Welcome.
Please come find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
Let your body choose what feels most natural right now.
Gently close your eyes and take a slow breath in through the nose.
And a long breath out.
Beautiful.
There is nothing you need to do or accomplish right now.
Simply notice that you are here,
In this body,
In this moment.
And if the mind is busy,
Just notice that.
Maybe your body feels a little bit restless or heavy and that's okay too.
Let your body arrive exactly as you are.
Let's take this time to settle in nice and slow.
Just noticing the sensations of sitting,
The sensations of breathing.
Now bring your awareness to the area of your heart.
Just sensing what is present right now.
Now at the same time,
Bring your awareness to the lower body as well.
To the pelvis,
The legs,
The feet.
Feeling the contact with the surface beneath you.
Now let your breath move through those places.
Feeling the breath through your chest and your heart.
And feeling the breath in your lower body.
With each inhale,
A sense of openness in the chest.
With each exhale,
A sense of grounding downward.
Usually when we feel more openness,
We don't feel quite as grounded.
But we can have both.
Keep noticing the breath opening the chest and grounding you down.
Feeling the breath move through your body,
Through your heart space,
Through the pelvis,
The legs and the feet.
Your body breathing as one.
Open and connected.
Now allow your awareness to broaden a little bit so that it includes all of your experience right now.
Noticing the sensations in the body.
Warmth,
Tension,
Ease,
Movement or stillness.
And notice thoughts as they come and go too.
Without following them.
Without pushing them away.
Noticing any emotions that are present right now.
Maybe you can feel them clearly or maybe they are more subtle.
They may be comfortable or uncomfortable.
But let it all be okay.
Allow yourself to be aware of anything within your experience right now.
Just noticing.
Just curious but not clinging to anything.
With an open awareness like this,
It is easy to become distracted.
But that's okay.
Because that is the practice.
See if you notice any judgment.
Can you notice that too without trying to change it?
Just noticing any urge to change what you are experiencing.
To fix it,
Improve it,
To analyze it,
Understand it.
You don't need to get rid of that urge either.
Just let it all be here.
It is all allowed.
This sensation is allowed.
This thought is allowed.
This emotion is allowed.
Even wishing things were different is allowed.
Acceptance doesn't mean approval.
It doesn't mean liking or agreeing with your experience.
It simply means to not exclude it.
To just let it be here.
Practicing open awareness with acceptance is such a beautiful practice to allow yourself to be fully present in the here and now.
Without focusing on one specific thing but to allow yourself to be in your whole experience in this moment.
The fullness of it.
If you notice that you get distracted,
Just bring yourself back to the breath,
To the sensations in your body,
The emotions,
The thoughts.
And remind yourself that all of it is allowed here.
Let your awareness become a wide space that includes everything.
Rest in this inclusion.
Rest in this permission to be exactly as you are right now.
Can you allow your awareness to become even more open and more spacious?
No specific focus at all.
Just noticing whatever arises within this field of awareness.
When you're ready,
Slowly begin to reconnect with the room around you.
With the sounds.
With the ground.
Feeling the surface beneath your body.
Noticing the temperature of the air.
And in your own time,
Slowly open your eyes.
Thank you for practicing today.
And see if you can allow this sense of permission to come with you today.
