Welcome.
Find a position that feels comfortable and supportive.
You can sit upright,
Lean back,
Or lie down.
Let your hands rest naturally.
If it feels comfortable,
Close your eyes.
Or keep them open and soften your gaze.
In this practice,
When I use the word energy,
You do not need to think of it in any spiritual or metaphysical way.
You can think of energy as your attention,
Effort,
Emotional bandwidth,
And the part of you that gets pulled toward people,
Tasks,
Conversations,
Worries,
And plans.
Some days it can feel as though pieces of our attention are still everywhere we've been.
For the next few minutes,
We are not trying to remove anything negative.
Or fix anything about you.
We are gathering your attention back into one place.
In your body.
In this moment.
Begin by feeling what is supporting you.
Notice the chair.
The bed.
The floor beneath your feet.
Or whatever is holding your weight.
Notice the difference between holding yourself up and allowing yourself to be supported.
Bring attention to your hands.
Your feet.
Your breathing.
You do not need a special breath.
Let it move naturally.
Notice the inhale arriving.
Notice the exhale leaving.
Feel your body's weight again.
You are here.
You do not need to be anywhere else for these few minutes.
Now,
Let your mind move gently across the day or across whatever has been taking up space lately.
Notice where your attention has been going.
Maybe part of you is still inside a conversation.
Maybe you're thinking about someone else's reaction.
A task you have not finished.
A message you need to answer.
A decision you're trying to make.
Something that happened earlier.
Something that might happen later.
You do not need to build a list.
Notice what comes forward on its own.
And notice how easy it is for your attention to leave the room even when your body stays here.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Attention Moves.
For now,
We're inviting it home.
Imagine that each place your attention is gone is connected to you by nothing more complicated than your awareness.
You do not need to picture cords,
Light,
Or anything mystical unless that imagery is natural for you.
Just notice the feeling of turning your attention away from those places and back towards yourself.
From the unfinished task,
Back to your breath.
From the conversation back to your hands.
From tomorrow.
Back to the weight of your body.
From someone else's opinion.
Back to your own presence.
You are not cutting yourself off from anyone.
You are not withdrawing care.
You are remembering that your attention belongs to you.
And you can choose where it rests.
Quietly if it feels right.
Say to yourself.
I am allowed to come back to myself.
Notice whether you're carrying anything that may not belong in your hands.
Someone else's mood.
Someone else's disappointment.
Someone else's expectations?
A problem you can care about,
But cannot solve for them.
A reaction you cannot control.
You do not need to decide that these things do not matter.
They may matter very much.
The question is whether you need to carry them inside your body right now.
Imagine setting down what is not yours to hold.
Not rejecting it.
Not sending it anywhere.
Just putting it outside the work of your body.
In this moment.
Let your shoulders soften a little.
Let your hands loosen.
Let the jaw have less to do.
Bring awareness to the space your body occupies.
The shape of you sitting or lying here.
The air around your skin.
The boundary where your body ends and the room begins.
You do not have to imagine a shield or a protective wall.
Just notice.
That you have space.
You can be connected to other people and still have space.
You can care deeply.
And still have space.
You can listen without absorbing everything.
You can help without becoming responsible for every outcome.
For a few breaths,
Let yourself fully occupy your own space.
No shrinking.
No reaching.
No pulling anything towards you.
Just being here.
Sometimes what follows us is not a person or a task.
It is the residue of the moment.
The tension after a difficult conversation.
The rush after a busy hour.
The feeling of being watched.
Needed.
Hurry!
Or pulled in several directions.
Notice if any of that remains in the body.
Maybe in the chest?
The stomach.
The shoulders.
The face.
You do not need to push it out.
Let the body know that the moment has passed.
This breath is happening now.
This room is happening now.
You are allowed to stop rehearsing what is over.
You are allowed to stop preparing for what has not arrived.
Let some of that extra effort fall away.
Now,
Bring your attention inward.
Not to search for anything,
But to notice yourself.
Feel the breath.
Feel your hands.
Feel the center of your chest.
Feel the belly rise and fall.
Notice the quiet fact that you are here underneath all the roles you move through.
The worker.
The partner.
The Friend.
The helper.
The person who remembers.
The person who plans.
The person who gets things done.
For these few minutes,
You do not have to be useful to anyone.
You do not have to anticipate anymore.
You do not have to perform.
Let your attention settle into the experience of being yourself without an assignment.
Notice what remains when you set down some of the extra noise.
Maybe you feel calmer.
Maybe you feel more solid.
Maybe you notice how tired you are.
Maybe the mind is still busy.
You don't have to create a result.
Calling your energy back does not mean becoming perfectly centered.
It can be much smaller than that.
It can mean noticing when your attention is scattered and choosing one place for it to rest.
It can also mean remembering what is yours to carry and what is not.
It can mean giving yourself a few moments where you are not reaching out.
For now,
Rest with the breath and the body.
Let yourself be enough company.
One more,
Easy breath.
Begin to notice the room again.
The sounds around you.
The temperature of the air,
The support beneath your body.
Maybe move your fingers and toes.
As you return,
Imagine taking your attention with you.
Not guarded,
Not closed.
Just more intentional.
You can decide what receives your attention.
You can notice when you are carrying more than belongs to you.
And when you feel scattered again,
You can come back.
To the feet.
To the hands.
To the breath.
To the body.
To this moment.
You do not have to gather everything at once.
Come back one piece at a time.
When you are ready,
Open your eyes or lift your gaze.
Take a moment before you move on.
If this practice felt useful,
Return to it whenever you notice that your attention feels scattered.
Overextended,
Or caught in too many places at once.
And if you'd like.
Share a comment in the Insight Timer community about what it felt like to bring your attention back to yourself today.
Before we finish,
Take a moment to thank yourself for making this time.
For noticing.
For listening.
For coming back to yourself without forcing anything.
Thank you for listening.
And good day.
