Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

This guided practice begins with a conscious breath that relaxes the body and mind, and then a body scan to awaken to the aliveness of the present moment. We then open into the natural awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, feelings and sensations, and practice "relaxing back" when the mind gets lost in thought.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. We begin with a very simple reflection. The inquiry is what your intention is for practicing, for meditating, for being here. What's the sincerity in your heart right now?

What really matters to you? You might let yourself be aware of the whole experience of sitting here, the sensations of the body, aware of your body breathing, and consciously extending the in-brath, so it's a nice, full, deep in-breath, and then a slow-out breath, slow enough so you can feel the sensations of letting go. And then again, a full, deep in-breath.

filling the chest, filling the lungs, and a slow out breath, feeling the sensations as they release the breath going out, continuing with a full, deep in-breath and a long, slow out breath. So you're matching the length of the in-breath and the out-breath, not pausing in-between, breathing in, opening to receive, and breathing out, releasing outward, relaxing, letting go, continuing nice long, full, deep in breath and slow out breath. If you are counting it might be six seconds in and six seconds out, and then allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm, letting your body be breathed, noticing the quality of presence sits here. Taking some moments to gently scan through the body, relaxing, releasing. You might sense

the area of the brow. Just let the brow be smooth, the eyes soft, slight smile at the mouth, doing the scalp and the skull, tingling, vibrating, the area of the throat as if the throat could fill the neck, aware of the sensations, the aliveness there. It allow the shoulders to fall away from the ears. Bring the awareness inside the shoulders. See if you can sense the space inside the shoulders. The aliveness of sensation there. Softening the hands.

Letting the hands rest in a very easy way, effortless. and softening again, feeling from the inside out, the natural movement of energy, just as a cup can be filled with water, this whole body is filled with awareness, the chest from the inside out, area of the heart, sensing the space, the liveliness, the sensation that's there, letting this next breath we received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one. And again, doing the awareness filling the belly and the energy, the liveliness that's there, sensing how that awareness fills the whole pelvic region. So you feel from the inside out, the old dance of sensation, aware of the length, the volveillance

volume of your legs, feeling the feet from the inside out. Hands are soft. Feeling the sensations in the hands. Feeling the feet. And sensing this earth filled with aliveness, flowing up through the feet, filling your whole body, moving through you so that your body is like a field of sensation. no outside or inside.

Just this whole dance of aliveness. Not stopping anything or opposing anything. Sensing the openness that also includes sound, the close-in sounds, and that space of awareness that includes even the most distant sounds. Resting in that open awareness that's listening to and feeling the whole moment sounds. play of sensation, the simple movement of the breath, all happening on its own,

all known in this open, edgeless awareness. It's a natural conditioning of the mind to drift, to narrow into thought forms, to forget this openness and presence. And when there's a noticing of that, You can practice relaxing back, relaxing open, listening again to the sounds that are right here, letting them wash through, letting this life live through you, all this aliveness, this open awareness, listening to and feeling the moment.

If you find what arises in the moment, it's difficult in some way, painful sensations or emotions, just sense the possibility of meeting what's here with deep tenderness, a tender presence, a kind presence, honestly contacting the experience with gentleness. It can be helpful to check and see if attention is God. off into thoughts into a virtual reality. And if that's the case, then it's an opportunity to practice that pathway back to presence. That in a judgment to re-relax open the attention

where of the sounds that are moving through, you can re-relax through the body a bit, loosening in the shoulders, softening the hands, the belly, relaxing your heart, reopening to the moment-of-moment flow of what's right here. See how fully you can relax with what's happening, how tenderly you can say yes to what's happening. Relaxing the attention open, aware of the sounds that are here, the sensations in the body, food or feelings of the heart. It's a way of closing.

the meditation to sense just how deeply and tenderly you can say yes to the life that's right here.