Meditation: Relax and Let Go

Okay, so let's sit quietly for a couple of minutes here. And again, I'll probably talk through some of it, and then I'll stop talking. Don't let my talking bother you, please. So again, you can sit up for this part, you can lie down for this part. And if you start sitting up and halfway through you wish you were actually lying down, then at halfway through just feel free to slide down onto your back.

And yet, on the other hand, I think it is good to train yourself to be able to sit for longer and longer durations of time. And what meditators have found is that the straighter you are, the more erect your spine is, the easier it is to sit there comfortably for a longer amount of time. And so train yourself to sit erect. Like always, start with step one. The title of step one is Get the Alignment of Your Body Just Right so that you're comfortable.

If you're a teacher, guide people through it. And when you're practicing, watch what you're doing to get it just right. You're doing something. I would suggest tip forward, wriggle the buttocks backwards, and then delicately bring the torso back up to vertical. Gently bring your belly backward towards the spine.

So you're rotating the pelvis backward just gently to get it into like a perfect neutral. You'll feel the sitting bones merging into the floor. And then you begin the snuggle aspect. Just gently begin to wobble, snuggle your seat into the floor, snuggle your legs into the floor. Whatever's on the floor, like let it merge with the floor more.

Wobble for about a minute or so. Sometimes you wobble with a little more vigor. And sometimes it's like barely visible. As you're wobbling, feel how your whole body is gently wobbling. And just leisurely make your way up through your torso towards the crown of your head.

Do a gentle nine movement up through the top of your head. Like sort of press the crown of your head up a little bit. If the crown of your head can go more up, it probably should. And then let the wobble settle down. And as you keep that gentle number nine thought, that gentle up thought, then as you let the wobble settle down, just let your awareness float down through your head, through your neck, into the shoulders, down through the arms, relaxing your hands, down through your torso, through your belly, into the hips, down through your legs, relaxing your feet.

Just so you take a gentle inventory of everything. In easy words, you get grounded through whatever's on the ground. You then grow tall like a little plant that just goes up and up and up and up. I say little plant because little plant doesn't have big muscles, isn't making a big effort. It should have this ease feeling of growing up like a little sprout.

Grounded, tall, and then relaxed, which will have this nice settling down feeling to it. And so step number one is get the alignment of your body just right so that you're as comfortable as possible. And every time you do it, it should feel like you're learning anew about how to do that. Watch the words that come into your mind that report the news. Those are the words you'll use when you teach.

You get the alignment just right so that step two you can then settle into it and practice being still. And so get into this for these few moments. Remember, you can shift your alignment at any time. You can move. You're not in a straitjacket. You can move. It's allowed. But move and get everything right so that you can then just park.

And mindfully practice conscious immobility. Practice sitting absolutely still. It's really cool when you start to get the hang of this. Absolutely still, but without holding yourself still. And again, the only way to do that is by letting go and letting go and letting go.

And so be gently busy letting go, relaxing. When you relax, you're releasing tension. When you release tension, your experience of you will be increasingly tension free. Be really curious about what tension free conscious being feels like. If you're not uptight, then what does it feel like?

When there's less tension in your field, what does it feel like? What is the truth here when there's less tension in my field? Be curious. Don't make up the answer. And so you're deliberately not moving. There's zero voluntary movement voluntarily.

But then notice, wow, there's a tremendous amount of involuntary movement that you can be aware of. Most notably the ripple of your breathing, gently ride the ripple of your breathing. Relax. From wherever you are now, relax a little more somewhere. And from wherever you are now, relax a little bit more somewhere, anywhere, everywhere.

And pay attention to your actual now experience. Again, you're made out of something. Start feeling the energy that you're made out of. Just what does it feel like to be you? Keep relaxing. Keep breathing softly.

Keep feeling the truth of what you are. Relax all around your eyes. Through your face. The crown of your head. Your ears.

Your throat. Notice how it feels like you're getting more and more open. It really starts to feel like you are the space in which everything you're aware of is happening. You can still hear the traffic. You can still hear my voice.

You can shift your alignment and just fix things. Another minute and a half. One more minute. One more minute. One last couple seconds.

From wherever you are now, let go more. Just really get as consciously tension free as you can be. Get familiar with what this feels like for you. Wide open like conscious space. And then you just let your head come down.

Wait for the right moment and then open your eyes.