So with your eyes closed find your breath.
Maybe you weren't breathing.
Notice where the breath is in your body.
Is it high in your chest?
Does it fill up your belly?
Are you breathing through your mouth or through your nose?
This is the slowing down,
Right?
Maybe all that talking just sort of activated your mind and you're thinking about ways you can build bridges and stop building walls.
And so let's settle now.
Let all that thinking,
That energy shift down into your body.
We use that breath as an anchor,
Right?
Something to allow us to descend from our mind into our body.
So again find your anchor and then we'll send it down a little deeper into our belly.
So on your next inhale let your belly fill up and your chest fill up and then exhale side out.
You shouldn't have to work too hard on that exhale.
If you're really filling up inhale and expand and then exhale just let the exhale happen.
Inhale think of taking in that fresh new oxygen and exhale for a second or two longer and think of expelling that old oxygen or carbon dioxide or whatever let it out.
Inhale filling up.
Exhale relaxing down.
And I ask you to find your breath because it's something that you can return to,
Right?
It's something that can sort of be found like I said when we need something to anchor back into.
So it's important to remember that not just for our practice tonight but it's something that I hope you carry with you out into your life.
And so once again let's breathe in through our nose taking in a delicious like sip of air and sigh.
And we're going to do that again.
Inhale and sigh.
And give your mind permission to rest.
Say I give you permission to rest.
And they might not listen,
It might not listen at first but that's okay.
It's the giving of permission that is most important in this moment.
So we're going to move into sort of relaxing our bodies now,
Tuning in deeper.
And I want you to start,
We're going to do something a little different tonight and I'd like you to as you inhale tense all the muscles in your body.
So inhale and tense everything up as tight as you can and then exhale relax it all and let your body melt into the bed underneath you.
Inhaling sort of introducing that tension again maybe noticing how it kind of feels good to squeeze everything.
And then exhale.
You look good it feels to release it all.
We'll do that one more time.
So inhale squeezing everything your abs your bum your legs your hands your face squeeze squeeze squeeze.
And then exhale.
I always say tension is like stuck energy in our bodies so you might feel like a rush of energy after doing that.
Maybe not that's okay too.
I'll get you to send your attention down to your feet now.
Sort of tapping into this ability we have to sense ourselves,
Sort of locate ourselves in time and space and with your eyes closed how do you know where your feet are?
Maybe you need to like wiggle your toes a little bit to kind of get some response from your nerves and feel into your bones.
And again what is the sensation in your feet?
I don't want you attached too much to like naming it.
I'd rather you sort of experience it.
So inhale down into your feet left and right.
Now relaxing the bones the ligaments the tendons inhaling again into your feet.
You want to exhale your toes relaxing.
Coming up into your ankles letting your heels relax.
Feeling the bones and the ligaments in your ankles.
If you kind of getting taken away by your thoughts then guide your mind and your energy and attention back down to your ankles.
Relaxing and releasing any tension that might be held deep within if you can access it.
And maybe it helps to tense each individual part and release on the exhale.
Maybe you can access more ease that way.
Drawing the attention up into the calves.
Again maybe you want to stretch your calves to sort of awaken that sensation.
You want to flex them.
Let them sort of relax deeper into the mattress underneath you.
So can you allow yourself for the next little while to be held fully by the ground or the mattress underneath you.
You know in this sort of corpse pose there's no need for our bodies to be tense because we don't need to be supported.
We can allow ourselves to be held.
So letting your calves relax and soften.
Drawing up into your knees.
Can take a moment to sort of get oriented to that body part.
It's about like connecting our brain to that sensation.
So again maybe you want to shift your knees around a little bit.
I like to say with the knees that try to let the softening start from deep within and sort of expand out until it's the whole kneecap relaxes on the front the sides the back.
And if at any point tuning in like this is not what you're needing today then just come back to the breath.
If you're feeling like this is what you need in this moment then continue up into the thighs.
Again maybe you want to flex the thigh muscles to sort of give your brain an idea of where your focus should be sensing into what your thighs really feel like.
Maybe on your next inhale you want to inhale into your thighs seeing if you can sort of send the breath and fill them up.
And then exhale relaxing the hamstring the quad the front the back the sides of your thighs.
You can relax the bone deep within.
And then coming up into your hips.
Maybe you need to shift your hips underneath you or flex your glutes to connect into that area.
Sort of locating your hip bones in the sockets and letting again that relaxation begin from within the socket and sort of spiral out until it's filling your glutes your hips shifting into your pelvic floor.
The pelvic floor tighten it and then exhale release it relaxing it.
Same with your glutes can squeeze them tighten them activate them and then exhale relax them down.
Coming up into the belly the lower back sort of the tube of your midsection.
Seeing if you can again connect into that space through maybe a little bit of movement or contraction and then exhale release.
And in this area I suggest even trying to sort of relax the organs inside of your belly.
So the stomach relaxes releasing any tension.
You might feel like you don't have control over that and maybe we don't but for me when I think about that maybe it's my ab muscles relax but it allows for more space for my breath.
So maybe relax from deep within and then on your next inhale notice if there's more room for more air a deeper breath.
Softening the belly moving up into the ribs and the chest the upper back.
Intense for one moment release on the exhale.
And as always take a pause here for a moment with your sort of emotional heart.
Just tune in to what might be happening there.
Maybe you have a question you need to ask or you don't want to check in today whatever your experience that's okay.
Coming up into the shoulders the arms the fingers maybe the fingers wiggle so you can find them in space.
I like to do a sweep from my shoulder to my fingertips just relaxing and releasing all the way down.
So you can do that on each side relaxing your armpits your shoulders away from your ears.
If it feels like maybe even sleep is coming.
My instinct is to say shake it off.
Stay present with your consciousness basically allow your body to relax.
Let your sort of being stay awake.
Coming up into the throat and the neck.
Sort of releasing any tension that is being held in the esophagus and the throat.
Feeling the breath as it goes in and out.
Coming up into the jaw.
Maybe you want to move it back and forth.
Blow out air from your mouth to sort of stretch your lips.
Let your tongue peel from the roof of your mouth.
Relaxing all the muscles around your ears in your face.
Let your mind and your physical brain sort of relax inside your skull.
Relaxing any tension you're holding in your forehead between your eyebrows.
Relaxing your skull.
On the back and the sides of your head.
Take a big deep breath now.
So inhale filling up your belly.
Sending breath to all the spaces in your body and exhale.
Inhale again sweeping up from your feet to the top of your head.
Exhaling back down from head to toe.
I'd like you to now imagine that you're standing on one side of a bridge.
This bridge can be anywhere in the world,
Anywhere in the universe for that matter.
I want you to just sense or imagine or visualize that you can cross this bridge.
Maybe you want to notice what the bridge looks like,
What's it made of.
If you'd like you can choose to cross the bridge or you can stay where you are.
As you journey become curious about what might be on the other side.
I could all go togiving here to make you feel what you are.
You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you just let yourself be in whatever state you're in for a few more moments maybe if you decided to cross the bridge,
You want to find your way back across there's no rush,
Just guiding yourself back to this place and time,
To your body maybe you want to deepen your breath for a moment do a few more of those,
Deeply inhaling sort of calling all your energy back to your body maybe you want to start to wiggle fingers and toes letting your eyes be the last thing to open unless they've already opened and that's okay,
But keeping that sensing ability right until the very end and maybe notice if there's any differences in the feeling of your body maybe you want to stretch and yawn I sure did then you can softly let your eyes blink open you gently let your eyes roam around the room taking it in,
Seeing the individual parts the room as a whole,
Sort of grounding yourself back in your space just gently letting your eyes roam around the room maybe you want to notice your breath and let your eyes roam this sort of dual experience of sensing inside and experiencing outside all at the same time then you can let your gaze go wherever it pleases maybe it's back to me or to the ceiling or closed again so that concludes our time together for this evening I close in gratitude for everyone who is here now and who will watch us in the future for showing up and trusting me to guide you into a stellar space
