To start our time I invite you to place one hand on your chest and one hand on your abdomen.
As you begin to check in with your breath,
Deepening your inhale and your exhale,
You can curiously notice what happens as you're breathing in and out.
How much do you notice your chest rising and falling?
How much do you notice your abdomen filling with air?
And in a way that feels natural and not forceful,
You can experiment and see if it's possible to specifically breathe more deeply into your abdomen and exhaling from the core of your being.
You can lengthen your spine,
Creating more space for your abdomen and your chest to open,
Seeing if this helps you take an even deeper breath,
Breathing in as much air as you can,
The deepest breath that you've taken so far today,
And letting out some nice loud audible sighs.
Let those exhales make some noise,
Helping to wake up your body.
And as you continue,
Some nice deep breaths in whatever way is most comfortable for your body.
I invite you to imagine some sort of imagery that is meaningful to you,
That somehow symbolizes waking up.
And I'll give you some examples.
This might be imagining that as you breathe in,
There's something inside of you that's lighting up a little more and a little more with each breath.
Or maybe you'd like to imagine God breathing life into you,
And as he breathes that life into you,
It wakes you up for this new day.
Maybe you'd like to imagine a small child or an animal waking up from a sweet slumber,
Stretching,
Yawning.
Whether it's one of these examples or something else that's more natural for you,
As you continue your nice deep breaths,
You can let yourself inhale and exhale into these ideas of your body waking up,
Really connecting not only with your lungs and your abdomen and your breathing,
But letting this imagery include all of your body,
All of your being,
Both the physical and what you can see,
As well as the non-physical.
You can let your mind be curious about how you might envision new breath,
New life,
A new day for your soul,
For your strength.
Maybe you envision this as God carrying you or God being your strength.
Whatever comes most naturally,
I encourage you to continue breathing into this.
Again,
Seeing if it's possible to breathe in just a little more and exhale just a little more,
Waking up every fiber,
Every ounce,
Every facet of your being.
You're welcome to pause if you would like to focus a little longer on helping any part of you wake up.
Whenever you're ready,
I'll close us with a prayer.
Lord God,
We thank you for the dawn of a new day,
For light,
For hope,
For the newness of a new day.
I ask that you would wake us up in any and every way that you desire to.
I pray that you would breathe life into every facet of us,
And as we do this,
I pray that you'd be breathing peace and mercy into the depths of our soul,
Giving us a sense of what you have for us today,
What is ours to carry today,
And what is yours to carry that you might invite us to hand over to you.
Amen.
