Find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down,
Whatever lets your body settle.
Let your eyes close or soften your glaze.
Close your mouth and bring your breathing in through your nose.
Nothing to change yet,
Just arrive.
Notice where you are,
Notice the weight of your body,
Where it meets the ground,
The chair,
The bed.
Most of today has been spent somewhere else,
In thought,
In doing,
In the next thing.
For the next 15 minutes,
There's nowhere to be,
Nothing to fix,
Just this.
Now,
Gently begin to soften your breathing.
Inhale through the nose quiet,
Exhale through the nose slow.
Less air,
Not more.
Imagine you're breathing through a narrow straw,
The breath becomes lighter,
Quieter,
Slower.
You may feel a slight air hunger rising,
That's okay,
Stay relaxed with it.
This small discomfort is your system recalibrating.
Your nervous system is reading the signal,
I am safe,
I can slow down.
Keep it soft,
Keep it quiet,
Almost invisible.
Now we'll bring in a rhythm of inhaling for 5 and exhaling for 7.
I'll count you in.
In 3,
2,
1,
Breathe in the nose,
2,
3,
4,
5,
Breathe out the nose,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
Let the exhale always be longer than the inhale,
That's where the body lets go.
Inhale,
2,
3,
4,
5,
Exhale,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
No force,
No effort,
Just rhythm.
With every exhale,
A small layer of tension leaves.
Stay with this.
Let the counting fade now,
Keep the breath slow,
Nasal,
Quiet.
And bring your attention inward.
I want you to ask yourself one question,
Not with your mind,
With your body.
What am I feeling that I haven't let myself feel today?
Not what you should feel,
Not what makes sense,
What's actually there,
Underneath the performance,
Underneath the getting on with it.
Don't think your way to the answer,
Just notice what comes up.
And notice where it sits in the body,
The chest,
The throat,
The stomach,
The jaw.
Whatever you've found,
You don't have to name it,
You don't have to understand it,
Just let yourself know it's there.
Now soft inhale through the nose,
Long slow exhale.
And direct that breath into the part of your body that's holding something.
If it's tightness,
Breathe into the tightness,
If it's heaviness,
Breathe into the heaviness.
If it's something you can't name,
Breathe into that.
You're not trying to fix it,
You're trying to make it go away.
You're doing the one thing most of us never do,
You're letting it be there.
Soft in,
Slow out.
Now we release.
Gentle inhale through the nose,
Slower,
Slower exhale through the nose.
Again,
Long inhale,
Even longer exhale.
Let that carry and release something.
The pressure of holding everything together,
The weight of saying yes when you mean no.
The exhaustion of being who everyone needs you to be.
One more,
Long inhale,
Longer exhale.
You don't have to carry all of it,
Not today.
Back to slow nasal breathing.
Slow,
Quiet,
Controlled.
Notice the difference.
Your breath is softer.
Your body is heavier.
Your mind is quieter.
This is what your system feels like when you stop abandoning yourself.
When you allow what's actually there,
When you stop performing,
When you finally listen.
This state is not something you earn,
It's what's underneath everything else.
And it's always one breath away.
In a moment,
You'll open your eyes.
Before you do,
Take this with you.
You've been managing your life,
Now start listening to it.
When you're ready,
Slowly move your fingers and toes.
Keep the mouth closed with the slow nasal breathing.
And when it feels right for you,
Open your eyes.
