Sense Of Being Alive

So as you settle into yourself,

Starting to notice the room around you.

Any sounds.

Opening your ears.

Noticing the air on your skin.

The surfaces beneath your body.

Recognizing that everything is perfect in this moment.

There's nothing better,

Nothing more perfect than where we are here.

No need to shut out the world or have a perfectly quiet space.

Welcoming and embracing the sounds and smells and feelings around us.

Feeling truly alive in your space.

And beginning to invite in that theme of aliveness.

What is aliveness?

One of my teachers,

John Klein,

Who I never had the privilege to be with in space or time,

But really benefit from his teachings.

John Klein said,

Because we only know ourselves in activity,

We take the silent moment for an absence,

An absence of activity.

Then,

Because we do not know the silence behind activity,

When we follow the inner need to be still or to meditate,

We get stuck on the level of the mind as we try not to think,

Try to empty the mind of objectives in an effort to create silence.

But this absence of activity is also an object.

Let me repeat part of that.

Because we do not know the silence behind activity,

We get stuck,

But this absence of activity is also an object.

So as we contemplate together,

Experience together,

What is aliveness?

I invite you to consider,

Is it presence?

Is it absence?

Is it silence or activity?

Let us take some time to get to know that silence behind the activity.

And so I invite you to welcome in an intention for your time with us,

To consider what brought you here today,

To set an intention for yourself,

Maybe phrased in the present moment.

I am present with myself.

I am noticing sensation,

Whatever your intention is that brought you here today.

Now let us turn to the inner oasis.

We can start perhaps with that image,

That special memory of a place or a space,

An object or a person,

An animal,

A habitat,

Where you felt truly alive,

Truly comfortable being yourself.

Whatever comes to mind easily and quickly,

Just settle into that image,

Maybe explore it with your mind,

The crevices and corners,

The details.

Now,

What are the sensations that are coming along with your memory,

With this image?

What are you feeling in your body?

What is it like to be there,

To actually be there physically?

What does it feel like on your skin?

Is your body stretching or contracting?

Are there certain smells in the space or sounds?

Are there feelings?

How is your heart space?

Now might you try letting go of the image,

Just quieting the mind a little and focusing the attention more on the sensation,

On the feeling in your body of being in that space,

That vivid aliveness,

That comfort and ease.

And this inner oasis is a tool that you can access at any time during our yoga nidra practice and any time during the day,

Whether you're at work or in life,

As a tool to come back to a safe space where you truly know yourself and you feel truly at ease.

So let's move more into the body sensing,

Taking some time to bring attention,

Rotating it throughout our body.

Starting with the jaw,

Just bringing your attention to your jaw,

Feeling the sensation in your mouth,

To the lips,

The cheeks,

Forehead,

To the top of the head,

Just attention,

Just noticing any sensations like a spotlight shifting across your body or maybe that sparkle moving around to your shoulders,

To your collarbones,

A tingle,

Maybe shifting down the front of your body to your stomach and your hips,

That spotlight of attention,

Noticing sensation in your left hip,

In your thigh,

Down through your knee to your calf,

To your foot all the way through your ankles to your toes,

Noticing the whole leg and foot live with sensation,

That sparkle,

That hum,

Maybe that hum of aliveness,

Noticing the right hip and thigh,

The knee,

The calf,

The ankle,

The toes,

The whole foot,

That gentle sensation lighting up your whole right leg and foot,

Bringing attention to the side body,

To the left side,

To the arm,

Maybe the shoulder,

The bicep,

The forearm,

Wrist and palm,

That sparkle in your palm all the way through your fingers,

Moving to the right shoulder,

Bicep,

Through the elbow to the forearm,

That hum,

Hum of sensation,

Through the wrist,

The hand lighting up with sensation in the fingers,

Noticing the thoughts present as they are,

Just welcoming them in,

You'll get to them eventually,

Focusing that attention on the sensation in the front body all the way from your toes to your head,

The front of your body lighting up,

The back body from your heels to the back of your head,

All along your surfaces,

That hum of aliveness,

That sparkle of attention.

And the right side of the body alive,

The left side,

All the surfaces of the body and inside the body,

Feeling that energy,

Sparkling,

Filling up,

Back to the surfaces and even beyond the body,

Beyond the boundary of the skin,

Feeling that energy flowing out like a star lighting up the space beyond the body with aliveness and sensation,

That sensation of boundaries breaking down,

That fullness,

What does that feel like?

And as you feel into the sensation of that spaciousness,

Beginning to notice the breath,

Just noticing,

Becoming aware of the inhale and the exhale,

Feeling that breath fill the spaciousness.

And as you breathe the body naturally following its rhythm,

Maybe notice the space in between the inhale and exhale,

That slight pause,

The silence between the activity.

Just notice it for a few breaths.

That ever so quiet turn of the breath,

The space between the inhale and exhale,

Between the exhale and inhale,

The silence beneath the activity.

And as you breathe,

Just take a moment to linger on that pause,

That silence between the inhale and the exhale,

The space there,

Just give it an extra moment or two,

A little longer in the silence and then the space.

So you're extending the space between the inhale and exhale.

Not long,

There's no need to get out of breath,

Just an extra instant of a moment.

Just enough time to be able to start to familiarize yourself with that space,

With that silence that has been there all along,

But that we can access just by bringing our attention there.

Continue to breathe in and out,

Just pausing briefly on that silence,

That space for a few more rounds.

Feeling the breath move through that spaciousness within you.

The inhale filling the spaciousness,

Pausing that silence and the exhale filling the spaciousness,

Pausing that silence.

Let's act one more time.

And now letting go of that conscious attention on the breath and just letting the breath return to its natural rhythm,

Letting your body breathe naturally and feeling into the sensation that's left after our breath sensing.

How do you feel right now?

What does the aliveness feel like in your body?

Can you sense a silence behind the activity,

Beneath the activity?

Not necessarily a silencing of thoughts.

They're still there.

The mind is doing as it does.

But a different kind of silence,

Comfortable silence,

A silence that has been you all along,

Present all along.

A spacious silence,

A timeless silence.

The kind of silence that fills your heart space,

That's boundless,

Comforting,

Maybe connected to the inner oasis,

That sensation of pure ease,

Of joy,

Of aliveness,

Connection to the entire planet,

To the energy there.

Just taking some time here to be with that silence,

With that space.

As thoughts arise,

Just noticing them and saying,

I'll visit with you later.

Thank you for coming.

Giving them permission to be there,

To be present,

To take a seat in the crowd of thoughts,

To return to the sensation.

Maybe noticing an area,

A spotlight that might be glowing in your body,

Calling your attention.

Sitting with that sensation of being alive,

In your body.

And as the thoughts continue to dance,

Feeling welcome to come back to that space between the inhale and exhale,

That natural rhythm of breath,

The body breathing itself,

The silence between the turn in the breath,

Between the inhale and exhale,

That silence behind the activity.

Because we do not know the silence behind activity,

We get stuck,

But this absence of activity is also an object.

But we know the silence behind the activity,

Don't we?

It's been here all along,

Supporting us between the inhale and the exhale and all the other moments.

Feeling that flow of breath moving in and out,

Feeling your heart full,

That hum of aliveness in your body,

That sparkle,

That tingle radiating through you,

Beyond you.

Noticing again that air on your skin,

Noticing the sounds in the room,

The ground beneath you.

We'll linger here a few more moments.

Coming back to that inner oasis,

That rich,

Vibrant sensation of ease and comfort.

And recalling that intention that you brought revisiting it for a moment,

Acknowledging the time you've given to yourself to fulfill that intention.

Maybe rephrasing it as an intention to take out into the world when we leave this practice.

And as we begin to reintegrate into our waking state,

Just taking another moment to feel the breath moving between,

Moving around your body,

That silence in between,

That silence actually that supports as a foundation our aliveness.

I'm beginning to gently,

Slowly move your body,

Moving your fingers,

Maybe your toes,

Luxuriously coming back to your waking state,

Maybe opening your eyes and closing them again,

Opening and closing,

Recognizing that we're coming from a deep space back to our waking presence.

Breathing deeply in and out and taking your time.

There's no rush at all.

When it feels right,

You can take another minute or two and when it feels right,

Maybe come to shift yourself to your side and rising up,

We'll meet back at the computer in a minute or two to debrief.