle coming out the way we came in,
We will hug the right knee back towards the heart and then swap over so we'll send the right leg long,
We'll hug the left knee in,
We'll give it a squeeze and then we'll extend the leg with any circles or wiggles that you like hands can be at the back of the thigh or higher up towards the ankle or foot coming out the way we came in,
Let's draw the left knee back towards the heart and the right knee will come in again as well as we come into a tuck position once more here we will draw into happy baby,
Take a hand upon each knee and we'll begin just by drawing the knees wide and down as if you're trying to tuck them in towards your armpits and this may already feel enough,
You can stay here with that lovely wideness of hip or we can shine the soles of the feet skywards and take hold of the outside edges of the feet this is happy baby we can breathe here in stillness or you can take a gentle rock side to side like a gently rocking boat and from here as we release our feet for one last time we'll hug both knees in towards our heart into our little tuck and if it's comfortable we're going to draw the forehead in to meet the knees as if we were trying to curl into the smallest possible shape and then from our seat we'll expand long legs,
Long along the ground,
Arms long overhead and we'll just have a lovely long line stretch with any wiggle or shimmy that you like and when you feel ready we'll bring the arms back either alongside the body or resting once more upon heart and belly as we come to our closing meditation take as long as you need to find your comfortable place in stillness stillness settling as softly as snow as if you have been gently placed into the quiet heart of winter just this moment just this breath silence around you there will be noises and sounds from the world but we connect to a deeper silence beneath them within us in our mind's eye we may see a vast winter landscape soft snow settled stillness presence as we settle our inner world like this winter landscape quiet expansive resting breathing simply being as we take our time to come back to the day back to the world you can stretch or wiggle or flex as you wish if you like we can gently draw to an easy seat knowing that as we move into our day we are not leaving this sense of stillness behind but carrying it with us and as our journey comes to its close we might say to ourself out loud or in our mind's eye I am held by stillness I am held by stillness we may hold stillness within our hearts and we may be held ourselves by stillness this is the beauty and magic of winter to bring our journey to a close today we'll take a lovely deep inhale and reach the arms high to sky and then bringing the palms together we'll exhale the hands to the heart center you may open the eyes if they're closed as I welcome you back to the day and to the beautiful season of winter and the magic we may find in its quiet moments thank you for joining me farewell and namaste you
