Meditation: Lovingly Relax

So remember step number one is watch what you're doing to get the alignment of your body just right. Good suggestions are tip forward so that you can wriggle the buttocks backward. Again that puts you on the frontal edge of the sitting bones. Your pelvis is rotating forward. As you then bring your torso back up to vertical, you'll feel the sitting bones beginning to plug into the floor. The pelvis rotates backward into a comfortable neutral and you just gently bring your belly backward towards the spine in order to stabilize the neutral pelvis and then snuggle your seat into the floor. Wobble. Do this for a few moments more than you think you need to. Wobble gently. Wobble different directions and notice that as you're wobbling your whole body starts to wobble gently. Sort of like if you were made out of jello the whole thing gently jiggles and then just leisurely let yourself grow tall. You just bring your awareness up through the center of you, the spinal line, the sashumla, the central channel of what you are and you bring your awareness all the way up to the top of your head and you let the crown of your head open. Bloom. That's why it's called the thousand petal lotus flowering in gentle big bloom up there. Let the wobble settle down and then from the blooming crown chakra, just let your awareness float back down through your head leisurely into the shoulders, down through your arms relaxing your hands, down through your torso, your belly, your hips, down through the legs relaxing your feet. So you're checking everything out getting everything just right so that you're as comfortable as you can be and then go back up to your head and just little micro movements through the 10 movements of your head. Chin up a little or a lot is one, chin down a little or a lot is two, to the left is three, to the right is four, tipping left five, tipping right six, sliding your face forward seven, sliding back eight, pressing up through the crown of your head nine and ten, just letting everything settle back down. Just so you fine-tune the alignment of your head, familiarize yourself with what the options and choices are and look for the place where it feels like a beautiful buoyant neutral. Keep relaxing the shoulders, relaxing down through the torso. And so you take your time with step number one, getting the alignment of your body just right so that you're as comfortable as possible. So that's step two and it's already happening. Step two, you can practice sitting still without holding yourself still.

And again, remember, the only way to sit still without holding yourself still is to relax and so be gently busy letting go. Let go here, let go there. Just wherever you detect a subtle tension anywhere, notice it and then just soften just a little even. As the moments go by, you keep fine-tuning the neutral alignment of your head and spine, but mostly you just keep letting go and letting go and letting go. You're letting go of where you're holding on. You're becoming increasingly tension-free. There's less and less voluntary movement and then you start to notice the involuntary movement of your breathing and the ripple through your form. And so gently start staying with the ripple of your breathing. Notice it in your nose.

Notice it in your toes. Gradually trace the ripple of your breathing to the area of your heart chakra. See if you can feel the movement originating from there. It's sort of subtle at first. Stay aware of sounds in the room.

Like stay aware of your surroundings. You're not spacing out, but you are shifting into a different way of experiencing what's going on. Relax your face more. Feel the ripple of your breathing through your cheeks, through your eyes, through the forehead, the ears and as much as you're able, forget about what you remember you look like and just stay with your actual now experience. Relax your mouth, your lips, the corners of your mouth, your eyes again, your cheeks again.

Relax your mouth, your eyes again, your eyes again, your eyes again. Relax your mouth, your eyes again, your eyes again, your ears again. You've got another minute and a half. For the remainder of the time, really let go. Go for the feeling of opening.

Instead of being clenched and defended, soften, open, and experience the relief of that. And notice the subtle fragrance in the air. That's not just air you're breathing, remember. Then you let your head come down. This is not the only way to do it, remember, and like when you're at home, watch how you naturally climb out of the meditation.

Then let your eyes open, get used to the visuals, and then you just let your head float up into neutral. Okay, so that was 15 minutes. So it's not hard to do 15 minutes. 15 minutes is a good bite. I would say for the homework, AMPM, try to do 15 minutes.

Do the timer if that helps. Time yourself and just see what you actually do. But like 15 minutes, that's awesome. That's a good, serious, healthy, easy amount.