How can we begin to rest?

Dropping into support

Let the furniture you are sitting or lying on take your weight; let the floor below take your weight and then feel yourself supported by the building you are in; all the way down through the foundations of the building to the earth below. Let the earth take your weight. Then make yourself a little more comfortable, letting the body move in order to allow this.

This practice on its own is a rest and can be used in any situation. Repeating this in all rests, pauses and breaks or even when you ever sit down  means the body then gets accustomed to ‘dropping and feeling support’ so a new habit is developed as well as a skill: 

• you don’t have to get your mind on board, you let your body lead the way. 

• The guidance is direct (‘Drop your weight’) rather than mindfully curious about how you do it and not assuming that one can stop and rest; 

• Guidance directs us to take a particular action, and a slight shift in weight can be noticed as one purposely lets oneself feel into the support of the furniture and floor.

•  It may take practice, but along with the direction to ‘make yourself a little more comfortable’,   feedback shows that most of us  can find a way to do this and continue this practice in daily life long after our mindfulness  course has finished. 

Regrouping 

From this dropped, and possibly heavy, grounded place, become aware of the height of you, rising up through the torso, the spine, finding a sense of height and space in the centre of the body. Maintain a sense of the ground as well as the height. Feeling up through the body to the top of the head. Sense of uplift.  Let the shoulders move, perhaps dropping and rotating backwards; hands softening; belly releasing; jaw gently dropping.

More directions, encouraging a sense of action once we have “stopped and dropped”. The movement upwards can be literally uplifting for mood and bring a sense of energy and well-being. However, for now we are still stopping and perhaps aware of pain, tension and unease:

Easing and letting be

Scan through the body and invite any additional, tensing, holding or gripping to release if it can. If it cannot, allow it to be there and take care of yourself as best you can.

This is another direct instruction, not asking us to relax but to let go, if possible, of additional tension that may not be required right now. And if we can’t, then to let it be but taking care of ourselves perhaps through movement, diverted attention, soothing self-talk or just letting it be amidst all the other sensations. 

Noticing where this additional tension can be released is empowering:

‘I didn’t know I was so tight in my legs; by letting them drop and shift, the tension shifted significantly.’

‘My neck is sore and tight, but I realised I was holding my hands very tightly; I let them open and stretch.’

 

By letting the sensations, we don’t like and cannot do anything about be there, but perhaps be amidst something else that may be OK.  Perhaps asking ‘What do I need to take care of myself?’ We are allowing a compassionate and forgiving response to be possible, such as making changes in posture – maybe I am sitting and need to be lying or standing, maybe I need to roll onto my side. This may help, or we realize that nothing can be changed for now. So how do I take care of that? 

Asking what is needed for care of oneself in the moment can make rest seem possible and expand the repertoire of what rest could be….

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Reference    Burch V and Penman D Mindfulness for Health: A practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing; Little Brown; 2013