Hello and welcome to today's training session.
Just as we always do,
Let's find a comfortable position wherever you're at,
Feel your feet grounded if they're on the floor,
And just rest your hands gently in your lap or if you're driving,
Keep them on the steering wheel.
If you can,
Just gently close your eyes.
Once again,
If you're not in a place to be able to do that,
Just fully arrive in this moment.
We're going to start by taking a slow breath in through the nose,
Pausing briefly at the top and exhaling through the mouth.
Again,
Inhaling,
Steady and deliberate and exhaling,
Unforced,
Exhaling any tension we're feeling so we can fully arrive physically,
Mentally and emotionally in this moment.
Today we're going to set our hearts ablaze to the power of presence,
Returning fully to the here and now before the day begins.
I want you to let that intention settle before we go any further.
Now I want you to bring awareness into the body.
Feel your feet,
Your legs,
Your hips.
Notice the natural rise and fall of your breath.
You can relax your jaw,
Soften your forehead,
Drop your shoulders slightly if they're riding a little high.
The day may already be forming in your mind,
Tasks,
Conversations,
Expectations,
And that's okay.
But for now,
Just simply return to the here and now.
Each inhale brings you here and each exhale anchors you deeper.
What's so awesome about the breath is it's always with us.
It's always typically on autopilot in the background,
But we have the ability at any time to bring our breath to the forefront of our mind and take control.
That's why specific breathing techniques,
Which we'll get into in future episodes,
Are so effective in activating our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system to either energize us or to calm us down when we need it.
If you're ever feeling like the day's getting away from you or you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious about what you got going on,
You can always bring yourself back to your breath and anchor you in the present moment.
Now,
I want you to take notice of where your mind is at.
Is it reaching forward,
Maybe planning or rehearsing the day?
Our minds love momentum,
But mastery begins with stillness.
You don't necessarily need to shut your thoughts down,
But just observe them.
I like to imagine each thought as a cloud passing through the wide sky.
You are not the cloud.
You are the sky.
Let the thoughts move.
You have the ability to control what you give power to,
The thoughts that you might ruminate on a little bit longer,
But at the end of the day,
We have the ability to also let those thoughts pass if they don't serve us.
What we're going to do here is a breathing technique called box breathing.
What it is,
Is you're inhaling,
You're holding your breath,
You're exhaling,
And then you're holding at the bottom of your exhale for the same amount of time.
So we're going to do five rounds of this.
I will hold the count.
This breathing technique is really good with activating our parasympathetic nervous system.
It helps increase our heart rate variability.
It helps reduce stress and anxiety,
And it has cognitive and focus benefits.
So we're going to start with an inhale through our nose for four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Holding at the top for four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Exhaling three,
Two,
One,
And holding at the bottom for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Round two,
Inhaling four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Holding at the top three,
Two,
One,
Exhaling three,
Two,
One,
And holding at the bottom for three,
Two,
One.
Round three,
Inhale three,
Two,
One,
Holding at the top three,
Two,
One,
Exhaling three,
Two,
One,
And holding at the bottom for three,
Two,
One.
Round four,
Inhaling three,
Two,
One,
Holding at the top three,
Two,
One,
Exhaling three,
Two,
One,
And holding at the bottom for three,
Two,
One.
Last round,
Inhaling through our nose three,
Two,
One,
Holding at the top three,
Two,
One,
Exhaling through our mouth three,
Two,
One,
And holding at the bottom for three,
Two,
One.
Now you can start to let your breath just naturally go back to its normal pace.
Start to feel your nervous system settling.
Before performance,
Before productivity,
Before interaction,
This is your baseline.
Presence is the foundation beneath everything else and everything we do.
At some point,
Your attention will drift.
This is not failure,
It's just human nature.
That's how we've trained our brains to operate.
When you notice your mind wandering,
Just gently guide it back.
No frustration,
Just return.
Every return strengthens your awareness.
Presence is not about never drifting,
It is choosing to come back again and again.
That's the reason why we start by settling into our bodies,
By noticing how we're feeling physically,
Right?
When we are able to arrive,
Right,
And take the time to be able to feel where we're at physically,
We notice where we're holding tension in our body.
When we can arrive physically in a moment,
It allows our brain to arrive in that moment as well,
To close those mental tabs that we have open,
Whether it's for the day ahead of us or whatever we got going on.
Now I want you to imagine your day unfolding.
See yourself moving through it.
Not rushed,
Not scattered,
Not reactive,
But just present in all of those moments.
In conversation,
You're listening,
You're not waiting to respond.
In work,
You're focused on what you're doing and intentional.
In challenges,
You are steady,
You don't react.
Presence doesn't necessarily remove difficulty through the day,
But it removes unnecessary noise.
Now I want you to ask yourself quietly,
How do I want to show up today?
Not what you want to accomplish,
How you want to be.
Calm,
Clear,
Disciplined,
Maybe patient.
Let one word surface.
Presence is not something you visit.
It is something you practice.
Each time you pause before reacting.
Each time you breathe before speaking.
Each time you notice instead of rushing.
You are training the mind.
You are refining the nervous system.
You are choosing alignment and presence over autopilot.
If we stay on autopilot,
The habits and routines and reactions that we've built,
Whether it's positive or negative,
Will automatically take over.
We want to have the ability to change the way that we react and respond.
We have to be aware and fully present to notice those things.
Be fully in those moments to make different decisions.
Now as we close this training down,
I want you to take one final deep breath in and holding briefly at the top before exhaling slowly.
Start to feel the room around you,
The space around you.
Feel the steadiness within you.
When you're ready,
You can open your eyes or just fully return to where you're at and move forward,
But with an added level of presence to move you through the rest of your day.
Hopefully this training helped you today.
If you have any specific topics that you want to hear,
Feel free to leave it in the comments and have a great rest of your day.
