My name is Larissa,
And we're going to practice for about 15 minutes.
Take a couple of moments here to settle into your body.
We very often have a familiar posture that we choose.
It's just checking in.
You have the right amount of comfort,
Warmth,
Support.
Some days you want to lean back just a touch,
A little more softness.
Some days leaning forward just a couple of inches gives you just a tiny bit more alertness.
That check-in.
To have the right amount of support.
Of course,
You want to close your eyes or set your gaze downward at any point.
And as you're settling here,
Just take a couple of deep breaths.
Look for expansion through your ribs.
Slow,
Deep diaphragmatic breath is the simplest way for us to contact our calming systems.
In these next couple of exhales,
Can you invite in a little bit of softening to your jaw,
Your shoulders,
Your hands?
As you watch your breath moving through you.
You're witnessing a wise balance of effort and ease.
And that wise balance is always with you.
We have the larger effort and ease where we're awake during the day and we go to bed at night or vice versa if you work third shift.
And we have seasons.
Season of spring There's a lot of growth happening in the nature around us.
But we also need seasons of winter in order to store energy for that growth to occur.
Every single time you breathe in and out,
We have this reminder of balance.
Wise effort of the inhale.
The wise rest of the exhale.
Witnessing that.
Letting your body take care of you with these breaths.
Perhaps even inviting a bit of appreciation that we have a bit of slow time here,
That we can just witness this balance.
Every inhale is an opportunity to notice the spaciousness within you.
Every exhale opportunity to notice the emptiness.
It's really the emptiness inside that creates all of the growth opportunities.
And think about creating a clay pot.
It's the emptiness inside that or creating.
You might take time for some beautiful carvings on the outside.
But it's the emptiness inside that holds everything.
And as we breathe,
We're just creating more and more spaciousness,
More and more space to hold whatever comes.
Every time we exhale,
I'm just softening.
Noticing spaciousness and emptiness.
And both just different words for essentially the same thing.
Witness that rise and fall as your body breathes in and out.
It's this reminder again of effort and ease.
Every inhale your body requires a bit of gentle effort.
Every exhale,
There's no effort required.
You could certainly use your core container muscles to push the air out.
And we do that sometimes when we need to brace,
When we need to pick up something heavy.
But there's also just this availability to soften.
So we get to choose moment by moment.
Sometimes things are running so much in the background we don't even notice that we're bracing when we don't need to be bracing anymore.
Opportunity to continue witnessing this wise balance of effort and ease.
Spaciousness and softness.
Expansiveness and emptiness.
Moment by moment,
Breath by breath.
Continuing to contact this present moment with your breath.
And not because what your mind is doing.
Is something you need to push away,
But it's noticing how our mind goes to the future and the past.
Your breath is always consistently present.
It's difficult to remember three breaths ago.
But you can notice this breath here.
This constant reminder of both and.
We need both effort and ease.
We need both expansiveness.
And softness.
And this really is at the heart of our wholeness.
So when we're looking at balance in our life,
It's not about things being perfectly equal.
So we go again to our breath.
When you slow down your exhale,
You might even let it be double long the inhale.
That allows your body to soften.
Give your mind,
If you're feeling a bit of anxiety,
Just a moment to put that anxiety down.
Balance is not about things being perfectly equal,
Nor about you being perfectly calm all the time.
It's about wholeness.
If we look at the wisdom of the yogic system,
The last limb of the limbs of yoga is a word samadhi.
And that word is often translated as bliss.
Sometimes translated as calm abiding in the present state.
No matter what the present state is.
The etymology of the word,
The root sam,
Means whole or complete.
And it's one of those words that doesn't have a direct translation in English,
But it's a recognition that I am whole and complete in this moment.
Nothing is missing from me,
Nothing is separate from me.
I have everything I need and I am connected to everything.
And that's not something we can be taught,
It's an experience.
We've probably all felt it in moments.
Like when time flies by when you're with friends or family and you're just having the best time.
And time just disappears.
Or these moments in meditation where everything falls away.
And time becomes expansive.
And you're just resting in your breath for a moment.
And invariably your mind will tap you.
And we get pulled out of that blissful moment.
But it always exists.
It's just here.
It's not something we have to get to.
It's just here.
Balancing is very often just open ourselves to let ourselves be whole.
It's reminding yourself balance doesn't have to mean equal all the time.
If you're exhausted you might need a season of rest even though society tells us we should go all the time.
But remember too that every time you exhale is a moment of rest.
Just receiving again this expansive breath in,
This gift of life that comes through your body.
Let your mind,
Let your heart,
Let your body rest as you exhale.
I invite you to bring your hands into any of your closing habits or practices.
Notice again a breath.
Expansive on the inhale,
Creating space.
Noticing the emptiness at the very bottom of the exhale.
You might even Look for your Harvey.
And we'll end with a few loving kindness praises,
Just repeating them back as they make sense for you.
May my effort be wise today.
May my rest be expansive today.
May I meet each moment with tenderness today.
And when action is needed.
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
May the merits of our collective practice ripple out.
To benefit all beings.
And then go slow.
There's no rush.
It's just whenever you feel complete,
Find a little movement in your body.
Take a moment to thank yourself.
That little piece so important,
Just a little gratitude for yourself.
And as always,
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for supporting each other in our sangha.
