Listen to the bell.
Listen with your hearing and also with your awareness.
Follow the bell.
GONG With a lovely,
Long,
Arriving breath,
Arrive in time.
Here you are,
In time,
No longer planning to get here,
No longer getting here,
Here you are,
Arrived in time.
And I will hold time for you over the next few minutes.
And you can step outside of time for just a little while.
Arrive to in space.
Use your vision,
Your eyes,
Your sight to explore your space.
Move your eyes around the room.
Notice every corner,
Every object,
Every piece of furniture,
Noticing it with the sense perception of sight.
Trying not to even label,
Just perceive.
And then closing your eyes gently or soft focusing them.
With a lovely breath,
Have a sense of arrival in place.
Here you are in time and space,
In place.
Use your hearing now to explore the space that you're in.
Stretch your listening to every corner.
What subtle sounds can you hear?
Perhaps you can hear sounds from outside,
Wind or rain,
Or the roof cooling at the end of the day.
Perhaps you can hear sounds inside the room you're in.
Listen carefully,
Closely for subtle sounds.
Trying not to even name them but to simply notice that is a sound.
Arrive also in your breath,
Dropping into your breath with a lovely long delicious inward breath.
Feeling the air move over your nostrils,
Down into your lungs,
Filling the bottom,
The middle,
And the top of your lungs and then releasing the top,
The middle,
And the bottom.
Feeling the movement of air,
The sensation on your skin and down into your lungs.
As you arrive in the feeling,
The sensation of the movement of air,
Arrive to in the sensations against your skin.
What do you feel on your skin?
Can you feel comfortable clothing?
Can you feel a breeze across your skin?
What do you feel on the skin of your feet?
Simply noticing the sense perceptions of touch against your skin.
Here you are arrived fully to in your sense perceptions.
Explore your space with your awareness.
Perhaps by visioning the space you're in or simply stretching your awareness into every corner of the room.
Are you aware of objects around you without sight or sound?
Just awareness.
And then letting go any effortful attention and simply arriving in your breath.
Allowing it again to deepen.
Filling your lungs and releasing.
And again.
And again.
Noticing that these long soft breaths soothe your nervous system.
Allow your breath to soften your nervous system.
Notice your nervous system coming to peace,
Settling,
Soothing,
Softening.
As your breath falls into a deep long natural rhythm.
Allow your breath to soften your body,
Your feet.
On the outward breath your feet soften and release.
Your legs,
Knees,
Thighs and hips soften on the release of breath.
Your belly,
Notice how it expands on the inward breath.
Allow your belly to soften and release on the outward breath.
Is your spine straight,
Perfectly aligned,
Taking no effort in perfect balance and harmony.
Whether you're sitting or prone on the outward breath,
Soften.
Soften your spine,
Noticing that it sits in perfect balance.
Your shoulders,
We often carry tension there.
Release,
Soften.
Perhaps push your shoulders back and down and then let them fall into a natural pose.
And on the outward breath,
Let go,
Soften,
Release.
Your arms,
Palms,
Fingers on the outward breath,
Notice how they soften.
Release,
Let go.
Take a moment to notice your hands,
Your fingers.
Is there a sense of life moving right into the tips of your fingers?
Are your hands at once fully alive and yet completely at rest?
Soften,
Let go.
Your neck and jaw,
We often carry tension there.
Perhaps wriggle your jaw to release that.
And then on the outward breath,
Soften,
Let go.
Placing your tongue gently on the back of your top teeth and taking your attention to your eyes and brow.
And with the outward breath,
Soften,
Let go.
On your next outward breath,
Let your attention softly scan through your body from the top of your head,
All the way to your toes.
And if you find any patches of tension or perhaps discomfort,
Breathe into that place and let go.
Soften,
Perhaps release that discomfort,
Even if it's just a tiny bit.
Here you are fully arrived in your breath and your body and your nervous system,
Softening,
Releasing,
Coming to peace.
Have your thoughts too settled?
Imagining your thoughts,
Like leaves settling to the bottom of the pond,
They simply settle.
And as your thoughts settle,
The pond becomes clearer and clearer until it is clear water.
Thoughts arise,
You simply notice that is a thought and let it settle again.
Using your breath to gently settle your thoughts.
Noticing that thoughts arise and there is a temptation to follow them,
To dance away with those thoughts,
To think them,
To run up the garden path with those thoughts.
When you find yourself tempted,
Simply take a breath,
Draw your attention back to your breath and allow that thought to settle.
Noticing that you don't have to think those thoughts,
Not now anyway.
And as thoughts arise,
You might notice what they stimulate in your heart or your nervous system.
Does this thought bring me peace or does it agitate my nervous system?
Can I choose to put that thought down?
Allow it to settle,
Soften,
Let go.
Noticing too that when thoughts arise,
They can find a place in your body.
A thought might cause you to tense your shoulders or it might cause tension in your belly or your jaw.
Let the thoughts settle and revisit your body and let it to let go,
Soften.
Thoughts might arise that cause you anticipation,
Enthusiasm,
Joy.
Just for the moment,
We're going to let those thoughts settle as well.
Notice the effect they have on your body,
Your nervous system,
Your heart,
And let them settle too.
For the next few minutes,
I will not speak.
Let us just be here together,
Holding the space and simply watching as our thoughts arise and then fall away.
Using our breath to anchor our mind,
Using our breath to come back to the peaceful place,
The place of release,
Of softness.
Is your breath still long and deep?
Is your breath anchoring your thoughts,
Just holding them settled?
Check in with your body,
Have any little moments of tension arisen in your body,
Breathe into them and soften.
Practicing,
Noticing our thoughts,
Not judging,
Not evaluating,
Just noticing that is a thought.
I don't have to think it.
I don't even have to believe it and soften,
Settle,
Soften and settle into peacefulness.
You may choose to stay a while longer in this place of peacefulness.
Or you may choose to stretch and move about.
Whatever you choose,
My wish for you is that you are safe,
That you are happy and you live with ease.
