Taking a deep inhaling breath.
Really bringing your awareness into this body.
And doing a body scan,
Noticing how you feel.
Bringing yourself very present in this moment.
Noticing your heart rate.
Noticing any aches or pains,
Tension,
Discomfort.
Noticing when you take that deep inhaling breath how full your lungs become.
And on the exhale.
How empty we can make these lungs.
Noticing the sounds that you're hearing in your ears.
And the smells in the air.
The taste on your tongue.
And there's no judgment at all.
Or just witnessing.
And aware.
Of what is.
And we feel.
Where we are touching the earth.
Noticing that solid feeling beneath you.
Gravity pushing us downward and the earth.
Pushing us upward,
Holding us up.
We are able to meet gravity.
Meet that pressure that is upon us.
Without effort.
Without fighting it.
Just simply by.
Welcoming the earth.
To provide that stability.
And balance up to us.
Physical earth.
Is vibrating with nature.
And this physical body vibrates with nature.
And that's how they talk to each other.
They communicate through that.
Resonant vibration.
Without asking,
Without trying.
The earth simply provides us with support.
Holds us up.
Communicates stability.
And this physical body.
Is being asked to simply receive.
What the earth has to share.
Going up to our mind,
Noticing all of the thoughts that are flitting around in your head.
Thoughts of what happened.
10 minutes ago.
Thoughts of what happened yesterday.
Thoughts of what happened in childhood.
They all simply are.
What happened simply was.
And the question is,
How entangled do we need to be in our past?
It's as if our brains have created these.
Roots.
That reach out to our past memories.
And the roots wrap around the memory and hold on to it.
Snarled root.
Reaching out to another memory.
Wrapping around it.
I see thousands of these,
Millions of these.
Connections in our brain.
Trying to hold on to and manage all of the past.
And what if we just accept it?
As what was.
We just simply see those snarled roots that were wrapped around the past.
Not needing to try so hard.
They start to loosen their grip.
Straighten out,
Unfurl.
And they can just rest.
Alongside the memory.
Rest alongside what was.
Bearing witness.
Without having to do anything.
And you witness all of your thoughts about the future.
What is happening for the rest of today.
What you're planning to do next weekend.
Longer-term thoughts.
Plans for vacation.
Dreams for your life.
Each of these thoughts for the future.
Seem to be like helium balloons.
Connected to you by a string.
And as you hold a hundred of them,
A thousand of them,
A million of them.
All by the string.
It's hard to manage.
Once in a while,
A balloon escapes.
Floats off.
Holding on to all of these strings.
Might start to levitate us.
Cause us to live in the future,
To not feel grounded in this moment.
Lift us,
Pull us out of our current reality.
Pulling us out of our current relationships.
Floating with our dreams.
Or we might select a handful.
These balloons of our future.
And work really hard right now to manage them.
Holding on tightly.
To these strings.
Braiding them,
Tying them together.
Tying them to ourselves.
This must be.
The attempts to manage the future.
And every once in a while.
A new balloon.
Floats in on the wind directly to you.
And sometimes our hands are too full.
To catch it.
We don't want to release some of our dreams.
To catch the one that was made for us.
Might not even notice it.
Just passes us by.
There is a message to stop trying so hard.
To let go of some of these balloons.
As they'll stay around if they're meant for us.
Instead of holding on so tightly.
Be in a space where.
These balloons can float in and out.
Can be drawn to you and released,
Making space for new ones.
That our dreams can change.
Our dreams can circle back.
That we can set down the effort.
And just bear witness.
Of what is coming to us.
And what is ready.
To be released.
We welcome our minds to quiet.
To stop trying so hard with the past and the future.
And as the mind quiets,
We find our awareness.
Coming back.
Into how we feel.
An awareness at your heart.
About how you feel in this now moment.
Being present with what is.
Not trying to control what is.
Not attaching all the balloons of the future to what is.
Not weighing down with the past.
Judgments and definitions of what is.
But simply being here.
Completely present.
Bearing witness.
Witnessing that.
Some things seem to float on through.
Some things tend to stick.
In the present,
There is movement and flow.
In the present,
There's a groundedness.
In which they earthed.
Is holding us.
Here in our heart,
It's so quiet.
And our minds like to think,
What do I do with this?
As your heart can simply be.
Your heart has so much space in the present moment.
So much space.
Letting go of the past and the future has opened up your heart to the infinite possibilities.
And the mind asks again,
What do I do with this space?
What do I do with this feeling?
And we simply welcome your heart.
To connect all the way up.
To the divine of the universe.
Witnessing as that light,
That flame at your heart.
Connects up through your spine,
Through the top of your head.
All the way to the distant stars.
The light within you is divine.
You are.
Divine.
It's that spark.
And the light of the stars is divine.
The divine spark.
And that is how they communicate with each other.
Through this vibration of the divine.
Your essence.
With the essence of the universe.
Communicating inspiration.
Communicating possibility.
Communicating.
The infinite.
Quick movement,
Shifting.
Agility.
When you are in alignment.
With your heart.
With the universe.
It's easy to be agile.
To move and shift and turn.
With the space to bear witness to what is.
No effort.
No trying.
Just curiosity.
Simply being.
Divine light from above providing all the guidance.
That we could ask for in this now moment.
All the stability of the earth.
That we could ask for.
In this now moment.
And it's as if we're on a vertical pole,
This pole of light running through us.
Connecting that bright heart essence with the earth and with the distant stars.
And your past comes in and nudges you and you simply spin a little bit on that pole.
Move out of its way.
Welcoming the past to float on by.
And the future comes in and it nudges you.
And you simply shift.
Spin out of the way.
Welcoming the future.
To walk on by.
When life nudges you.
Or life puts pressure on you.
We just say hello to it.
We don't push back.
We don't fight it.
We just simply remember.
Our own alignment.
And some of these nudges of life.
They point us in a new direction.
They point us towards things that.
.
.
We've never considered before.
Either giving us the opportunity.
To say yes in this moment.
Or to let it flow on by.
To learn from it.
To receive it.
Staying in this vertical alignment.
While This human life nudges us.
In every direction.
This human life offering us.
More jobs,
More work.
More play.
More to think about.
More to achieve.
More to judge.
More to fear.
More to laugh about.
In this human world,
We're constantly.
Be nudged.
In every direction.
And there's often a desire to categorize.
And think about what is coming in.
Does this serve me?
Is this on my path?
How can I think about this based on history?
Does this propel me?
Towards my dreams.
Or is it an obstacle?
How should I feel about this?
Based on what's happened to me.
And there's an invitation to simply.
Empty the mind.
Release the need to categorize.
Release the need to engage.
In an intellectual way.
And instead,
Simply bring your breath.
To your heart.
Find alignment.
Find alignment to the earth.
That unconditional support.
That is always there.
The stabilizing force holding you.
Catching you when you fall.
Noticing your alignment with the stars.
Feeling that guidance.
Recognizing that there are infinite possibilities.
And how.
To be.
Through every nudge.
I like to think that every nudge has an equal opposite force.
When people put their expectations on us,
There's one way to respond.
When chaos comes into our space.
We have to instantly work hard to neutralize it.
But our alignment upward to the distant stars.
Reminds us to.
Have space.
To witness.
To tap into the infinite possible.
Pathways.
To turn and shift.
To pivot in the way that is in alignment for you.
When this vertical pole starts to tilt.
And we start to make decisions.
That engage in the doing and the effort and the chaos.
It's a reminder to first.
Find our vertical alignment.
To simply be.
Before we do.
Much easier to find acceptance.
Of what is.
When we are in this now moment.
When we are in alignment.
When we have options.
It's easier to find acceptance of what is.
When the past isn't yelling at us.
With its judgments.
Oh,
And the future.
Isn't drawing us in.
It's easier.
To be an acceptance of what is.
When the earth is providing all the stability.
We don't even have to try.
Bringing your breath back to the heart.
Feeling the spaciousness within.
Feeling the spaciousness all around.
Doing a body scan.
Without judgment,
Just noticing how your body feels in this now moment.
Welcoming what is.
To simply be.
I bow to the Tao in all things,
To all the teachers before me.
And to you for living your light so bright.
Thank you for being here.
