WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:14.240 Us studious. Welcome to this stillness journal meditation. Take a 2 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:19.160 moment to settle in. Find the place where you can 3 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:25.239 be still for the next twenty minutes. Close your eyes 4 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:30.120 if that feels ripe, or let your gaze soften at 5 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:33.119 a point in front of you. Let the day begin 6 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:39.600 to fall away, layer by layer, until there is only 7 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:46.039 this breath, and this body, and this small pocket of quiet. 8 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:21.239 Begin by noticing your feet. Feel the weight of them 9 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:26.480 resting on the floor. Notice the pressure at your heels, 10 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:32.400 the gentle contact at the balls of your feet, the 11 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:37.400 toes spread or curled, however they are. Your feet have 12 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:42.400 carried you through this whole day. They have walked you 13 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:47.079 from one room to the next, from the bed to 14 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:52.359 the door, from the door back to the bed. They 15 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.920 have absorbed the shock of every step you have taken, 16 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:00.079 and they have done it without your ever having to ask. 17 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:07.879 Just notice them, thank them quietly in your own way. 18 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:15.680 Move up now to your legs. Feel the heaviness of them, 19 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:20.319 the way they support you. Notice the muscles along your thighs, 20 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:26.759 the softness behind your knees, the length of your shins. 21 00:02:28.199 --> 00:02:32.280 You do not have to change anything, You only have 22 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:39.120 to notice. This is a practice of noticing, not of fixing. 23 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.360 Bring your attention to your hips and your lower back. 24 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:47.520 So much of our tension lives here, So much of 25 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.479 our day is held in the small of the back. 26 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:56.280 See if you can soften there, even by a fraction. 27 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:02.319 Let the weight of your pulvis sink just slightly into 28 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:11.199 whatever is beneath you. You are being held. You are supported, 29 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:20.199 the chair, the floor, the cushion. They are taking some 30 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:27.360 of the work that you have been doing alone. Move 31 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:31.800 to the Notice the belly rising and falling with each breath. 32 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:36.919 Do not try to change the breath, only watch it. 33 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:45.599 The inhale comes, the exhale goes, the inhale comes, the 34 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:51.919 exhale goes. Each breath is a small, quiet conversation between 35 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:56.000 you and the world. Each breath says I am here. 36 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:34.879 Each exhale says I'm letting go. Now. Bring your attention 37 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:43.600 to your chest. Notice the ribs expanding gently with each inhalation. 38 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:53.079 Notice the way the chest settles back softly with each exhalation. 39 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:59.319 You do not have to take a deeper breath. You 40 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:05.360 do not have to breathe more perfectly. You only have 41 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:09.519 to be here with the breath. That is already moving 42 00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:13.879 through you, the breath that has been moving through you 43 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.160 since the very first moment you arrived in this body. 44 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:28.120 Soften the shoulders, let them drop, even by a millimeter. 45 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:32.680 We hold so much in our shoulders, the weight of 46 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:38.600 conversations we did not finish, the weight of decisions we 47 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:44.040 have not yet made, the weight of carrying everyone else. 48 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.279 Let the shoulders release what they no longer need to carry. 49 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:54.680 You are allowed to set things down, even for a 50 00:05:54.720 --> 00:06:04.079 few minutes. Even the smallest setting down is enough. Move 51 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:10.560 to the arms. Notice the weight of your arms, wherever 52 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:18.160 they are resting. Notice the palms of your hands, Notice 53 00:06:18.199 --> 00:06:23.759 the fingers. The hands have done so much to day. 54 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:32.480 They have held, they have typed, they have gestured, they 55 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:41.399 have grasped, they have opened. Let them rest. Now, let 56 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:50.040 them be still, Let them simply be. And now the neck, 57 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:58.759 the jaw, the face soft than the jaw, Let the 58 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:05.319 teeth part slightly. Soften the tongue away from the roof 59 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:12.879 of the mouth. Soften the muscles around your eyes, the 60 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:17.240 small muscles between your brows. So much of our world 61 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:23.240 lives in the face, in the expressions we wear for others, 62 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:30.600 in the ones we wear only for ourselves. Let those 63 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:37.879 expressions fall away, even briefly. Let the face rest, Let 64 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:42.480 it remember what it feels like to be a face 65 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:51.639 that is not performing anything. Now take a slightly deeper breath, 66 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:58.600 just one. Let the inhill be long enough to reach 67 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:04.839 the belly. Let the exhal be long enough to feel 68 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:11.920 the body settle. And on the next inhale, ask yourself, 69 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:20.720 very gently, what your body already knows. What does your 70 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:24.920 body know that your mind has not yet caught up to. 71 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:32.440 It knows how to rest, It knows how to digest. 72 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:36.840 It knows how to heal a small cut, how to 73 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:41.879 beat a heart seventy or eighty times a minute, without 74 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:46.759 you ever once asking it to. It knows how to 75 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:52.279 keep you alive every second of every day, without any 76 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:58.600 praise at all. It knows how to signal a tired yawn, 77 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.639 a flutter of an anxiety in the chest, a heaviness 78 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:08.320 in the legs when you have been standing too long. 79 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:16.080 It knows how to speak to you in sensation, in temperature, 80 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:21.200 in the gentle pull of a muscle that is asking 81 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:27.559 for movement or for stillness. It knows how to hold 82 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:35.759 a feeling when grief arrives the body holds it. The 83 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:43.559 chest tightens, the throat closes, the eyes water. The body 84 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:48.960 knows how to make room for sorrow. When joy arrives, 85 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:56.399 the body holds that too. The chest opens, the breath 86 00:09:56.440 --> 00:10:03.519 comes easier, the face into something that looks a little 87 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:37.440 like home. What does your body know that your mind 88 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:43.240 is still arguing with. Maybe the body knows when you've 89 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:54.240 had enough enough stimulation, enough noise, enough input. The body 90 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:59.080 says rest, and the mind says one more thing, one 91 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:06.240 more email, one more piece of information, one more phone notification. 92 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:14.039 The body waits. The body is patient. The body will 93 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:18.799 keep waiting, but it never stops sending the signal. It 94 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:25.279 just gets louder eventually, in the form of tension, in 95 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:30.039 the form of fatigue, in the form of a wakefulness 96 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:35.600 that will not stop. Maybe the body knows when a 97 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:39.799 choice is right before the mind has weighed the pros 98 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:45.080 and cons, before the mind has made its careful list, 99 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:52.840 the body has already felt the answer, a softening or 100 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:58.799 a tightening, an opening or a closing. The body has 101 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:07.279 its own counsel, older than language, older than logic, and 102 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:11.159 if you can learn to listen for it, even briefly, 103 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.639 it will tell you things you have been trying to 104 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:25.440 figure out for years. Maybe the body knows how to forgive, slowly, 105 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:32.000 without negotiation. The body forgives the muscle that was strained 106 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:37.559 and now is healed. The body forgives the bruise that 107 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:42.080 has faded. The body forgives the sleep you did not 108 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:46.200 get enough of last night by trying to day to 109 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:49.360 give you more. The body is in the business of 110 00:12:49.480 --> 00:13:25.159 letting go of yesterday. The mind is sometimes not notice 111 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:29.039 for a moment what your body is telling you right now, 112 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:36.159 Not what you figure it should be telling you, not 113 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.679 what you wish it were telling you, Just what is 114 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:47.399 actually here in this body, on this cushion, in this chair, 115 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:56.320 in this exact posture. Maybe it is saying I am tired. 116 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:03.919 Maybe it is saying I am anxious. Maybe it is 117 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:09.759 saying I am okay, I am just here. I am 118 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:14.600 waiting for you to notice me. Whatever it is saying, 119 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:18.600 see if you can meet it with curiosity instead of judgment. 120 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.240 See if you can meet it the way you would 121 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:26.159 meet a friend who has finally gotten the courage to speak. 122 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:32.679 Just listen, just let it speak. You do not have 123 00:14:32.759 --> 00:14:37.000 to fix it, You do not have to talk back. 124 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:43.279 You only have to receive. This is one of the 125 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.360 great hidden offerings of stillness. It is not, as some 126 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:54.960 people imagine, a practice of emptying the mind. It is 127 00:14:55.240 --> 00:15:01.320 a practice of arriving in the body, of remembering that 128 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:08.120 we are not just ideas, not just plans, not just 129 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:14.279 lists of things we have not done. We are bodies. 130 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:21.320 We are weight and breath and both. We are blood 131 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:28.440 moving through vessels, and air moving through lungs, and the 132 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:33.320 heart that has not stopped beating once since the day 133 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:38.600 we will bon sofen again. Now, let the body take 134 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:45.320 a slightly deeper breath, and on that breath, consider what 135 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.320 it would mean to trust what your body already knows. 136 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:55.639 It would mean perhaps resting when rest is asked for, 137 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:00.799 instead of pushing through one more task. It would mean 138 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:08.360 perhaps eating when you are hungry, stopping when you are 139 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:15.720 full without a story about it. It would mean moving 140 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:21.600 in ways that feel good, not just ways that are efficient. 141 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:28.799 It would mean letting yourself feel tired without immediately reaching 142 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:36.360 for another cup of coffee, another burst of distraction, another 143 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:41.600 way to outrun the body's quiet request. It would mean 144 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.919 honoring the body's wisdom about what it needs right now 145 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:55.039 in this season. In this chapter, of your life. You 146 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:58.279 do not have to know exactly how to do any 147 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:03.279 of this. You do not have to do it perfectly. 148 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:09.200 You only have to begin. You only have to listen, 149 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:16.720 even for a minute. You only have to treat the 150 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:23.319 body's signal as a signal worth heating instead of a 151 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:59.440 problem to be overreaden. Take another breath, this time letting 152 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:06.279 the inhale, expand the ribs in every direction, side to side, 153 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:11.880 front to back, feel the lungs, fill the whole cavity 154 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:18.480 of the chest. Then let the breath go slowly with 155 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:23.319 a long, easy sigh. Now bring your attention back, very 156 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:30.079 gently to the room around you. Notice the sounds that 157 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:36.240 are present. Notice the temperature of the air on your skin. 158 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:44.559 Notice the weight of the body, the contact with the chair, 159 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:50.759 the position of the hands. Begin to invite small movement 160 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:58.680 back in. Wiggle the fingers, wiggle the toes, roll the 161 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:08.319 shoulders once gently. When you are ready, let the eyes open, slowly, 162 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:14.599 taking in the light, without rushing toward the day. Take 163 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:21.160 one last breath, and on this breath, thank yourself. Thank 164 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:28.119 yourself for taking these twenty minutes, Thank yourself for choosing stillness, 165 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:35.119 Thank yourself for being willing to listen, even briefly, to 166 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:38.240 what the body has been trying to say. The body 167 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:42.200 has been with you your whole life. It will be 168 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:46.200 with you for the rest of it. It has been 169 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:52.920 your home, your vehicle, your closest companion, and it has 170 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:56.440 never once asked for very much in return. It has 171 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:02.039 only ever asked you to listen. Thank you for practicing 172 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:08.359 with me this stillness journal meditation is complete.