Welcome to meditation for rest.
Thank you for joining me,
For taking time to make yourself a priority,
Putting yourself on your schedule.
This concept of rest,
One that can be rather elusive for folks,
Be frustrating.
Whether your focus is meditation or sleep,
We can often find rest to be elusive,
To be challenging.
Even when we get to sleep,
Even when we get the meditation,
The rest seems to elude us.
I just want you to take time now to cultivate a space in which rest can arise.
If you have any bright lights,
I encourage you to dim them or turn them off.
Maybe light a candle.
Any loud,
Noxious noises,
Try to reduce them.
Find a comfortable position,
Which you'll be partaking in the session today.
So if your goal is sleep,
I encourage you to allow yourself to lay flat on your comfortable support.
If your goal is meditation,
Then I encourage you to find a comfortable seated position,
Sitting upright,
Allowing for all the natural curves in your spine,
And your sits bones rooted down into the earth,
The crown of your head reaching up towards the heavens.
Start to connect with that breath.
Just connect with finding it wherever you find it.
As we're taking time here,
Just connecting with our breath in whatever state we find it.
It's important to understand that there's this interesting paradox in life that often when we try to force something or make something happen,
It ends up eluding us.
We end up missing it.
So we're going to take that paradoxical principle into our session today.
To where even though rest is our focus,
Is our goal,
We're not going to let that be our focus.
We're not going to let that be our goal.
We're not going to try to do anything.
We are going to find that breath.
We are going to slightly expand that inhale,
Slightly elongate that exhale.
We are going to allow our limbs to be heavy,
Our arms,
Our head to be heavy,
Allow the full weight,
Our hips to be supported.
We're going to keep allowing this.
So if you notice any areas of clenching or tension,
Guarding,
And we're going to keep giving them permission to release and to be heavy.
And as we keep allowing this expansive inhale,
This elongated exhale,
Just make this focus because it's something to say.
The mind is very good at doing its job.
The body is very good at doing its job.
The mind knows how to think.
The body knows how to contract.
They do their job well and we appreciate them for it.
But like any good worker,
They have difficulty knowing when it's time to take a break,
When it's time to release,
When it's time to let go.
We often find ourselves in interesting situations in an attempt to force them to release,
To let go,
Often for not.
So today we just simply find that breath.
We allow that expansive inhale,
That elongated exhale.
We let this breath be the mechanical cue to the body.
That's okay to let go.
We let this expansive inhale,
This elongated exhale be the mechanical cue to the body that there's no work that needs to be done right now.
Anything that's happened is over.
Anything yet to be done can wait.
We allow this expansive inhale,
This elongated exhale to be the mechanical cue to the body that there's nowhere else to be,
That there's nothing else to do.
As we take this expansive inhale and this elongated exhale,
We're mechanically shifting gears inside our inner world.
Every expansive inhale,
Every elongated exhale flips a mechanical switch in our body that allows us to go from that sympathetic,
From that fight-or-flight,
From that doing mode,
Into that parasympathetic,
Into that rest and restore.
We can often lay there trying to think ourself into being calm.
And all we usually do is just stir up more stuff.
But instead,
When we shift gears with the breath,
Allow for that diaphragmatic breath,
Allowing for the low back to expand,
Allowing for the back of the rib cage,
The side body,
The lower abdominals,
And the elongated exhale,
We're mechanically telling the nervous system that we're safe,
That we're able to let our guard down,
That we're able to turn down the alert,
That we're able to rest.
Our focus is our breath,
Nothing more.
Simply the experience of the inhale and exhale.
Even coming to observe that experience as we inhale,
As we expand the rib cage,
The side body,
The low back.
Notice how that inhale creeps up into the shoulders,
Down into the hips,
Maybe even to the knee,
Maybe up to the top of the head,
Maybe to the fingers and toes.
The experience of the breath is equally as important as the particular type of breath in and of itself.
We experience this inhale,
We experience this exhale.
If we're quite not sure of the power of the breath,
I like to remind you how we can go weeks,
Even months,
Even without food.
We can go days without water,
But we can only go a few moments without breath.
So how powerful is it that the one thing we can go the least amount of time without is also the one that we can consciously manage?
The one thing we can adjust,
Manipulate,
We can speed our breathing up,
We can slow our breathing down,
We can pause our breathing altogether.
How fascinating.
The thing we can go the least amount of time without is the one thing that we can pause altogether.
We can't consciously adjust the rate at which we digest food,
Or the rate at which our kidneys filter,
But we can engage with the breath through the conscious mind.
This speaks to the power of the breath to be that cross bridge between our conscious mind and our otherwise unconscious,
Autonomic systems in the body.
We can think of our breath as our operating system,
Our interface,
The way in which we can consciously engage indirectly with these otherwise unengageable aspects of our inner world.
So through the power of the breath,
Through the management of the breath,
We are able to regulate our inner world.
This is empowering.
Understanding that you have the power within you to regulate your inner world,
No matter where you are,
No matter what you are doing,
At any moment,
You always have your breath to check in with,
To expand,
To speed up,
To slow down.
The power of the breath,
Power of our life force,
Of our prana is undeniable.
So as we spend our time in rest,
And as we find this expansive inhale,
This elongated exhale,
And as our mind does what the mind does,
Falls back into planning,
To ruminating,
Reminiscing,
Into daydreaming,
Commenting,
Commentating,
All the places that the mind likes to go.
When we notice that we've wandered into thought,
We make no judgments,
Make no criticisms,
No agitation.
We just notice that the mind is doing what the mind does,
And we return to that expansive inhale,
To that elongated exhale.
Let this be our practice.
When we breathe,
When we find our self-thinking,
We return to that expansive inhale,
To that elongated exhale.
Now,
After a period of time,
We may find that as we're returning to the breath,
As we're returning to the body,
Again,
We may notice little areas of clenching,
Or guarding,
Or helping.
Maybe these are areas that we've noticed before,
Maybe they're not.
Maybe we notice that our eyebrows are furrowed,
Or that our jaw muscles are clenched,
Or that our neck muscles are contracted.
Maybe our tongue is on the roof of our mouth.
We give these permission to release.
Maybe our shoulders are up in our ears,
Or clenching,
Squeezing into our ribcage.
We give these permission to release.
Maybe our arms,
Or our forearms,
Our hands,
Maybe our palms,
Or fingers are clenching.
We give these permission to release.
Maybe our ribcage,
Our low back,
Maybe our glutes,
Maybe our thighs,
Inner thighs,
Outer thighs,
Maybe our quads,
Our hamstrings,
Maybe our calves,
Or our shins,
Maybe the soles of our feet,
Or toes.
Maybe we find clenching in different areas.
And just like with that tension in the mind,
Just like with the thinking,
When we notice these little areas of clenching,
Of guarding,
Of helping,
And just like with that tension in the mind,
Just like with the thinking,
We just notice.
When we notice it,
We return to the breath.
We add no judgment,
No irritation,
No frustration.
We simply notice and return to the breath.
Maybe that inhale,
Maybe we can invite that inhale into these areas to just create a little space,
Even if it's just 2%.
Just a little bit more lightness,
A little more expansion,
A little more heaviness.
I always return to the breath.
I simply keep coming back to the breath.
As we notice the tension in the body,
As we notice the tension in the mind,
We don't get pulled by either of these.
We keep coming back to the breath.
This is how we maintain rest.
We let neither the tension in the mind,
Nor the tension in the body pull us.
We maintain our seat,
That space amongst the inhale and the exhale,
Amongst that divine connective tissue that connects the tip of our head,
The tip of our toes,
Our fingertips to our core.
It begins and ends with the breath.
Aho.
