So I invite you where you are to settle into a position and a pose and into your seat in a way that feels soft and supportive.
Starting off with just a couple of deep breaths as you maybe like roll your shoulders and kind of move your spine or neck around,
Allowing your body to naturally settle into meditation in a way you can let yourself come and be still,
Settling in a way where you can let your mind settle and anything that is busy and doing in the background,
You can invite that to just lay on the ground next to you.
Inviting in some deeper exhales with the breath.
You can do slow through the nose and a longer exhale through the mouth and as you do so,
Feel the breath filling up the lungs.
As you exhale,
Invite your body to like languish and relax into that feeling of release of tension.
So what does it feel like to exhale with like your whole torso?
Does it feel like to let your spine be soft when you exhale?
You can drift your eyes closed if that feels good and supportive to you.
You can let your hands find a position that is soft,
Maybe that's just resting on the legs or one on top of the other and just cupped in your lap.
As you begin to find a flow with the breath,
Whatever is the natural pace of your breath,
Invite yourself to just settle more into your seat,
Allowing your whole spirit,
Your body and your mind to arrive right here and right now.
Inviting yourself to release any doing,
Release any planning,
Release any expectation of what the meditation should be or how it should feel.
Inviting yourself to open up and receive stillness just as the way you can open up and receive the replenishing nature of the breath.
You might notice that you can also open up and receive the sounds in your space.
What soft sounds can you hear that are nearby?
As you settle in with this flow of receiving the breath,
Can you also settle in with the flow of just receiving the present moment as it is?
Releasing back from fixating or focusing on any one thing in particular.
Inviting yourself to be here to receive whatever comes to the surface,
Be that sound,
Be that breath,
Be that noticing your hands as you can feel them in your lap or on your legs.
Maybe that's receiving the sensation of your sit bones on the cushion or on the chair.
In what way can you invite your body to receive the present moment as a sensation,
So a felt sense,
And that felt sense coming through any of your five senses,
And that felt sense being a way to just let yourself rest and anchor to the present moment.
Inviting all ways that your body and your mind is just be in this moment.
Noticing if any tension is present or fixation is present,
And be like,
That's okay,
This too.
Invite that to be here without pushing it away and without also clinging to it.
Noticing how you can always take a deeper exhale to carry away any tension or carry away any fixation.
Re-follow this pathway right home to the breath and to the seat.
As you continue to invite yourself to settle,
You may naturally find a place that feels supportive and easeful.
You may notice where you can sense that,
Where in the body can settling and ease naturally rise up to meet you,
Even in its most subtle sense.
You may even choose to get curious about this place and the sensation.
This is a way of like getting to know it a little bit better,
Feeling more into the felt sense of it,
Less about what you think about it and more about what does this actually feel like?
Does it have a temperature?
Can I sense a vibration?
Can I sense into where its edges are?
Does this sensation flutter or vibrate?
Does this sensation have a density?
Is it thick or soft?
Is it cushiony or spongy?
And then noticing how the mind naturally gets whisked away into the story about your experience.
And as you do so,
Notice how you can return to the breath and to the seat for the sounds.
Inviting yourself to be here,
To stay here without getting whisked away into the mind.
Being able to practice utilizing the breath as a pathway back from rumination,
As that pathway and invitation right back to what am I actually just experiencing?
And can I invite myself in this moment to open and unfold into experience without explicitly directing myself with focus?
Can I invite myself to notice and experience without so much of thinking about it?
Can you explore experience of the body?
Can you receive sensation,
Any of the five senses,
As a way of receiving the present moment?
Utilizing this practice of receiving the present moment without straining,
Without clenching,
Without directing or avoiding,
And definitely without judging.
So in a way,
You're inviting yourself to receive yourself just as you are.
Not needing to fix.
Not needing to do.
Inviting yourself to just exist as sensation.
Exist and receive yourself as a human being and not a human doing.
And I absolutely invite you to receive yourself in this moment and even find a bit of pleasure and joy in letting go of that human doing.
What is the joy and the pleasure of opening up into being a human being?
In what way can you invite yourself to revel in this experience?
To revel in letting go.
To revel in letting the breath carry away tension.
And to revel in the ways that you can receive softness naturally.
Often taking a moment to notice the nuance of your experience.
What are the soft and subtle sensations that you can feel?
How can you subtly and softly still hear the sounds in your room and still make contact with the cushion underneath you?
How can you still softly and subtly feel the air on your skin?
Can you invite yourself even into one more percent of softness with the breath?
Even connecting with the air that is outside of you.
And feeling that pathway of air between you and your environment move as one.
And taking one last moment here at the end of our meditation to notice what it feels like somatically with your senses to be a field of experience.
How you can notice the body.
How you can notice the breath.
How you can notice your environment.
All at the same time.
The expansive sense of being a human being.
And where you are inviting yourself to take a few deeper cleansing breaths.
Slow through the nose and long and audible through the mouth.
Letting out a sigh or a hum at the end of your exhale.
Inviting your fingers and toes to wiggle.
Inviting your neck and your spine to move and wiggle and stretch.
Inviting your torso to move and flex.
Inviting your body to exit itself out of the meditation at your own pace.
