The following meditation is led by Tara Brach. To access more of my meditations
or join my email list, please visit TaraBrach.com.
This guided practice is specifically geared towards relaxation letting go really
resting with ease.
Become aware of this body breathing and begin to extend the in-breath
lengthening and deepening so that you're filling the whole chest and lungs, so
breathing in... deep in-breath... and a slow out-breath...
letting go and again a deep full in-breath expanding the chest filling
and a slow out-breath evenly smoothly releasing so you can feel the
sensations of the breath as you exhale.
Long deep full in-breath... you might begin counting with the in-breath to six
counts and matching the out-breath six counts out and if that feels like too
long that's quite fine to do four counts but let the in-breath and out-breath be
matched.
sense with the in-breath an opening to receive... a yielding to the breath and
with the out-breath a releasing... letting go... a relaxing outward
Continuing with this long deep in-breath slow out-breath, you might find that as
you're breathing you can bring a slight smile to the mouth and soften the eyes
and if the mind wanders you notice you've lost track of the breathing just
gently come back again, begin again
you might sense with the in-breath how much it's possible to soften and open
and receive
and with the out-breath how much it's possible to release as if you're
following the breath out into the space around you, relaxing outward, letting go.
continuing with this full in-breath and full out-breath and sensing you can
bring the breath and the attention to the small muscles in the face, softening
relaxing...
letting the tongue fill the lower pallet, relaxing at the root of the tongue.
Continuing with the breathing and sensing the possibility of relaxing more
at the shoulders, with the in-breath opening, receiving, feeling the space
inside the shoulders and with the out-breath letting go, letting go.
Bringing the breath and the attention to the hands, letting the hands be soft
relaxing and letting go
Feeling the breath and the awareness at the heart, so that as you breathe in,
you open to receive, feeling the aliveness that's there and with the
out-breath a letting go... releasing... relaxing...
Feeling the breath deep in the torso letting it fill the belly with the
in-breath
and with the out-breath a letting go letting go, letting go
widening to sense the whole body breathing so with the in-breath you're
filling every cell of the body. Opening... receiving and with the out-breath
releasing... letting go...
and now letting go of any controlling of the breath allowing the breath to resume
in its natural rhythm
a relaxed attentiveness
aware of the gentle movement of the breath, the sensations in the body
the sounds around you
relaxing back and just resting in this wakeful openness
letting life be just as it is
moment to moment to moment
if the mind gets lost in distracting thoughts, let your practice simply be to
re-relax... re-relax open the attention aware of the sounds that are here
in the background sound of silence
gently scan the body perhaps re-relaxing the shoulders a bit, softening your hands
relaxing your heart
relax back, resting in the awareness that's right here... letting life be just
as it is
you might ask yourself if it's possible to relax and let go just a little bit
more
gently scanning to notice the habitual places of contraction... of tightness...
and with kindness and gentleness just soften them a bit...
namaste
[flute]