Hello,
Hello and welcome.
Come on in.
Find your way into a comfortable seated position.
If you're super tired,
You can lie down.
And as you start to settle into this meditation,
See if the body needs any movement.
Maybe a rolling of the shoulders or a gentle twist side to side.
What is it your body's calling for before we invite stillness in?
Nice.
And then begin to,
If you're in a seated position,
Press down into your sitting bones and the areas of your body touching a seat or the floor or your mat.
And see if you can lengthen the spine just a little more,
Creating space in the body.
And settle in.
Settle in by softening something somewhere.
Today we're meditating and setting intention for the word pause.
A pause as we go into our day,
A pause before we speak,
A pause before we make a decision.
Inviting this pause in gives us a chance to move from our head maybe to our heart,
Maybe from our head all the way down to our feet so that we can feel grounded before we take an action,
Before we speak to our children,
Before we speak to our boss,
Before we step forward into something that maybe we're a little anxious about.
Creating a pause.
So for a moment,
Bring to mind where you would like to create this pause.
What part of your day does this pause serve you best?
If you get overwhelmed at bedtime,
Putting all the children to bed and nobody's listening,
We're going to create a pause before we take action,
Before we speak so that we can come from a place of grounded heart openness without just reacting and shouting.
It's a muscle anyway.
We're creating that intention to do that.
So with this long spine,
Let's close our eyes and soften our jaw,
Soften our shoulders,
Our fingertips,
Our knees,
Our ankles,
Our toes.
Begin to just notice this beautiful breath of yours,
This life force of coming in and coming out of the body.
Without trying to fix it or make it right,
Just find and be aware of the air moving in and out.
And then start to observe if perhaps you could take this breath in just a little deeper,
Give it a little more space.
So think about the next time you breathe in your ribs expanding and that's through the front,
The sides and the back of the body.
And on your exhale,
Notice and feel as the ribs come back.
Play with the breath here in the ribs,
Inhaling and exhaling,
Slowing down that exhale.
And then at this point we're going to create that pause that I was speaking about with our breath.
So what I'd like you to do is on your next inhale,
Take a little pause or be aware of that little tiny pause before you exhale the breath.
And then when you exhale,
Notice that little pause before you inhale again.
Just bring your mind there,
Your attention there.
Where's that little pause between the breath?
And now let's create that pause a little longer.
So on the next time at your own pace that you're inhaling,
See if you can make that pause just a little longer.
And then as you exhale,
When all the air is out,
See if you can create just a little pause before you're ready for a beautiful inhale.
We're just noticing,
We're just curious.
You can't get this long.
We're not achieving,
We're just noticing.
And then slowly dissolve this control of our breath,
Of our pausing and just let your breath find its own natural rhythm once again.
As you set an intention for your day,
Where does a pause serve you between activities,
Between your running around doing your errands?
Take that little break,
That little pause to go inside,
To notice you and to notice your breath.
And slowly from this place,
Inhale your arms up overhead,
Gathering all this lovely energy between your palms.
As you place your palms together and exhale down the front of your body,
Resting your thumbs at your heart as you bow your head as a way of thinking and honoring yourself for taking this time for you and thanking and honoring each other.
Namaste.
