Hi,
It's Julie Potichur for the Balanced Mind Meditation Center.
Okay,
Let's find a position for our bodies that feels comfortable today,
Whether it's sitting on your sit bones or whether it's lying back,
Moving your head around,
Moving your shoulders around a little bit as long as it's comfortable,
And then ending up in a position that you can maintain that feels relaxed but alert,
And then closing your eyes down fully or partially,
Whichever is more comfortable feeling for you.
If your eyes are closed,
Letting your eyelids be really nice and soft.
And then we're going to take three nutritious,
Delicious breaths as deep as you can in for four,
Hold it at the top,
And then out for six,
Starting now.
Empty all the way.
Okay,
If you finished that last breath,
Allow your breath to find its natural rhythm now.
Relax the top of your scalp.
It's like in your imagination,
Your awareness is on the top of your head.
And that relaxation is flowing down your forehead and smoothing your forehead,
Relaxing your eyebrows,
Slowing down,
Relaxing your eyes.
Relax your cheeks,
Your jaws,
The inside of your mouth,
Open your mouth and let it just hang.
Breath is easy.
All the tension is seeping out of your face.
And when you close your lips,
Let your teeth remain parted and imagine a slight smile to the outside corners of your lips.
Dropping that smile down to your throat,
Your neck,
Just soft.
Now as you drop your smile down into your chest cavity,
Let your shoulder blades move down your back in your mind or even really physically.
Imagine them moving down your back,
Keeping your chest nice and open.
You're in your heart center now,
Let's just hang out there and I'll be quiet while you breathe in and out through your heart.
Relaxing your abs,
Feeling your hips melt into whatever is supporting you.
Your thighs are relaxing,
The insides of your knee joints,
Your calves,
The insides of your ankles are relaxing.
And now your feet.
Take a couple moments of awareness on your feet,
Whether they're in socks and shoes or slippers or bare feet and just notice if they feel chilly or warm or moist or dry.
And allow them to feel rooted to the planet and held.
Now not forgetting our arms,
Letting relaxation flow from our shoulders down to our fingertips.
And when you get to your hands,
Take a couple breaths to notice what's going on with your hands.
Mine feel chilly right now.
How about yours?
When you shine the light of awareness on your hands,
Do you feel the tingling and aliveness or do you feel a numbness or nothing?
Whatever it is,
It's fine.
Just noticing.
And now placing one or both hands where you find it soothing,
Which might be your heart or your belly or one of each.
It might be cradling your face.
It might be giving your upper arms a hug and a squeeze or even holding your hands in each other.
But one of those places like we do,
Soothing touch.
Just a reminder of the love and care and nurturing that we are giving to ourselves today.
Right now,
Right here.
Nowhere to go and nothing to do but this.
This moment.
Feeling the warmth of your good hands and your worthy body for as long as you want to keep them there.
And when you're ready to relax your hands into your lap,
Spending the next many moments resting your awareness on your in-breath and your out-breath.
Seeing and feeling your body breathing in,
Pause at the top,
Breathing out,
Pause at the bottom.
Letting fall out a little deeper now.
You you you you you you you allowing your mind to settle you you you you you you you you you you you you're this being of light and healing you you if your mind is wandering,
Just bringing it back to you being this healing light orb,
This compassionate goodness on your in breath and on your out breath you you see if you can imagine the edge of your energy field somewhere outside your skin far this reach of all this goodness flowing in and flowing out you you you're now pulling your awareness back into your body letting it drop down to the center of your trunk behind your belly button below your heart deep down in the stillness let your attention dwell there you taking in the words of this poem by dana falls it's called walk slowly it only takes a reminder to breathe a moment to be still and just like that something in me settles softens makes space for imperfection the harsh voice of judgment drops to a whisper and i remember again that life isn't a relay race that we will all cross the finish line that waking up to life is what we were born for as many times as i forget catch myself charging forward without even knowing where i'm going that many times i can make the choice to stop to breathe and be and walk slowly into the mystery let's walk slowly by dana falls now wiggling your fingers wiggling your toes when you hear the sounds of the chime coming back into this space your body a stretch if it would be helpful to come back from wherever you are to right here thank you for listening it's julie potticker from the balanced mind meditation center
