Hello there.
Your body comes first here,
And the team can wait until you're comfortable.
Choose a position your body can keep for a few minutes,
Sitting or lying down,
Whichever asks less of you right now.
Give yourself permission to move.
Shift your weight,
Lengthen through your back,
Let your jaw loosen.
If your body wants to move again later,
Let it.
Let your hands find a resting place,
Your lap,
Your thighs or the surface beside you.
Let them be as heavy as they like.
Now your eyes.
Some people close them here,
Some keep a loose gaze on a point a short way ahead.
Take whichever you want and stay with it for the track.
Bring your attention to the contact between you and the surface underneath,
Where your back meets the chair,
Where your legs press down,
Where your hands have come to rest.
This contact stays put for the whole practice.
Anytime you want it,
It's there to come back to.
Let one breath rise and fall on its own clock and let it be as unremarkable as it wants to be.
We're turning toward comparison now,
And here's the boundary I'd like you to keep.
Whatever you feel about anybody else can stay exactly as it is today.
This practice asks for honesty about you and it leaves everyone else alone.
Should any part of this become too much,
Let my voice go by and rest your attention on the support beneath you.
Sitting with that support is enough.
Leaving now and returning later is a reasonable thing to do.
You may have come across somebody else's good news recently.
A friend told you something was going well for them,
Or you saw it on a screen while you were scrolling.
Within a second or two,
Your mind had already measured your own life against it.
If that measuring is happening right now,
Let it be here.
Notice how fast it arrives.
Let it stay in the room while some of your attention rests on the surface beneath you.
This is a common human motion.
Meet it with the same steadiness you brought to settling your body a few minutes ago.
Whatever you feel about the news is welcome in this practice.
Warmth for them is welcome.
A sting is welcome.
Both together are welcome and they can sit side by side for as long as they need to.
Now let's come back to where you are.
Their life is happening somewhere else,
In a room you can't see.
Your life is happening right here,
In this body,
On this surface,
In this room,
At this hour.
Feel the weight of your own hands.
Notice whether the air feels warm or cool.
Feel your back against whatever is behind you.
This is the life you can actually do something about today.
Something in that news reached a wish of your own that is worth knowing about.
In a moment,
I will invite you to name it quietly inside your own mind.
Here is the question.
What did their news touch in me?
Let the answer stay simple and specific.
It may be a wish for steadier work,
Or for closer company,
Or for more room in your week.
Let it stay as one plain wish,
In your own words.
A wish like that belongs to you.
It was yours before today and it stays yours after this track ends.
Now bring the wish back into your own week.
Choose one small pocket of time you can give it,
Even 15 minutes,
With your attention fully on your own life.
Teacher only the appointment.
The day,
The place and the small amount of time.
The task inside that appointment can wait.
Let that pocket of time stay small enough to protect.
The whole path can remain unclear today.
Comparison may arrive again this week.
Feel the support beneath you,
Name the wish it touched,
And return to the time you set aside for your own life.
That's the practice done.
Let your attention spread out into the room around you.
If a bigger breath wants to arrive,
Let it.
Give your hands a shake.
Give your feet a small stretch.
If you've had your eyes closed,
Open them gradually.
If you've kept a loose gaze,
Let it spread out across the room.
Be good to yourself and protect that small pocket of time.
