Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
Let the gaze soften downward or close the eyes.
Perhaps a hand is placed on your heart.
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And out the mouth.
Twice more.
In through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
Last.
In through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
And seal the lips and breathe naturally in and out through your nostrils.
Relax your head.
Your forehead and eyes.
Relax the cheeks,
Your ears,
Your nose,
Your jaw and your tongue.
Maybe take a swallow.
Soften in the throat.
In the shoulders and the upper arms,
The lower arms,
Your wrists and your hands and fingers.
Soften in the upper back and in the chest.
Soften in the upper belly,
The lower belly,
The side body and your back.
Consciously relax the hips,
Your glutes,
Your pelvis.
Relax the thighs,
Your knees.
Soften in the lower legs,
Your ankles.
Relax the feet and all ten toes.
All you need to do from now on is breathe.
From the moment of conception,
We are constantly transitioning.
Though we search for moments of stillness and pause,
Reality is ever changing.
We search for the stillness in routines and structures and we search for it in the comfort of others.
Beginning with our first relationships with our family,
Our parents,
Then siblings and so on.
We try to find this comfort and stillness in friendships,
Through common morals,
Ideology,
Interests and furthermore in our romantic lives.
Many have said transitions are hard.
And I agree.
This human existence is so.
The Buddhists agree that life is suffering.
So if all life is transitions from one moment to the next,
And this causes suffering,
Where does joy and peace reside?
In only this moment.
The here and now.
In appreciation of the present with all of its faults.
Gratitude in the beauty behind the veil of the material.
Some transitions are so micro that they are barely noticed.
Like the collection of dust on a book.
Or a child from day to day.
Take the same book a year from now and surely you'll notice how it changed.
And more so the child a year older.
These are the macro transitions.
The days are long and the years are short.
Resonates this notion.
For most,
A reflection on a birthday gives us pause enough to recognize the yearly transition.
Looking back and gazing forward.
The transitions are like the ocean waves.
They can be calm and seem still.
Though always moving.
They can be ferocious,
Mighty,
And destructive too.
The only constant is the movement.
The oscillation.
A destructive wave shares two polarities.
It is the clearing of the debris.
Making space for the new.
While eliminating what is,
What stands.
Depending what angle we stand during a big transitionary time in our life,
That wave can be colored so differently.
We might be in the midst of this mighty wave and feel out of control.
Being pulled by the undertow.
We also might have the tools to ride this mighty wave.
To rise above its grasp.
And move with it out to shore.
There is no question where we all hope we are when this kind of wave arises in our lives.
Truth be told,
Most will experience the undertow.
Forcing them to swim back to shore.
For this is where we grow our strength,
Our resiliency,
And understanding.
These big transitions can sometimes find themselves labeled as lowercase T traumas or uppercase T traumas.
This is a powerful word.
Marking this specific transition as a powerful turning point.
Filled with layered lessons and opportunities to deepen one's understanding of their path here in this life.
Gratefully,
Life isn't all the macro lessons.
And the ocean does calm into mere stillness again.
The universe allows us the respite.
The feeling of pause that the micro day to day transitions afford.
When we can relish in the here and now,
This is the moment of peace and joy.
Between the calm and the fast moving waves.
Sit.
Breathe.
Ride the breath in and out.
As a wave calmly lifting you to shore.
Inhale.
Expand.
Lift.
Exhale.
Contract.
Gently fall.
Ride this moment and find comfort in your own arms.
In your body.
Ride the breath in awareness of the present moment.
Be the stillness amongst an ever changing world.
Discover spaciousness from the constant movement.
Uncover the peace beneath the waves.
Though we do not live in this place,
It is always here for us.
All we need to do is pause to open the door.
Take a deep breath in.
And a deep breath out.
A call to the peace that dwells within us.
May we all breathe in the spaciousness that we need as we heal from the transitions that have brought us to this moment.
May we all be blessed with strength to withstand the undertow.
Resilience to tread water.
And endurance to swim to shore.
May we learn how to find our way.
To ride the waves.
To stay balanced above the unsteady movement below.
May we always remember that peace dwells in us.
No matter where we are.
That no wave or movement can remove it.
Or knock it down.
May we continue to return again and again to our place of our soul.
Our true essence.
Our peace.
The never-changed part of us in this ever-changing world.
Take a slow deep breath in.
Sigh it out the mouth.
Again,
Deep breath in.
And let it go.
Ride the breath.
Slowly come back into your body.
Wiggling the fingers and toes.
Moving the wrists and ankles.
Knees and elbows.
Hips.
Moving up the back to the shoulders.
Your neck and your head.
Maybe stretching the arms overhead with a deep breath in.
And relaxing everything down again with the exhale.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes and return to this present moment.
