Deep Unwind: The Mineral Baths 🛁

Deep Unwind at the Mineral Baths

Tonight, we descend beneath an ancient city to a hidden mineral spring, where warm waters rise from deep within the earth.

As you soak in these restorative baths, you'll relax reeallllly deeply, quiet the mind, and reconnect with the steady source of energy that fuels us from below.

In this Deep Unwind: deep relaxation, guided imagery, connection to the restorative energy of the earth, belonging, renewal, and inner strength.

If you'd like to spend more time in the world of Unwind, you'll find bonus episodes, ad-free listening, live gatherings, and behind-the-scenes content on Patreon.

Thanks for unwinding with me!

💗 Jessica

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi everyone, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome to Unwind, a podcast where we come home to ourselves so we can explore the depths of relaxation and ask the question: what do we find when we unwind? Hi everyone. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for pressing play on this first Deep Unwind. The show is new, so if you have feedback or suggestions, please reach out to me. You can find me on Patreon or at my website or on Instagram. Because ultimately this show is for you, the listener, to help you improve your life through the art and practice of relaxation. So let me know how it's going. Tonight. I love baths. I am a total bath person. Give me the choice between a shower and a bath. And well, there's no choice. When it comes to unwinding, that's where I do it. As my body relaxes, my mind wanders, all these cool, relaxed places. A bath is a very special thing. And I love that bathing is ritualized all over the world. And that it's ancient. Most healing type of bath. From mineral springs spewing hot, mineralized water up through the earth's crust. Amazing! I've dunked myself in hot springs in Peru, Iceland, Japan, and here in California. And why are they so great? Well, first, the water itself is full of minerals because it's coming up through the rocks. So your skin can absorb trace elements like silica, magnesium, and sulfur. And that's healing in and of itself. But what I like most is that the water is heated by the earth, warmed by this massive energy from within our planet. Enjoying and capturing its heat. But here's this humble little earth beneath us, full of energy, full of life force, sending up hot water to remind us, hey, I got you too. So tonight we visit some mineral baths and let ourselves be restored by that deep Mother Earth energy. So get yourself cozy and comfortable, and let's unwind. Just let your eyes close softly and gently as you feel yourself settle into your inner world. And you bring your awareness to your breath, connecting with the lovely natural wave of your breath. What's great about bringing your awareness to the breath is that it's reconnecting you with the rhythms inside your body. And at the same time, by connecting with your breath, you're connecting with all sorts of rhythms outside of you. In the natural world. As you begin to unwind. Now I invite you to bring your awareness to your eyes. As you allow your eyelids to become soft. Let them rest. And as your eyelids are resting, all the muscles around your eyes are softening and relaxing. And as your eyes relax, your eyelids are feeling heavy. So heavy. Like they cannot open. Of course, logic tells us that you can open your eyelids. But your imagination, which you're using so beautifully, is keeping them closed. So now, I'd like you to play a little game. And as you pretend that your eyes are so relaxed they cannot open, I want you to wiggle your eyebrows, trying to open your eyes, but they stay closed. So do that now. Wiggle your eyebrows while your eyes remain closed. Good as you align with your imagination and you find that this game is taking you deeper and even deeper, helping you unwind. Now I'd like you to imagine that inside your skull, in your brain, is a ball of yarn. And one end of that ball of yarn is coming out a little hole in your forehead. Now imagine that you're gently pulling on the yarn. And as you're pulling on the yarn, pulling it out of your head, it's unwinding and unwinding. Feels good to let it unwind. And now the ball of yarn is becoming smaller and smaller. And now the ball of yarn is unwinding completely as you now see the other end of the ball of yarn, and it's coming out that hole. And your mind is nice and clear, relaxed, peaceful. And you feel a lovely sense of peace. A lovely wave of peace moving down over your shoulders, down over your arms. And it feels like a lovely weighted blanket moving down over your arms as your arms are feeling so heavy now, comfortably heavy. And that beautiful wave of peace is moving down into your hands, into your fingers, and as your hands relax, your whole body is letting go, unwinding. As you bring your awareness now gently to any sounds that you may be hearing around you, life is happening all around you. And as the sounds of life come toward you, they're entering you and taking you deeper and deeper. Sounds that may have wound you up earlier today are unwinding you now. Because this is a decision you are making, and it feels so nice, so easy as the sounds take you deeper and deeper. And the sound of my voice is taking you deeper and deeper as you unwind. And now imagine that that wave of peace is gently moving inside of you. Who knew you could bring peace inside your own body just by imagining it? As you allow that lovely soft wave of peace into your chest. And now that lovely wave of peace is gently, gently washing over your heart, and your heart is being softened and soothed, and any tension or anxiety that's been held in your heart is dissolving, and that feels so good, so right. As you imagine that wave of peace is moving down now deeper into your torso, deep into your belly, a lovely gentle wave of peace moving down into your belly, taking over every single cell in your gut. There are so many cells in your belly. It's full of feeling, full of knowing, and as the wave of peace moves down inside, your lower back is relaxing, your buttocks letting go. As your pelvis sinks further onto the bed or the couch, as the wave of peace moves down through your belly, any tension you may have been carrying there is dissolving. And now the wave of peace is moving all the way down your legs, and it feels again like a weighted blanket holding you, comforting you, softening you.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Good.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Imagine now you're standing on the street in an old city. The street beneath your feet is made of smooth cobblestones, worn by generations of footsteps. The buildings around you are made of stone, softened by time. Shopkeepers are closing their doors for the evening. You hear the sound of a distant church bell. Ahead of you stands a building with a carved wooden door. And beside the entrance is a small bronze plaque, and it reads, Natural Mineral Spring. You've been wanting to come here for a while. The spring beneath this building has been flowing continuously from deep within the earth for thousands of years. You reach for the handle and step inside. As you enter, the sounds of the city become softer. The air feels warm. You notice the scent of stone, water, and cedar drifting through the lobby. On the walls, there are lanterns giving off a soft glow. You feel calm and welcome. You walk down a hallway, and you realize people have walked down this hall for hundreds of years. Generation after generation of humans attracted to these springs, craving restoration. You enter a private changing room. You place your belongings in a locker and wrap yourself in a robe. The fabric feels so soft against your skin. You open the door again and walk down the corridor until you arrive at a staircase made of wide stone steps, descending into the earth. There are ten steps. And with every step you take down this staircase, you'll go deeper and deeper into relaxation ten. With every step the air is getting warmer eight seven. You place your hand in it. It feels silky and perfectly warm. You sit down along the edge of the pool and lower your feet into the water. Now your calves and your knees. You feel the warmth surrounding your lower legs immediately. Sending a cascade, a relaxation through your whole body, you go a little further, and the water reaches your thighs, your hips, your waist as you unwind, and you continue down slowly. And now the water is up around your shoulders, the warmth embracing you completely, and as your body unwinds, your mind unwinds, and as your mind unwinds, your body unwinds. You settle against a smooth stone ledge built into the side of the bath as your shoulders relax beneath the surface, and your arms drift comfortably. Your breath moves in and out as the steam rises around you. Almost imperceptibly as it rises from deep within the earth from below the foundations of this building, from below the city, the water is rising thousands of feet through layers of rock. This water may have spent decades, centuries, or even millennia moving through the body of the earth before arriving here now in this pool. It is bringing the warmth of the earth itself, ancient, steady, rising from beneath all of us as it emerges here and is embracing you, and you feel its warmth against your skin and in your body. The earth is embracing you. As your body becomes more and more relaxed, your inner being is feeling lighter and lighter freed by the waters, and you realize you are tapping an endless well of energy inside of you, energy rising and expanding, rising from the earth. And if you'd like to continue relaxing, going deeper and deeper, on the count of five, you will drift off into your own journey. If you would like to alert and transition back into your day, on account of five, you will open your eyes, gently coming back to the room, and move into your life feeling peaceful, calm and relaxed. One three Thank you for unwinding with me.