Come into your body,
Mind and spirit at just this very moment.
You may be standing or seated or lying down.
Eyes open or eyes closed.
Whatever feels safe and secure for you at the moment of this meditation.
Settling in.
Noticing who you are,
Where you are,
Just now.
At this moment in your day and in your personal experience.
Is your body tight or relaxed?
Is your mind tired or awake?
And do you feel more excited or more anxious?
There's no cause to judge,
Just to acknowledge.
To come into those spaces with humor,
Curiosity,
And a generous awareness.
Settling in.
Noticing your personal context,
The environment around you.
Things like temperature,
Particular and quirky noises.
Birds,
A radiator.
In whatever space you're doing this meditation right now.
Allow it.
Permit and accept it all.
And then begin to draw inward.
Inside the boundary of skin that separates you from the world around you into flesh and bone.
Solidity,
Volume and mass of your personal self.
Noting without judgment this miraculous form that you are given,
Embodied in this world.
Your breathing.
Almost as a scientist in a laboratory.
Take note of your breathing as it presents itself right now.
Deep or shallow.
Hurried or unrushed.
Starting to loosen yet expand into the space of your chest and torso.
Let your breath become a gentle reminder during this meditation to return to the place you are.
If you start regretting something or worrying about something,
Use your breath to draw you back to just this moment.
The very space and time in which you are.
We're going to do a series of oscillations between a solidity that is internal and an openness that extends us outward in awareness.
So as you breathe,
Notice the strength of your musculature,
The power in your joints.
The solidity and verticality of your spine all the way through the top of your head.
And drawing inward to find the core of your body and the center of your identity,
Shoring it up,
Feeling it strong and breathing.
Acknowledging that you have a you that is all your own and a perspective that is strong.
If your mind wanders to odd thoughts,
Just return to your breath and body as a gentle focus.
Now we're going to have fun and soften and settle outwards with an open and generous awareness.
Starting from strength and solidity to something gentle,
Playful,
A little bit loosey-goosey,
More open to what's around us,
Listening and receptive.
Attune to what's there with your ears and your other senses.
Letting it in.
When your mind wanders,
Because it always does,
Just come back to my voice and your breath and your body.
We're going to draw in again to that core strength,
The solidity and verticality of your spine.
Your force of personality,
Which you would deny at your peril,
You were made to be unique with distinct thoughts and opinions all your own and a body just yours.
Coming in.
You're breathing.
And now letting your awareness and your energy seep outwards.
Perhaps horizontally as you let your body slouch,
Letting go of the need to be strong or powerful,
Softening and allowing yourself to become excited about the world around you,
Letting it in.
Starting with that generous awareness.
Getting loose and free.
Using your breathing as a focus to return when you're distracted.
We'll go in and then out one more time.
Drawing in.
Becoming heavy.
Solid.
Using your mass,
Your power and strength.
The intensity of your spine and core.
Who you are and what you stand for uniquely in this world.
Getting in.
One more time,
Letting yourself drift outwards,
Soften and droop.
Letting your body become a little bit more smushy and relaxed as your awareness drifts beyond you.
In front and back to your sides.
Above and below.
Getting to the world,
Being witness to it with gratitude and generous awareness.
Letting yourself relax a bit more.
Now as we prepare to end our meditation together,
Find an equilibrium,
A midpoint between strength and solidity and gentleness and ease.
Keep going back and forth to find that balance between courage and openness.
As you go through your day after this meditation,
Keep tacking back and forth towards an equilibrium,
A kind of confident vulnerability.
Notice finding that equilibrium now until our closing bell.
Now as we prepare to end our meditation together,
Find an equilibrium,
A midpoint between strength
