Here you are.
You might have arrived full and flowing.
You might have arrived empty and depleted.
Here you are.
Trust the anchor of your breath.
Let it ground you as you inhale.
And whatever you are holding,
Let it go as you exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
I'm going to say something obvious.
Some days are just hard.
There might be a reason.
There might not.
When it gets hard,
All kinds of stories might kick in like our life has suddenly turned into a movie trailer.
But all we see are the cringe-worthy moments.
Inhale.
Exhale.
When our days are hard,
We might turn to our old habits.
The ones we know aren't great,
But we know them.
So there's comfort in that,
Right?
We might numb.
We might run.
We might not know what to do.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Some days are just hard.
And why is it that that's so hard for us to accept?
After all,
If we expect good times in our lives,
Isn't it natural to expect that there will be hard times as well?
Now,
It is not that we need to seek out hard times.
They will find us.
But we also do not need to pretend that hard times aren't hard.
Let me repeat that.
We do not need to pretend that hard times aren't hard.
We will experience pain,
Loss.
We will hurt physically,
Emotionally,
Spiritually.
As scary as those feelings can be,
We need to feel in order to be free.
So sometimes the practice is to sit,
To stay,
To let the emotions arise and flow away.
No emotion has ever lasted forever.
Stay.
Breathe.
Let it come.
Let it go.
Some days are just hard.
Let them be.
Let them be held in this moment with this breath.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Stay.
Hold.
Let it come.
Let it go.
Breathe.
Live.
Lighter now.
And shine.