When you're ready,
You can close your eyes,
Settle into the body,
If you don't want to close your eyes,
You can just soften your gaze,
Just limit visual distraction,
And feel into the body.
Sense the connection your butt has with the chair,
Your feet to the floor,
Notice if there's any places in the body that are asking for attention,
Pulling for your awareness,
And you can just rest your awareness right there on that body part,
You don't need to change it,
You don't need to get it to relax,
You can just sit with it,
Notice it,
Listen to it,
Feel it,
Bringing our awareness to the breath,
Taking a nice,
Slow,
Long breath in,
Holding it for a moment,
And relaxing,
You can do that two or three more times at your own pace,
Bringing awareness to the way the air feels in the body as it moves in and out,
Letting the breath fall back to its own pace,
Own rhythm,
Noticing the sensations in the body as your chest rises and falls with the breath,
And any time the mind wanders,
You can just bring it back to the breath,
Bringing to mind any challenging area of your life,
Something you're finding,
A challenge to find any gratitude for,
Any peace,
Any compassion,
Any love that's upsetting or agitating to you,
Bringing that area to mind,
And noticing how that feels in the body,
Where in the body do you feel that agitation,
That upset,
The tension,
Where,
What does that thought do to the body,
How does that change your physiology,
Becoming the observer of those functions in the body,
Where do you feel it,
Without labeling it,
Without saying anything about it,
You're just noticing the sensations,
Just observing,
Allowing them to be,
Those sensations have a shape or a color,
A temperature,
A weight,
Just curious about what it feels like,
See if you can generate some compassion for yourself for feeling this so deeply,
That area is there,
It feels that way,
Can you extend some compassion and some loving-kindness to yourself,
Just because you're upset,
And feel this deeply,
And sometimes it helps if you soften the eyes and smile with the eyes,
Half smile with a smile on the lips,
You're not smiling at the area,
You're smiling at yourself,
Being kind to yourself for feeling this so deeply,
And extending that kindness to anyone else who might be impacted by that challenging situation,
Inside that loving-kindness,
The compassion,
See if there's any space for gratitude,
For appreciation,
And at least of yourself,
Generating some loving-kindness,
Can you be grateful for anything about yourself,
Anything about those other people,
What situation exists,
Anything you could find,
That you can appreciate as a gift out of this situation,
Even if it's just that you took the time to look,
You're the kind of person that cares that deeply,
Just breathing into that space,
Noticing how that feels in the body,
How the loving-kindness feels,
How the appreciation feels,
And if gratitude was there,
How that feels,
You might notice you're large enough to hold both spaces,
The upset and the gratitude,
Noticing this vibration,
Gratitude,
Appreciation,
Loving-kindness,
That's a place you could return to during the day,
When you're ready,
You could take a few more breaths,
Begin to stretch,
Open the eyes,
