Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxing into Presence or Sleep

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing into Presence or Sleep - This meditation can help us to access a relaxed attentiveness, or alternately, serve as a pathway to ease-filled sleep.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. As a way of starting our meditation together, you might sense yourself coming into stillness. Just to feel yourself coming into stillness. If you'd like to close your eyes or lower your gaze, let your attention turn.

towards your inner life. And take a few moments to settle right here, right now, right in the present moment. 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, slowly releasing, letting go, letting go.

And again, a deep, full in-breath, expanding the chest, filling the lungs, 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, it's quite fine to do four counts, but let the in-breath and out-breath be matched continuing in this way sense with the in-breath an opening to receive, a yielding to the breath.

And with the out-breath, a releasing, a letting go, a relaxing outward, continuing with this long, deep in-breadth, slow, out-breath. You might find that as you're breathing, you can bring a slight smile to the mouth and soften the eyes. 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-bread 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 palate, 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, healing the breath and the awareness at the heart, so that as you breathe in, you open and receive, feeling the aliveness that's there and with the out breath of letting go, releasing, relaxing. filling 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.

And widening to sense the whole body breathing, so with the in breath you're filling every shell of the body, opening, receiving, and with the out breath, releasing, letting go. Now letting go of any controlling of the breath, allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm, relaxed attentiveness, 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, 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 to soften a bit.