We're going to practice for about 30 minutes this morning.
It's taking a little bit of time here to settle in.
As always,
Just finding the right amount of support,
The right amount of comfort,
Just choosing a posture that feels good for you.
And reminder that it's just a daily check-in.
We have these rituals and habits that can be so beneficial.
And whether you light a candle and then you sit down or you just show up every day and you choose what feels right in the moment.
It's this importance of checking into the present.
And that checking into the present is just asking yourself,
Do I have the right amount of support?
Setting an intention to be gentle with yourself to the best of your ability.
Removing any pressure.
That now that you're meditating,
You're going to feel a certain way afterwards.
It very often happens that our meditation brings some form of calming or ease to us.
But that's not always the case.
And so it's this opportunity to just show up present.
Some days that means you show up easeful,
Some days that means you show up anxious.
Some days that means you show up.
Grumpy and joyful at the exact same time.
So however it is that you've shown up,
You're just checking in.
What is it that I need right now so that I can stay for a while?
And be gentle with myself to the best of my ability.
And as we do these types of check-ins,
It's natural that our mind moves.
We might be thinking about needs,
We might be immediately thinking about something else.
And that's also part of the practice to just notice,
Oh yeah,
Thinking is happening.
Utilizing our thinking to benefit us to the best of our ability.
But also noticing when our mind is just moving.
That's part of setting ourselves up for ease and comfort so that when we invite our mind back We're not inviting it back to a place of forcefulness,
A place of tension.
Just take a moment here to notice how your exhale naturally creates ease in the body.
Can you soften the muscles around your eyelids just 1%?
Notice your shoulders on this next exhale.
Is there any softening that can happen in your shoulders and your neck?
Is it possible to let your arms hang a little heavier?
To soften your abdomen.
Just allow this easefulness of the exhale to land in your entire being.
And then as we stay,
Utilize that tool often.
It's checking in with your exhale and seeing,
Is there any tension I can soften as I exhale?
So we all have these little tensile points.
And sometimes we barely register that they're happening if we even notice them at all.
For me,
I notice my traps,
The back of my neck and tops of my shoulders.
That's the place where I tense up first.
Other people might tighten abdomen.
You might find even just one finger starts to curl.
And when you can notice that,
You can tend to it.
As very often we're walking around with these little tense points in our body.
And here we have an opportunity to witness them and then tend.
Every time you exhale,
You have this opportunity to soften a touch.
You can also utilize your own hands,
Actually using physical touch.
Especially if you notice there's a particular tension that keeps arising,
Whether it's a thought That's a little bit sticky,
That thought.
Changes how your body is moving.
Even if it's in a micro level.
So you might take one of your hands and place it over your heart.
When you're feeling something that feels a little bit challenging.
You might take one of your hands and place it over the body part that starts to tense up a little bit.
It's not only a physical reminder.
To be aware of that area just to continue softening.
It's also exactly like you might reach out and touch a loved one,
To give them reassurance,
To let them know you're there.
In modern science,
It's called positive biofeedback.
And in the ancient yogic tradition,
It's this idea that our hands are an extension of our heart.
We take that heart energy.
And we move it through our hands,
It's happening all the time.
And so with conscious choice,
You can take your hands.
And place them on your own body as a form of loving support.
Creating this foundation within you of support,
Tenderness,
Of compassion.
Is being gentle with yourself to the best of your ability.
Remembering the ease of your exhale.
Seeking the comfort of your own hands.
Setting the intention to be gentle with yourself,
To be kind to yourself.
All of these are actionable ways we can access our heart space.
In these past months,
We've been working with balance,
Balance for our mind,
Balance for our heart,
Balance for our body.
And balance for our spirit,
Our soul.
Accessing heart space can sometimes feel To use a word a wonderful student used recently,
Nebulous.
Almost there.
Conceptual rather than.
Factual.
And our brain is so oriented towards the tangible.
When we enter the heart space.
It's a remembering,
It's not something that's separate from you,
It's here.
We're just so oriented to the mind.
Knowledge base.
Thinking through things.
The heart space,
Landing there,
Allowing your intuition to come through,
Rather than trying to figure something out,
Is not something you need to learn how to do.
It's a remembering.
Every time you invite in ease on the exhale.
Every time you give yourself permission to feel something difficult.
Every time you stay with yourself.
And practice lovingness rather than judgment.
No matter how sideways it goes,
No matter how many times you get stuck in anxiety,
Stuck in an anger loop towards someone else.
No matter how many times that happens,
The act of returning to your breath is enough.
Your breath is innately loving.
Your breath is connected to your heart space.
Your breath is connected to.
What's sometimes called the spark of divine within you.
It's what animates us.
Without our breath,
There's no more animation of this human body.
Without your heartbeat,
There's no more animation of this human body.
And yes,
That's all connected to your brain,
To your mind.
So these concepts of heart space,
Mind versus brain,
What's the difference?
We can get very intellectual.
And that's not a bad thing.
It can be exciting and really interesting and give you a foundation to land in.
And at the same time,
It's equally as important to just practice.
Witnessing your breath,
Which helps you witness your heart space.
Which helps you connect to the wisdom of your body.
Which helps you open the eye of your heart.
To see through the eye of the heart.
Is to see clearly without judgment.
To let the constructs of the mind simply be that.
Oh yeah,
I see my mind is judging right now.
And I can feel the pain of that judgment.
And I let that be okay.
This is to see through the eye of the heart.
Any moment you notice,
Oh,
My mind is judging.
That's an opportunity.
That's a witnessing.
That's the practice.
You don't need to fix the judgment or figure out why it's there,
Although sometimes that is helpful.
Here.
It's just landing within yourself again and again.
Remembering that intention to be gentle with yourself.
Allowing the ease of your exhale to soften.
Your entire being.
Including your mind.
Just breath by breath we enter into the heart space.
Slowly but surely we start to open the eye of our heart.
And see everything more and more clearly.
Breath by breath.
Checking back into the present moment,
Noticing if your mind moved somewhere.
Is returning.
Allow the softening of your exhale.
To soften your entire being,
Including your mind.
It's not about forcing thoughts away or trying to fix them,
It's just witnessing them.
Over and over and over.
Our thinking is happening.
I see you.
I'm holding you with tenderness.
And we say that to every thought,
To every emotion,
To every experience that arises.
And eventually we really start to believe it.
I can hold whatever comes.
Not because I have to be strong.
But because I'm open and tender,
Because I am soft.
And that softness allows all of the strength that I need to come through my heart,
Rather than me having to figure everything out and think really hard and cling or avoid.
It's just an open tenderness and the strength that comes from the open eye of the heart.
And we get there breath by breath.
We remember breath by breath.
Witness again the expansion of your inhale,
The softening of your exhale.
Every moment an opportunity.
To let your body share its wisdom with you.
This body that's animated by your breath,
By your heartbeat,
Animated by the oxygen the trees created.
Every time we exhale,
Not only do we soothe our entire being,
We also give back a gift.
Back to the Earth.
In this abundant reciprocation.
And our minds can be so tight,
We can get so caught up in the construct of mind.
And it's the ease of the exhale that helps us land back again in the wisdom of this body.
It's our mind that gets filled with ideas that somehow our body needs to be different.
That somehow when our body is in pain,
We want to fight against that.
When your body is in pain,
Whether it's the pain of a surgery,
An illness.
A long-term autoimmune disease.
Something small like a hangnail.
You drank too much coffee before you ate.
All of this is your body asking for some attention.
It's never punishment.
It's never something you've done wrong.
It's just an opportunity to tend.
Any pain point,
Whether physical or emotional.
Can we open up our hearts?
Your heart is vast.
If you extend your arms out wide,
If you talk to a little kid,
I love you this much.
And we try to express what that means with our body.
This idea of spreading your arms out wide.
Like a little kid might say,
I love you this much.
Arms as wide as possible.
That's the very beginning of the expansiveness of your heart.
Trying to hold things within these small containers within our mind makes us feel restricted and tight.
Just allowing everything to drop down and land in the wisdom of your body.
I often say,
That our body is 96,
97% of you,
Your brain just a small portion.
And in the world,
Brain takes up a good 20% of the oxygen that we breathe,
Even though it's a small percentage of our body.
Your brain doing all of this work to make sure the blood is flowing.
The lungs are breathing.
There's a reciprocation,
There's a connection.
And yet so often we go up to the 2% of our mind.
Technically the 0.
2% of our mind that does the thinking.
And somehow try to contain everything in that small percentage of our body.
Continue to allow yourself to drop down,
Your shoulders softening as you exhale.
The metaphorical eye of your heart opening every time you give yourself permission to feel something difficult.
Every time you give yourself permission to experience joy to its fullest.
Every breath you take,
An opportunity to expand.
And soften.
To remember.
The innate connection that you have.
To lovingness.
And as we come to a close,
I'm going to share this poem.
Poem to honor your body.
And also remember,
Your heart expands so far beyond your body.
Care for this garment that we wear in this human life.
And also to tend to the spark inside you.
Is called Body made of bliss.
I am wearing a garment made of breath and cells and atoms,
Each infinitely smaller and greater than I can comprehend.
I am a silk robe made of blood and delight.
Bliss made of body.
Designed for sensation.
And destined for loving.
Let me revel in my softness.
Let me love my sorrow.
Allow my joy to permeate every cell.
My curiosity and wisdom a silk thread that wraps me in a cocoon.
I transform,
Heal,
Connect to who I truly am.
Unimpeded by the thicket of views and opinions,
Safe in this refuge of bliss.
When the time is ready,
I reemerge more powerful.
And much more tender.
May I boldly declare and share my gifts.
Fan your embers with my breath.
Receive your fire as my own.
And remember.
This is simply a garment that I wear.
That I deeply love.
Cherish.
And now fold away,
Allowing the world,
Finally.
Into my naturally radiant heart.
I invite you to bring your hands into any of your closing habits or practices,
Maybe stacking your hands over your heart.
Maybe placing your hands on a body part that tends to feel tension,
A body part that needs a little tenderness and love.
We'll end,
As we often do,
With a few loving-kindness praises.
Just repeating them back as they make sense for you.
May I remember to care for my body.
May I slow down and receive my body's wisdom.
May I continue opening my heart.
When action is needed.
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
And may the merits of our practice ripple out to benefit all beings.
And go slow.
Whenever you feel complete,
No rush.
Take a moment to thank yourself just for showing up.
As always,
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for supporting each other in this practice.
It's lovely to be with y'all.
