Let's begin by taking a long slow breath in through your nose and gently exhale out through your mouth.
One more time inhale and exhale drop your shoulders a little bit and if it feels comfortable you can allow your eyes to close or just let your gaze rest softly on a point in front of you.
Notice your body arriving where you are right now.
Maybe you're sitting in a chair,
Maybe lying down,
Maybe at the kitchen table at the end of the day and see if you can let your spine grow just a little taller without effort as if someone gently lifted you up from the crown of your head and around that long spine let your body soften.
A tall spine,
A soft heart,
Softness around your eyes,
A soft face.
Inhale and exhale then let your breath return to its own natural rhythm.
No need to control,
Just follow along and start by sensing your body after a full day.
How does your face feel right now?
Your jaw,
Your eyes,
Your forehead.
Can something soften there just a little?
Let your attention travel down through your neck,
Into your shoulders,
Down your arms,
Into your hands.
Feel the weight,
Feel the warmth.
Continue down through your chest,
Your belly,
Your pelvis and your thighs and all the way into your feet.
And then notice if there are places in your body carrying more tension than others without trying to change anything.
Simply I see you,
I feel that you are here.
On your exhale you might imagine some of the day's tension melting down through the soles of your feet into the ground beneath you.
Inhale and as you exhale let your body release a little more.
Now without analysing,
Let your day pass by inside you as if you were slowly flipping through a book or scrolling through a feed but in slow motion.
The morning,
Maybe your first cup of coffee or tea,
First meeting,
Those emails,
Moments of focus,
Moments of noise.
Let images,
Fragments,
Faces,
Words come and go.
You don't have to hold on to anything,
You don't have to figure everything out.
Just let the day drift by like clouds across the sky and if something in particular stands out,
A scene,
A feeling,
A sentence,
Pause there for a moment,
Breathe into it and breathe out.
And we will move through three simple questions.
It's not a test,
There are no right answers.
It's just an invitation to meet yourself with gentle curiosity.
And the first question is,
What do I want to thank myself for today?
It might be something big but often it's the small things that we tend to miss.
That you really listened to someone,
That you stood up for something that mattered,
That you took a break when you needed one,
That you asked for help,
That you showed up even when you were tired.
Let one or two moments from the day appear where you can say,
Thank you,
I did that well enough.
Inhale and on the exhale let the words form quietly within you.
Thank you.
Stay here in silence for a little while and let that gratitude sink in.
And now the second question.
What can stay here instead of coming with me into the night?
Is there something from the day you're still carrying that feels heavy,
Noisy or unfinished?
A look,
An email,
A meeting that didn't go as you hoped,
A to-do list that never got fully ticked off.
See if you can give it a shape inside of you,
A picture,
A color,
A stone,
A backpack.
You don't need to solve it now,
You don't need to replay it or do it over.
You can simply acknowledge,
This is how it turned out,
For now I let it stay here.
If you like,
You can imagine a place where you put down what feels heavy,
By the side of a path,
In a bowl,
At a doorway,
Between your working day and your evening.
An inner room where such things can rest,
While you rest.
On your exhale you might quietly say,
I leave this here for today.
Inhale and exhale,
And notice how your body responds when you allow yourself to let go,
Even just a little.
And now the third question.
What do I want to carry with me?
In the middle of all the ordinary things,
What felt alive today?
What felt alive today?
Maybe someone's smile,
A sentence in a conversation,
A moment where something finally clicked,
A time when you felt fully present,
A glimpse of courage or a glimpse of lightness.
Let one or two of these golden moments come forward.
Breathe into them,
As if you were drawing them into your heart.
You might quietly say to yourself,
This is what I want to bring with me.
This was true for me today.
Let it shrink down to a single word or a simple sentence.
Like a small point of light you can carry into tomorrow.
Let the questions fade into the background now,
And come back to your body.
Feel your chest,
The area around your heart,
And if you like you can place a hand there,
Right in the center of your chest.
Feel the warmth,
Feel your chest moving with every breath.
Here you can silently say to yourself,
I did the best I could today with what I knew at the time.
And maybe also,
Tomorrow I get to begin again with a new chance,
A new day.
Inhale and exhale.
Let these words sink in like a kind truth,
Not perfect,
Just true enough.
And if you wish,
You can now imagine yourself stepping out of your day as a leader,
Decision maker,
Problem solver.
And stepping into your evening,
Simply as a human being.
As someone who is allowed to be tired,
Allowed to be unfinished,
Allowed to rest.
See if you can picture yourself gently setting your roll down for a while.
Hanging it on a hook,
Placing it on a chair,
Leaving it in the hallway.
You can always pick it up again tomorrow,
It won't disappear.
But right now you get to be you,
Without demands,
Without performance.
Inhale and exhale.
And we will begin to round off.
Bring your awareness back to your whole body.
Feel all of you right here and right now.
You might want to set a simple intention for the rest of this evening before you go to sleep.
For the rest of this evening,
I practice doing less and being more.
Or I give myself permission to rest.
Or anything else that feels true for you.
Let the words land inside you until they feel soft and real.
And now take a slightly deeper breath in through your nose,
And a long slow breath out through your mouth.
If you want to drift off into silence or sleep,
You can just stay as you are,
Eyes closed,
Letting your breath rock you gently.
And if you prefer to end the meditation here,
When you're ready,
You gently open your eyes and let your gaze soften into the room.
Thank yourself for giving yourself this time,
To meet yourself with the same kindness as you so often extend to other human beings.
You are allowed to rest now.
