And as you're ready,
Coming to stillness,
Shoulders back and down,
Navel to spine,
Core engaged.
Begin first by feeling the ground beneath you.
So as I personally reflect on what Black History Month means to me,
I'm grounded in the stories of my ancestors.
I'm grounded in the wisdom of the stories that I learned firsthand and those that I've learned anecdotally or some that I've even learned spiritually.
So before we even worry about the breath,
Be grounded and feel a connection to the ground as a basis from which we'll go deeper.
And now begin to notice the breath.
Is it short?
Is it longer?
Is it choppy?
Begin to shape the breath gently and deeply in through the nose and out through the nose.
Begin reflecting on the power of Black history.
Stories are shared on the breath.
Wisdom is transferred on the breath.
So deepen your internal wisdom,
Deepen your grounding through a deeper breath.
In through the nose,
Out through the nose.
It could also be said that white supremacy has sought to take the breath away from Black and Brown communities either lynching Black men or police brutality.
Most pointedly in the recent memory of Brother Floyd,
He literally took his breath away.
So allow the deepening of your breath not only to be a manifestation of gratitude,
But just an understanding of how precious the breath is.
And now recall in the heart space and in the mind space,
A certain element of the reflection that we had today are from your personal reflection of what Black History Month means to you.
Again,
For me,
That has been resilience,
Creativity,
Community,
And a continuum.
That's what I'm working with this week.
So whatever element of the beautiful struggle has resonance with you,
Maybe it's overcoming adversity,
Maybe it's just tremendous pride and power,
Whatever speaks to you in this moment,
Use the mechanism of the breath to fortify that in your heart space.
So if it's resilience or whatever,
Every inhale fortifies resilience in your heart.
Every exhale grounds you deeper into that quality or that story.
Keeping that cadence up with shoulders back and down,
Eyes soft or closed,
Gaze primarily internal and using the mechanism of the breath to fortify resilience or whatever is calling out to you here and then ground deeper in it.
Using this Kriya for the next several moments,
Creating a virtuous circle,
Creating a feedback loop rooted in history,
Rooted in story.
Allow any tension to be swept away with your exhale and allow the body and the heart space to brighten with your inhale.
And as you fortify the heart space,
Allow the mind to scan the body and with each exhale also sweep away any tension or resistance to relaxation that may show up.
About another minute here,
Perhaps deepening the breath to fortify the heart space ever more on the inhale and on the exhale ground into whatever quality,
Character or story derivative of the black and brown experience that can nurture and nourish you.
Three or four more breaths here,
Perhaps even taking the breath even deeper.
Using sacred gift of breath,
Which is the gift of life and using it to ground and fortify in whatever benevolent quality has resonated with you here and now.
Bottom of the next exhale,
Shifting the breath in the following manner.
Inhale stick with the fortification of yourself of whatever quality you have and then exhale share from that benevolence outward.
So we've been spending the past several moments fortifying ourselves.
An essential element of the black and brown experience is sharing from our strength to nurture our community.
So spending the next final moments here,
Fortifying on the inhale but on the exhale sending from your abundance out to a person,
Place or a thing that could use it.
So if you're cultivating resilience,
You fortify yourself with resilience and on the exhale you send that resilience out because Lord knows we could all use a little bit more resilience here and now or it's kind of maddening but when we view ourselves in the context of a continuum or as Sister Karen said,
Standing on the shoulders of giants,
You're stable because you're not alone.
Or more stable I should say.
So another six or seven breaths at the same depth at the end of the internal fortification.
And sharing from your abundance energetically and metaphysically in service to our collective well-being because again,
A central tenet of the African-American experience is that when we good,
Everybody's good.
It is in our nature to nurture.
And if you have the capacity,
Maybe breath is even deeper on the inhale for the final four or so.
Exhales as deep out the nose in service to another.
Because at higher levels of practice there is no other,
We're all connected.
And as we remember that and serve that,
We're all healed.
Final breath or two,
Inhaling to fortify your gift and then sharing from that abundance to the collective externally.
Bottom of the next exhale,
Bring hands to heart center,
Press the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth,
Gently press hands together and gently press tip of tongue to roof of mouth to root in this feeling that you've cultivated over the past several moments.
And my prayers of that feeling is tremendous nurturance of self and from that abundance effortlessly giving to others.
Three clearing breaths out the nose,
Then let's release the tip of the tongue and then we'll breathe out the mouth.
So inhale through the nose,
Exhale out the nose,
Sealing the practice with reverence in through the nose,
Exhale out the nose,
Last in through the nose,
Exhale out the nose,
Release tip of tongue from roof of mouth and then exhale out the mouth,
In through the nose,
Exhale out the mouth,
Settle,
In through the nose,
Exhale out the mouth,
Settle,
Deepest inhale of the practice through the nose,
Hold,
Exhale out the mouth,
Bow head towards hands again as a gesture of reverence for the breath,
For the practice,
For one another.
Even as you're ready,
Open your eyes,
Regain your focus.
Welcome back.
