Relaxation

Your body holds tensions, stress, and contractions. Relaxation is not forcing those contractions away. It is listening to them and allowing them to resolve on their own.

The elements

The elements can support us in this natural relaxation process.

In part because we are elements. 

Your body is earth: your bones and skin and flesh.

Your body is water: fluids and blood.

Your body is fire: heat and warmth.

Your body is space: air and open spaces.

Your body is elemental. It is the alchemy of these elements as living process.

You can also receive support from the elements all around you. The outer elements and inner elements resonate together, macrocosm and microcosm.

There is emerging empirical evidence that confirms how much time in "nature" can be healing for our immune system and mental health. But we already knew that, didn't we...?

The support of earth

You can do this in your apartment, home, prison cell, hospital bed, or place of work/school. You can do this anywhere. You are supported by the chair, floor, or building, which are in turn supported by the earth. We are always supported by earth (unless we're in space). We are grounded.

You may also feel even more support by going to a place in the wild or a park or anywhere in the unbuilt environment. 

If you are outside: lean against rock. Or pavement. Or grass and clover. 

Try taking off your shoes and feeling direct, sensual contact with the living skin of Earth.

Rest against a tree. Lay flat on your back, or maybe even on your belly, supported by earth. Many non-human animals curve their bodies, paws, and skin/fur/scales to respond to a curve in the landscape. Bodies can be more like a liquid poured into the shapes of the Earth, than a solid that resists the earth. Let you body pour into the earth in this way. If you are walking barefoot, let your feet mold with the earth.

If you are in a forest: forest bathe. This simply means opening your senses to the trees and greenery, birdsong and mushrooms. Soak it in by being an open vessel. 

Wether inside or outside, you can also hold a smooth stone or rock in your hand. Really gaze at the rock and sense the deep time. Caress the rock, pass it back and forth from palm to palm. 

Then, wherever you are: relax and give over to the earth element.

Let go of the contractions and settle. Feel this simple support of earth.

Let everything go, supported by earth.

Notice tension and contraction, but there's no need to fight them. Let them be.

Know that your body is already the earth element. Sense this entanglement of body-earth body.

Let the earth element do the work for you. You don't need to do anything.

Sense the solidity of earth. Steady. Floor. Ground. Rock. Soil. Depth. Deep time.

You are the mossrock field. Allow this to support you.

Perhaps have a sense of your bioregion and an interest in developing more of a relationship with this place: its insects, birds, and other animals; it's seasons and geological history; it's colonial history. 

May we protect life and habitats in this place.

the support of water

If you are inside or in the built environment: enjoy looking into a glass of water for a while. There is teaching in this water. Listen.

Drink deeply. Splash your fingers in the water. Or turn on the faucet or shower and really appreciate the sounds and sensations.

You can do this near a city fountain or a sewer or a polluted urban river or lake. Water element is there.

If you have the right conditions, sit near a lake, a waterfall, a stream, or the ocean. 

If you can submerge yourself, swim, and float...

Or just open your senses and really let the water element in.

Listening to water is especially supportive. Let the sound of the faucet or mountain stream enter your mind, filling your awareness. Be immersed in this sound-water. What is it saying?

Allow this watery flowing gurgling rippling dripping waving and placid settling to melt the contractions in your being. 

Enjoy. Relax.

Flowing. Cohesion. Healing. Soothing. Nourishing. Cleansing. Purifying. 

Allow the water to pervade your experience.

Feel thankfulness for water. 

May we protect water.

With this inspiration, get to know the watershed in your region. Where does your water come from? Where does pollution and waste go into water? 

the support of fire

Fire is warmth: the warmth of your body, a turtle on a warm rock, the warmth from the sun.

It is even the energy and heat of your computer, the power of industrial combustion and burning fossil fuels. Playing with fire can be dangerous.

Yet without this warmth, there is no life. 

You can experience the support of the fire element by sensing and appreciating the warmth of your body.

You can light a candle and gaze into the flame. You can make a fire in a fireplace, or if you are out on the land, make a campfire. You can enjoy the burning ember on the tip of an incense stick.

Look into the mystery of fire. Listen to the crackles and hum. Sense its power and burning consumption. 

Notice how humans gather around fire and hearths.

From a safe distance, carefully feel the warmth without touching flame.

You can feel the warmth of the metal of your computer or smart phone. This is the fire element. 

If you are outside, you can feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Soak it in. Allow the warmth to loosen, soothe, relax muscles and any tension.

This small experience of the fire element is interconnected with the living, moving, magma deep in the earth. Volcano. Gentle glow. Solar rays. A supernova. A Large Hadon Collider. The warmth of an engine. The warmth of a pigeons heart. A good, warm soup. A bath.

Fire is aliveness.

Have a subtle sense of how our need for energy burns fossil fuels, which is solar energy stored in ancient plants and animals. This is the solar cycle of the fire element. We participate in this fire.

Offer thanks for the fire element. It would be very cold without you!

the support of space

Space is all around us and within us. The space element is sky and outer space. It is also the space between your cells and the vast amount of empty space that is within each atom. There is more space than we allow.

Space and sky are ventilation. Room to breathe. A vaster perspective.

You can look into the space right in front of you. Often we look at objects: things or beings in space. Look at the space itself.

The gaze is very helpful in opening to the space element.

Soften your eyes. Allow peripheral vision: a big, soft, open visual horizon.

Gaze softly, open, straight ahead. You can do this in whatever room you are in. You can do this lying in bed.

You can also go out on to a rooftop, a porch, or a park. If you safely can, lay on your back and gaze into the sky. (never look into the sun)

Allow the space element to relax and open your experience. Let the contractions, defenses, and tensions go into space. The contractions were made of space all along.

Appreciate the space and the atmosphere. Appreciate the air and room to breathe. Perhaps feel a commitment to protecting the air in your region. Who is polluting the air? Could they stop?

Allow your awareness to go up and out into the sky, like an eagle soaring high above.

Relax this way for as long as you would like. 

Open. Vast expanse.