We offer this simple practice to help you find the calm that comes from relaxing mind and body. To start, lay down on your couch or floor with a blanket covering you so you are warm and comfortable. Take several slow deep breaths with long exhales, then:

•  Imagine golden-light awareness flowing into your body, as if you were filling a glass of water. Let it bathe your being with peacefulness and notice muscles and bones responding.

•  Close your eyes and scan your body one area at a time. Begin with your toes and travel up to your legs, spine, and shoulders. Then up your hands, arms, shoulders, neck, and head. Breathe deeply as you scan each area, breathing in calm, and releasing any tension you feel with each out-breath.

•  Check out the flow of thoughts moving through your mind and imagine them as clouds moving across the sky without attachment.

•  Place one hand on your beating heart. Settle your awareness into this rhythm and then deepen your attention into your emotional heart. Can you name what you find there?

•  Now notice your feelings, your breath, and your sensing of your fluid living body. Rest in this spacious awareness and know you are being nourished by living fluid consciousness.

Therapeutic touch is one of the most effective ways to calm the nervous system, help remove stress-related chemicals, and unblock the flow of energy through the body. The rhythmic strokes and pressure applied to muscles, tissues, and organs help stimulate the blood and lymphatic circulatory systems, which bring nutrients to the cells and eliminate pathogens, waste materials, and toxins. Getting bodywork on a regular basis at Massage Therapy Center Palo Alto will help you cultivate calm and energy, and support your health and well-being. We are here, waiting to help you experience life more fully!