Evening Meditation: Letting the Day Settle Down

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Hi, and welcome to putting the day down.

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You don't need to do anything with your body or your breath.

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Just be aware.

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The body knows how to breathe.

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We just allow these things to happen in the moment. So

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just while you're settling in, this meditation, although it may be focused on someone coming home from work or a

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day away, it's also for somebody that has

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been working at home or a parent or... It's just whatever you've done today, it's allowing the day to rest.

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So it really doesn't matter how you do this meditation. The idea is just to stay alert and be aware.

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So we've come to the end of a long day and we are here for

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just a few minutes to put it down.

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And before we begin, let's just be aware of our breath and aware of our body.

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Breathing in calm.

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Breathing out relax

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You don't need to do anything with your breath. Your

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body knows how to breathe and

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Just allow your body to relax around So let's begin by noticing the body. Not changing anything, just noticing.

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So where has the day still been held?

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The jaw perhaps? The shoulders? The

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small space behind the eyes?

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The day very often lives in the body. As

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a kind of leftover residue of the day. We

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carry it home in our shoulders. We carry it home in our breath. We

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carry it home in how we feel.

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So we begin softly with the jaw. We let the back teeth come apart just a little.

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And the tongue, we just let it rest.

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And now the shoulders, we just let them drop

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And just by a finger's width.

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We very often don't realise that we're holding them. We rarely do.

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And just imagine metaphorically leaving the bag down just next to the door.

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There is a moment every evening when the work itself can be left at the threshold. The

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one who answered the messages. The one who held it together. We

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let that one go just for a while.

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The working self, the busy self, is a kind of costume. It's a role that we play.

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We

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sometimes forget to take it off.

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So we let it slip.

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We don't even need to fold it.

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Three things we let rest tonight. We don't need to know how, we just allow.

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May

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what I did today rest.

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May what came to me today rest.

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May what is still unfinished rest.

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May what I did today rest.

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May what came to me today rest.

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May what is still unfinished rest.

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We stay here with this breath, with this body for one more moment.

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And we're just going to bring ourselves back to the room.

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Five. Just gently become aware of the room you're in.

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Four. Open your eyes. Three. Just move your arms, wiggle your fingers.

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Two. Just look around knowingly

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and One Just take a deeper breath like we're aware.

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Thank you for listening to Inner Peace Meditations. If

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you'd like to message me or got an idea for meditation, please reach out on StevenWebb.uk. Take care.

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It's been a pleasure sitting with you this evening.