So I'm going to lead you through a short stopping practice that you can use any time in your daily life to come back to yourself,
Reground in the present moment.
It can be really useful if we notice that we're beginning to get stressed or rush in to just take a moment to stop and spend a minute or two to do this very brief mindfulness practice.
So to begin,
Maybe taking one or two deeper outbreaths,
Seeing if you can let something go.
And in a very general way just checking in how are you doing right now?
What's present in the body,
In the emotional world,
In the mind?
And to begin just grounding yourself,
Feeling the contact of the earth,
The chair beneath you,
Feeling the contact with whatever is supporting you right now.
Seeing the sensations in the face,
In the forehead,
Around the eyes,
In the jaw.
And seeing if it's possible to let something go,
To soften or relax the face a little.
Next just noticing the shoulders,
Noticing what's present there.
And again,
Is it possible to gently allow the shoulders to soften,
Release?
Maybe we just soften into places of tension or holding,
Allowing them to be there,
Relaxing around those places.
Bringing the awareness into the two hands,
Allowing the two hands to soften,
To open.
Feeling how our hands begin to come to life as we place our awareness there.
And once again reconnecting to the points of contact of the chair or the ground beneath us,
Feeling the solidity of whatever is supporting us.
Feeling ourselves held in this very simple way.
And coming back to the movement of the breath in the body,
In the belly.
Maybe placing a hand on the belly and feeling the gentle rise and fall.
Maybe just noticing the sensations of three breaths,
In and out.
Rising,
Falling.
And finally opening the awareness out,
Taking in the sounds around us.
Maybe the closest sounds,
The sound of my voice,
The sounds in the space that you're in.
And then finally taking in the more distant sounds.
What are the most distant sounds you're aware of right now?
And when you feel ready you can open your eyes and continue your day.
