Welcome.
If you have spent today being needed by everyone around you,
This is a space where nobody needs anything from you.
Maybe you've been answering questions all day.
Listening,
Helping,
Holding,
Making decisions,
Being touched.
Hearing your name called again and again.
And now your body feels full of it.
Your mind might be tired or your body still feels switched on.
There may be a buzzing beneath your skin,
A restlessness in your muscles.
Or a feeling that you simply cannot take in.
One more sound.
One more touch.
One more request.
You don't need to make that feeling disappear.
These next few moments,
We're simply going to give you less.
Less noise.
Less doing.
Less needing.
Nothing is required of you here.
If it feels comfortable,
Close your eyes.
And before we even think about taking a deep breath.
Just let yourself exhale.
Let some air leave your body.
Again.
Long,
Unhurried breath.
You don't need to breathe perfectly.
Let your body breathe the way it wants to breathe.
Now notice where your body ends.
Feel the edges of yourself.
Your feet.
Your legs.
Go back.
Your arm.
Your hand.
The skin that holds you.
After a day of reaching outward towards everyone else.
Begin drawing your awareness back inside these edges.
You don't need to reach for anyone right now.
You don't need to listen for what someone else needs.
For this moment.
Your attention belongs to you.
If you've been touched all day.
Give yourself permission now to have your body entirely to yourself.
Feel the space around you.
No hands reaching towards you.
No little body climbing onto you.
No one asking to be held.
No one needing you to move.
Just space.
Your space.
Let yourself take up all of it.
Notice where you are still holding the day in your body.
Your shoulders might be tight.
Your hands might still feel ready to do something.
Your forehead may be tense.
Your legs may want to move.
There's nothing wrong with any of it.
If your body wants a little movement.
Let it have some.
Roll your shoulders.
Stretch your fingers.
Move your feet.
Gently do some cat-cows.
Or gently shake out your hands or your whole body.
You don't have to become perfectly still in order to rest.
Sometimes the body needs to move before it can soften.
And now imagine all of the voices from today becoming quieter.
The questions,
The conversations.
The television,
The phone.
The requests.
Their own thoughts censoring everyone before they've even finished asking.
Turn the volume down.
Not gone,
Just further away.
And underneath all that noise.
There you are.
Still here.
The you beneath all the roles you've carried today.
For the carer.
The mother,
The partner,
The worker,
The organiser,
The one who remembers,
The one who notices,
The one everybody comes to.
For these few moments.
You don't have to be any of those things.
You can simply be you.
Take an easy breath in.
And let it leave slowly.
Feel the weight of your body being held.
You don't have to hold yourself up quite so tightly now.
Let the chair hold you.
Let the bed hold you.
Let the earth beneath your home hold all of it.
If that buzzing is still there.
That's okay.
We're not fighting it.
Imagine giving it more room.
More space around it.
Like ripples spreading across a wide lake until they become softer and softer.
You don't need to force yourself into calm.
You are simply creating the conditions for quiet to find you.
Stay here for another few breaths.
Nothing to answer.
Nothing to decide.
Nothing to give.
And before we finish,
Place a hand somewhere on your body,
Only if touch feels good right now.
Your heart,
Your belly,
Your arm,
Or leave your hands exactly where they are.
And quietly remind yourself.
I am allowed to be unavailable for a while.
I am allowed to have space around me.
I am allowed to come back to myself.
Take one final comfortable breath.
Notice the room around you again.
But don't rush to feel the quiet.
When this meditation ends.
See if you can protect a little of this space.
Remain where you are for a little while longer.
Or have a cup of tea in silence.
A shower with the door closed.
Moments barefoot outside.
Place your headphones on.
Syncing to a book.
Whatever feels like less.
You have given a lot of yourself today.
For now.
Let yourself simply be.
And my beautiful deer.
Welcome home.
