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Guided Meditation: Relaxation

Greetings for Sunday morning meditation here in Redwood City. I was looking forward to coming down here to sit and share the teachings with you. I want to begin with something that might be seen as a beginner's instruction in meditation, but it's really an advanced skill—maybe even a great power of advanced meditation practitioners. This is the ability to relax, to relax deeply, and to relax when we need to. When there's a lot of tension, anxiety, and fear that might come up in challenging situations, to have learned the art and skill of relaxation allows us to settle in.

A good place to practice relaxation is at the beginning of meditation. Take a little bit of time out from everything else and sweep through the body, scan through the body, and relax. We'll start that way, and then we'll transition into the mindfulness practice.

Take a posture that allows you to be comfortable and alert, a posture that allows you to relax deeply. If a person is slouching on a couch, it might seem on the surface like a good, relaxing posture, but it actually limits how deeply the body can relax. The body can relax more deeply when it's sitting upright and not slouching or collapsed. Many years ago, I read a study that measured the physiology of different postures. It found that the most relaxed postures a person can be in were the cross-legged sitting posture—where the body is sitting in meditation and the torso is erect—and what in yoga is called the corpse posture^[1], lying completely flat on one's back.

The cross-legged sitting posture allows for deep relaxation because everything is aligned and not constricted, so some deeper letting go can happen. Taking a comfortable, alert posture, if it's comfortable for you, gently close your eyes. Then, in whatever way that's available to you, relax your body. It doesn't mean to collapse or slump, but it does mean to relax the muscles that don't need to be tight and held.

A way of helping us to relax deeply is to become aware of yourself breathing. Be aware of the rhythm of your breathing, aware of how fast or slow you're breathing. Then ever so gently, just a little bit so that you don't overdo it and lose your breath, slow down your breathing. It can be done by gently extending the exhale a little bit longer, exhaling a little bit slower, and inhaling a little bit slower than you would otherwise, letting the inhale be a little bit longer. The art of this is to do it just a little bit, just enough so that it's not a strain for you. There's something about long, slow breathing that allows a lot to begin to relax.

If you're able to do this long, slow breathing, then as you exhale, see if you can soften and relax the muscles of your face. We carry so many emotions, feelings, and attitudes in our face and its muscles. Allow the muscles of the face to fall away from the skull and relax.

Relax the shoulders. Soften and release the shoulders as you exhale.

Continuing the long, slow breathing, if you need to, you can do it a little bit less long or a little bit less slow if that's better for you. Or, if it's nice for you, you might experiment with a little bit longer and slower.

As you exhale, relax the belly. Soften the belly.

As you exhale, soften the chest. Relax the back ribcage.

Perhaps there can be a relaxation in the arms and the hands, the legs and the feet. Maybe there's a subtle way, perhaps on the surface of your body or deep close to the bones, where the whole body is being held tight, resisting, or pulled back. As you exhale, begin to soften more over the whole body.

Then, if there are places in the head or the heart area that are associated with thinking—if you feel any tension or pressure associated with your mind, the concerns you have, or the worries you have—then as you exhale, relax the tensions and energies associated with thinking.

If you'd like, return to breathing in a way that's more natural for you. There is no need to continue with a longer, slower breath, though you can if it's pleasant.

Bring a relaxed awareness to the experience of breathing. As awareness—the recognition factor of mindfulness—becomes stronger, or to say it differently, becomes clearer, the less it needs to relax. It just is. Neither tight nor slack, just present.

See if you can develop your capacity for clear knowing, clear recognition, and clear awareness. Become aware of the continuity of breathing in and breathing out. Every time your mind wanders away, recognize that that's what's happening, and then begin again with your breathing. If the mind wanders off in thought, be relaxed about that, but don't be complacent. Recognize it, and begin again with your breathing. Breathing in, and breathing out.

Now that we've been meditating for a little while, you might try very gently to slow down and lengthen your breaths a little bit, but only if it's pleasant to do so. Maybe it's done by letting go at the end of the exhale, or kind of letting go at the end of the inhale that allows the inhale to continue. By slowing it down gently, there is a little bit more intentionality with attending to the breathing. Allow that intentionality to support your deeper awareness and connection to the body's experience of breathing.

Instead of thinking, gently stay with your breathing. Attend to your breathing.

In the last couple of minutes of this meditation, you might continue with some care around your breathing. Gently, lovingly, let the breathing be slower, but in a way that's pleasant and caring, as if you have all the time in the world. Perhaps longer and slower, but just long enough that it's not a strain or a challenge. Maybe it's even pleasant to be so deeply involved with your breathing. As you exhale, relax whatever can be relaxed.

As we come to the last minutes of the meditation, consider how being tense closes us off, even from ourselves and from others. It narrows the field of vision, whereas relaxation opens the field of vision. Relaxation allows us to be more present for others. May we use our capacity to relax to offer more of ourselves, to be attentive, and to be present for others. To appreciate others and the range and fullness of other people, just as we experience the range and fullness of ourselves.

May our calm and tranquility be a support for those who are anxious, those who are nervous, and those who are afraid. May this meditation be a support for us for this coming day, to live with care for the world around us. May whatever benefits that come from this meditation serve to bring greater well-being to the world.

May all beings be happy.
May all beings be at peace and relaxed.
May all beings be free.
May we contribute to that possibility.