Welcome to the daily insight and this special practice.
My name is Stephanie Nash and in this practice,
We will find a resting place for body and mind that helps rewire your nervous system to promote more ease in your daily life.
So with your body in a comfortable position,
Allow your spine to lengthen,
Stretching upwards in a way that feels good and allowing the head to balance easily and lightly on top of the spine.
Now bring your awareness to your body,
Noticing the sensations that you feel in this moment.
You will probably feel touch sensations,
Body functioning sensations,
Maybe emotional sensations.
Now,
We are going to tune into a very specific flavor of sensation,
The sensations of release,
Ease,
Letting go or relaxation in the body.
And the most tangible way of feeling sensations of release is to take a big breath in and a big pleasurable sigh out.
Let's try that now.
Did you feel something let go,
Maybe in the torso,
Maybe somewhere else?
What did that feel like?
Can you still feel it?
Now if you have any tension in the body,
See if you can let it go on the next big breath out,
Whether it's releasing your neck,
Dropping your shoulders,
Dropping your jaw,
Letting the face be soft,
Letting the belly be soft.
And even if you don't feel tension,
See if you can release something.
Take a big pleasurable breath in and let it go on the sigh out.
Were you able to let go of something?
What did that feel like?
So you can tune into flavors of release that are naturally present,
Like on the breath out,
Or flavors of release that come from deliberately inviting something,
A place of tension perhaps,
To let go.
And these flavors of release may begin as a quite tangible sensation,
But may be followed by a subtle wave of release that ripples out and softens the whole body on the breath out.
So take another nice big pleasurable breath in and a big luxuriant sigh out and just feel the sensations of release in your body,
Wherever they are,
No matter how subtle.
So now,
Breathing normally or taking a deep breath whenever you want,
Continue to allow your awareness to notice and soak into any sensations of release,
Ease,
Or letting go in the body,
Whether you're deliberately cultivating it or it's happening naturally,
Like on the breath out.
And saying the label release,
Either say it out loud or to yourself in a regular rhythm,
Strengthen your focus and remind you to soak your awareness into really feeling these subtle but significant sensations of release in the body.
Release.
Release.
Release.
Good.
Now,
Allow that process of release in the body to continue on its own.
The body will naturally want to do that.
It feels good.
And we'll come back to it.
But for now,
Move your attention to your visual experience with your eyes closed.
Here you may see images or flickers of images from the thought process.
You may see geometric patterns.
For now,
If any of that is present,
Look through or around it to what you physically see with the eyes closed,
Which for most people will be blobs or patches of lighter and darker areas.
And we will want to ignore color.
And just notice whatever you see,
Like a black and white film on a gray scale.
Just noticing lightness and darkness.
That's a simplest form of visual experience,
Thus quite soothing.
And these lighter and darker areas or patches may move slowly like a lava lamp,
Maybe spreading or collapsing with a kind of fluidity.
Or maybe the texture of the whole visual field is sparkly,
Twinkly,
Or like little pixels.
Or maybe it's all quite still.
It doesn't matter.
Just notice what you see.
And allow your awareness to just hang out,
To park in this blank field of lighter and darker areas.
And if there is movement,
Whether blobs or fluidly moving or images or flickering in and out,
Just let it be movement happening without meaning.
And that is intrinsically pleasant in why we enjoy watching fires or stars or the ocean.
Just let it be like a visual massage.
And if there's no movement and it's just stillness,
Let that stabilize consciousness.
Just park in that and it can become a kind of ultimate rest.
So it's all good.
So keep your awareness in this blank field,
Whether at one small point or holding a whole larger area.
And you have the option to use a label to help you stay focused here.
You can use the label blank,
Blank,
Blank.
Good.
This is a resting place for the mind that tends to unplug verbal thinking.
So now for the last few moments,
You can stay parked in blank.
You can go back to noticing release in the body.
Or you can move gently back and forth between blank and release.
Maybe a couple of labels in one and a label or two in the other.
Whatever feels good for you.
Good.
Notice if you feel more relaxed and if the mind is more settled.
Blank and release are available to you in any moment of the day,
Even if just for a few restorative moments.
And now I invite you to allow any experience you may have of release,
Relaxation,
Or ease to continue after the end of this meditation to become part of the fabric of your moment to moment experience.
