Welcome,
Take a moment to arrive just as you are.
There is nothing you need to change,
Nothing you need to get right.
Simply begin by sensing the support beneath your body.
Let yourself be held by whatever you're sitting or lying on,
Without adjusting anything for now.
Feel the weight of your body settling.
Feel the quiet invitation of this moment.
Allow your awareness to drift towards your breath.
Not to change it,
Not to shape it,
But simply to notice it.
The natural rise and fall,
The soft movement of the inhale and the gentle release of the exhale.
Let the breath be exactly as it is.
If your mind starts to wander,
You can always return to these words or to the feeling of the breath as a simple way back.
Begin to notice the body from the inside.
See if you can sense where stress has been living.
Perhaps there is a tightness somewhere,
A heaviness,
A little racing or buzzing.
Or maybe the body feels quite still today.
There is no right experience,
Just noticing.
When stress gathers,
It often shows itself in the body first.
A tight chest,
A clenched jaw,
A churning in the stomach.
These sensations are never signs of failure.
They are gentle signals of busy thinking moving through you.
They are the body's way of whispering before it needs to shout.
If anything feels uncomfortable,
You do not need to make it go away.
You can simply allow it to be there.
Let it be part of your experience the same way a cloud is part of the sky.
There is room for it.
There is space around it.
You can return again to your breath here.
Notice the air moving in and the air moving out.
A natural rhythm that has been with you your whole life.
A reminder that the body knows how to settle when the mind softens.
Remember that what you are feeling comes from thought in the moment.
Not from the world outside.
Not from your past.
Not from what might happen next.
Just thought appearing and passing.
Thought creating sensation.
Thought colouring this moment.
As you see this,
Even lightly,
The whole system begins to loosen.
Stress does not need to be pushed away.
It simply becomes less solid when we understand where it comes from.
Let yourself settle into the deeper quiet beneath the movement of thought.
Imagine the mind as a hamster wheel that slows as you stop pushing it.
You do not have to climb off the wheel or force it to stop.
You can just watch it gently lose momentum as a tension softens.
Return once more to the feeling of your body being supported.
Notice your feet,
Your legs,
Your hands,
Your shoulders.
Allowing gravity to do the work.
Letting yourself be here without effort.
You might notice small pockets of calm emerging.
A softening.
A loosening.
A quiet sense that nothing needs to happen in this moment.
You do not have to manage the mind.
You do not have to make sense of anything.
You can rest in this space where the mind settles by itself.
If the mind wanders again,
Gently guide yourself back to the breath or to these words.
Each return is an act of kindness towards yourself.
Each return reminds you that calm is never lost.
It is simply covered by thought for a moment.
Feel the body again now.
Notice how the breath moves through it.
Notice how supported you are.
Notice how the quiet mind waits beneath everything,
Steady and undisturbed.
You can come back to this any time.
Stress may rise again.
But so will this quiet.
It has always been here.
It always will be.
When you feel ready,
Take one gentle breath.
Then another.
Allow the eyes to open or the attention to widen when the moment feels right.
You are held.
You are safe.
And the quiet mind is never far away.
