Welcome to softening into the present meditation.
Find a comfortable seat.
You can sit on your bottom cross-legged on a cushion or pillow or even on a chair at the edge of the chair with your feet firmly planted on the ground.
You can lie up against a wall or the back of your couch.
And you can even lie down.
But if possible,
Take a comfortable seated position.
Sitting up tall,
Root down through your sit bones,
Lengthen up through the crown of your head.
Take a deep breath in through your nose from your belly all the way up into your chest.
Open mouth,
Exhale.
Once again,
Full inhale through your nose,
Belly,
Ribs to chest.
Open mouth,
Release.
One more time.
Inhale all the way,
Filling up to the top of your lungs and hold it this time.
Sip a little more air in.
Hold that too and hold it.
Relax into the hold.
Relax your shoulders.
Keep holding for three,
Two,
One.
Open mouth,
Exhale.
And seal your lips.
Begin to breathe in and out through your nose.
And at this point,
If you haven't already,
Close your eyes.
Allow your shoulders to soften.
Allow your neck to release any extra tension it doesn't need to hold right here,
Right now.
And just bring your awareness to your breathing.
Notice how it feels as it moves in and out through your nose.
Notice how you're breathing in general,
If it's more in your belly or more in your chest.
Notice if it's quick or slow.
Notice if it feels like it gets stuck anywhere as you're breathing.
And notice if your mind is wanting to wander.
If it does,
Keep bringing it back to the breath awareness.
And begin to slow your breath down.
On the inhales,
Taking a bit longer to fill up all the way.
And on the exhales,
Taking longer to empty all the way out.
And feel the emptying out happen in the pit of your belly.
As you allow your breath to keep flowing,
Continue letting the rest of your body soften around the breath.
So that as you breathe,
You become more grounded,
Whether it's through your sit bones if you're seated,
Or through the back of your body if you're lying down.
And with each inhale,
Invite a sense of openness as you breathe in.
Imagine that breath stretches bigger every cycle of breath.
And each consecutive inhale goes beyond to every part of your body,
To your skin,
Maybe even beyond your physical body.
Visualize it to be so.
Relax your temples,
Relax your eyelids,
Relax your mouth.
And as you keep breathing,
If there are any areas of the body or the torso that feel kind of stuck as you breathe in,
Imagine that when you're inhaling,
You can send breath into that very spot to help release tension from it.
Keep checking back in with the tension you have in your body,
And notice where it collects and repeatedly release that tension.
Allow your arms to be relaxed,
Your hands heavy and relaxed.
Give yourself space here as you breathe and just notice your breath to soften right into the present.
And so if you are finding yourself lately in a space of being scattered,
Anxiety,
Resistance,
Use this flowing movement of your breath to remind you that when we are in resistance,
We are not breathing,
We're not moving through,
And that's where we get stuck.
Notice that as you inhale,
The exhale is necessary at the end.
And once you exhale,
The inhale is almost involuntary.
And if you attempt to hold your breath at either end,
Eventually you will need to let it go.
Bring your awareness now to your breath and watching where the breath turns.
From inhaling,
Maybe add a pause.
And then allow that pause to release as you exhale and turn the breath through.
Keep your awareness on this whole process of inhaling and the switch over to exhaling.
And again,
Soften your shoulders,
Soften your neck,
Soften the rest of your body right into this process.
Notice how good it feels to breathe deep,
To breathe fully in and fully out.
Bring to mind anything in your life right now that is creating a feeling of resistance or stuckness.
And imagine that you can breathe into that stuckness as well and help it break up,
Help it release.
Tap into that felt sense in your body of simply letting go and bring that feeling to the matter at hand in which you feel stuck.
Knowing that when we allow for what is to be as it is,
That's the point at which life continues to flow and things will change.
Slow deep breaths through your nose,
Continue through.
If seated,
You're still rising taller with each inhale.
And grounding through each exhale.
Allow yourself to accept your breath just the way it is.
Accept your circumstances just as they are.
It's not the same as complacency.
But it is a conscious release of resistance,
Of tension.
Breathe in all the way.
Slow your breath.
Savor it and let it linger.
At either end of the inhale or the exhale.
Relax your eyebrows and the space between them.
And again,
Bring to mind that area in which you feel stuck in your life,
Maybe also in your body.
And use this breath as a tool to release it consciously.
Let go of that resistance.
Let yourself dive into the flow of your breath.
And the flow of your life.
And soften.
If your mind has wandered to the matters in your life,
Bring it back to your breath again.
Sit up a little bit taller if you've begun to slouch.
Take an inhale,
Filling up all the way.
Even bigger than the first few breaths we started with.
Fill up all the way.
Open mouth,
Exhale with sound.
Let that sound come from the pit of your belly.
Inhale again,
Filling up.
Open mouth,
Release.
One more.
Inhale all the way.
Hold it at the top.
Soften into the hold.
Sit more air in.
Hold as well.
Hold it all.
For three,
Two,
One.
Open mouth,
Exhale.
Blink your eyes open.
Take a moment here with the eyes open to open your eyes wide and look around at your surroundings as if looking around for the first time.
Keep sitting up tall,
Relaxing your shoulders down.
And take this feeling of presence,
Of groundedness with you into the rest of your day.
Stay consciously connected to your breath to help you move through life with the flow of it without resistance.
Thank you for joining me.
