Welcome.
It's time to soften the overwhelm.
You can continue to settle in and make yourself cozy while I read you this poem by Mark Nebo.
Thinking like a butterfly.
Monday I was told I was good.
I felt relieved.
Tuesday,
I was ignored.
I felt invisible.
Wednesday,
I was snapped at.
I began to doubt myself.
On Thursday,
I was rejected.
Now,
I was afraid.
On Saturday,
I was thanked for being me.
My soul relaxed.
On Sunday,
I was left alone till the part of me that can't be influenced grew tired of submitting and resisting.
Monday,
I was told I was good.
By Tuesday,
I got off the wheel.
For the next little while,
I invite you to move into the energy of receiving rather than doing.
There is nothing to do right now.
Nowhere to be.
Nothing to figure out or hold together.
The effort it took you to stop.
To lie down.
To arrive here.
And open your heart to this practice.
That's all that's needed of you.
You've already done the work.
Now you can simply be.
Let's start by allowing your body to land.
Notice the places where your body is making contact with the floor.
The chair,
The bed,
Wherever you are resting today.
Take a moment to gently anoint each place of connection.
As if gently pressing an intricate,
Beautiful stamp.
Into soft,
Honey-like wax.
The back of your heels.
Calves.
Thighs.
Shoulder blades.
Hands.
Back of the head.
Feel the pull of gravity as the body melts and releases into the support beneath you.
Your tissues softening.
Your patterns of holding,
Releasing.
Thoughts grow dense and sink into the back of the head.
Like a pebble tossed and disappearing,
Sinking to the bottom of a lake.
If thoughts persist.
You can simply marvel at them,
Noticing how they drift in and out of your awareness.
Like flashes of sunlight on the surface of the lake water.
And now feel the breath without making any changes.
Let every inhale be a welcoming.
Inhale as warm invitation.
Someone you love opening the door.
And waving for you to step all the way through.
Inhale,
Ease.
Inhale,
Surrender.
Inhale,
Peace of mind.
You may notice doubt loosening,
Like a sandcastle surrendering to the tide.
Judgment,
Softening.
As if you are seeing through frosted sea glass.
The constant pings tugging at the sleeve of your attention,
Becoming merely soft drops of rain on a window.
Inhale,
Trust,
Trusting that you can receive whatever you need from this practice.
Began now to step away from the contract of being so good.
So responsible.
So capable.
Relinquish just for now.
All of your roles.
All doing.
All effort tied up with being enough.
See if you can even give up the effort of listening to my voice.
But instead allow my voice to find you.
While you rest,
Know that I am holding this space and keeping time.
So you can let go.
You can allow yourself to feel cared for.
You can allow yourself to feel cared for.
Be productive by doing nothing.
Let's rest here for a moment with our opening poem.
Let's think like a butterfly.
Feel the part of you that travels softly through life.
Unflappable.
Unbothered.
Serene.
Let your awareness drop down.
Down,
Out of the busy,
Rational mind.
Into the heart space.
From the space of the heart.
Invite a memory to surface.
A time when you felt your soul relax.
No need to fret.
Or search for it.
Allow it to rise like resting dough.
Allowing this memory of softness,
Of soul relaxation to radiate.
Through your whole being.
Remembering.
In every cell.
Listen to the following phrase and then repeat it to yourself three times.
You can make this your intention for today's practice or add any phrase that is meaningful to you.
I am softening.
I am softening.
I am softening.
I'll give you some quiet here.
To repeat your intention.
Three times.
In a simple,
Positive statement.
Now that you have your intention,
Imagine tucking it in with you as you rest.
Tucking it in with tenderness the way you would someone you love.
Begin to imagine your awareness as the finest watercolor brush.
Silky bristles moving across smooth cotton paper,
Leaving color wherever it touches.
A dusting of bright oranges,
Deep reds,
Yellows,
And iridescent metallic blues.
The colors that grace a butterfly's wings.
Let that brush begin to dance.
As your awareness traces down the forehead.
Down the ridge of the nose.
Across the eyebrows.
The eyes.
The eyelashes.
Sweeps the cheekbones and lips.
Your awareness glides along your jawline.
Chin.
Down the front of the throat.
And dusting colors along the curve of your collarbones.
Your awareness brushes down both arms,
The wingspan.
Down to the palms of the hands.
Your awareness sweeps down the front of the heart.
To the belly button.
The low belly.
The pelvic bowl.
Thighs.
Kneecaps.
Shams.
Dancing along the tops of the feet.
Now your awareness curls around the edges of the toes and begins to dance up the back of the body.
Up the heels.
Calves.
Thighs.
Sitting bones.
Following the curve of the lower back.
As it ridges up into the back of the ramps.
Your awareness visits the smooth surfaces of the shoulder blades and then slides down the back of both arms,
Down your wingspan.
Touch the back of the palms with your awareness.
The back of the neck.
The crown of the head,
Dusted.
With color.
And now wrap yourself up.
In a soft blanket of colorful awareness.
Brushing your awareness around the whole of you,
The head.
Arms and hands.
Up the torso.
Hips and pelvis.
Upper and lower legs.
The whole of both beat.
The whole of you.
The whole of you ragged.
And a soft dusting of colorful awareness.
Now let the breath act on you the way a tight spring bud knows just when to open.
Releasing its petals without effort.
Opening through the breath.
Unfurling through the breath.
I'll give you some space here.
Let it be simple.
Just breathing.
Now bringing the breath to any places of tension or tightness.
It mean not self-concentration.
Of willpower.
Of pushing through.
Become softened just with your breath.
Breath as an agent of softening tension.
Breath softens you.
Meet me around the bonfire of being human.
The flame of wanting to belong.
Wanting to be good.
To be seen.
And underneath it.
Wanting to be free.
Relax.
Unvarnished.
The light of this bonfire.
Greet the part of you that tracks how you are received by others.
Observing,
Comparing.
Adjusting.
Feel her here now.
Perhaps you can feel the energy flowing outward.
Reading the room.
Waiting for approval.
Seeking her place in the order of things.
Now create another part of you.
Look around the bonfire for the one in you who knows how to rest.
In her own truth.
At home in her own skin.
As you connect with her,
Perhaps you feel the energy beginning to flow from the outside back inside.
Becoming nourished by this loving attention.
Danced between them now,
Doing,
Being.
Trying.
Not trying.
Searching.
Already home.
Let them meet each other here.
Perhaps joining hands around the fire.
And know that both are welcome.
Both are so easy to love.
The one who tracks.
The one who rests.
Feel them dancing together.
Can you hold the tomb?
Can you be both giving and receiving?
How does it feel to hold these parts of you?
In one body.
1.
Now imagine yourself walking barefoot into an empty room lit by candlelight.
Take in the real.
The Many Candles.
The scent of warmth and match strike.
Allow your eyes to adjust.
Watch the flickering light.
Watch the shadows playing.
If thoughts occur here,
Let them come and go.
As you continue to watch this magical luminous space.
I'll be quiet here so that you may continue to rest as you keep watching.
Maybe you see the inside of a seashell.
Rain-softened earth.
River Stony.
Cedar tree.
Full moon rising.
Planet Earth from above.
Freshly mowed grass.
Sunflowers.
Flannel sheets.
Orange clouds drifting at sunset.
Star-filled sky.
The infinite nature of you.
And begin to come back to your breath.
As you gather up any sensations here,
Feelings of ease,
Contentment.
Peace.
Know that these qualities have not come from someplace outside of you.
Rather,
You are these qualities.
Let the breath help you melt into this knowing.
And from this place,
Let's remember our intention.
I am softening.
I am softening.
I am softening.
Lean into this connection with your deepest self.
Where you hold the subtle knowledge that you are already what you wish to be.
That you are whole and complete.
And that nothing can be added to you or taken away from you to enhance your perfection.
It just is.
You just are.
Awaken your imagination one last time.
And use it to orient yourself to the room where you're resting today.
Find yourself in this shape.
This chair or this bed.
And watch as the energy of your body starts to wake up.
You've been still for some time,
So make your first few movements small ones.
You may use your breath to reanimate the body.
Swallow a few times and bring awareness to your throat.
Moving the teeth,
Gums,
And tongue.
Slide the eyebrows up and down the face.
And when you're ready for larger movements,
You can make them.
Go slowly.
There is no rush.
