First,
I want to invite you to come to a comfortable seated position,
Whatever feels sustainable in your body.
I'm sitting on a mat,
But I highly recommend sitting on blocks,
A pillow,
Some kind of cushion so that you can lift your hips a little bit higher than your knees.
If you don't have blocks or a cushion,
You can use pillows from your bed.
You can use books.
Grab a few of your books and sit on top of those.
Something that will lift your hips up tends to be a bit more sustainable in the body.
Now as a quick reminder,
Anything that I share here is an offering.
I'm offering for you to try it on,
And if it doesn't work for you,
You can stop at any time.
If there's a practice that we do,
Something doesn't feel right,
It's painful,
You don't like it,
I invite you to make an empowered choice to just stop whenever you like.
We're gonna start this breathing practice with one cleansing breath.
By taking a big inhale through your nose.
And when you're ready to exhale,
Sigh it out your mouth.
And then on your next inhale,
Inhale for the count of five.
4.
.
.
3.
.
.
2,
1,
Holding in 3.
One.
Exhaling out,
Five,
Four,
Three.
Two,
One,
Holding your breath out for three.
To One,
Repeating on the inhale,
Five.
3,
2,
1,
Holding in 3.
Two.
One,
Exhale five,
Four.
3 too.
One,
Holding your breath out.
Three.
To One.
I'm going to continue with the counting.
Inhale,
Five.
4,
3,
2.
1 Hold 3 to One,
Exhale five.
Four.
Three to One,
Hold three.
Inhale 5,
4,
3,
2.
2.
One,
Hold three.
One.
Exhale 5.
For 3.
2.
One,
Hold three.
To One.
I'm going to continue with the cues.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Hold.
Let's continue in silence,
Going at your own pace.
And then just return to your natural breath.
Letting go of everything that happened before.
Just allow yourself to breathe.
However you would like to breathe in this moment.
Next,
We're gonna move into a felt-sensing meditation.
For our purposes today,
I'm gonna stay seated so you can see me and hear me okay,
But you're welcome to take a position that feels best for you.
So wherever you're seated or lying in this moment,
I want you to start by,
Again,
Closing your eyes if that feels okay for your body.
Or if you like to keep your eyes open,
That's completely fine.
Just rest your gaze on a spot on the floor a couple feet ahead of you.
If you're lying on your back,
You might rest your gaze on a spot on the ceiling,
And that's fine too.
And as you start to turn your attention inward,
I want you to just do a gentle scan.
Of your internal sensations,
Starting with your feet.
And moving all the way up to your head.
We're just turning your attention inward so you can notice what's happening on the inside of you.
Being an observer to any sensations or experiences that are happening right here and now.
Next,
I want you to think of a specific situation that's been coming up in your life lately.
Some kind of challenge you've been navigating.
And the level of challenge.
Should be on a scale of 1 to 10,
1 being the least amount of challenge and 10 being the most amount of challenge.
The level of challenge we want to find here for this purpose should be about a four or a five.
So this is something that is challenging,
But it's not the most difficult thing that you've experienced before.
It's maybe causing a little bit of stress,
But you're basically okay when you're working through this challenge.
As you're thinking about this challenging situation in your life.
Can you connect to what happens to you on the inside?
How does this situation or challenging experience feel in your body?
Where do you feel it most strongly?
Noticing how big it is in your body or how much space it takes up.
What shape does this feeling on the inside take?
Is it round and smooth?
Irregular or jagged.
Does it have bumps or sharp edges?
What qualities does it have?
Maybe it's achy.
Pulsing?
Is there a squeezing or a pinching sensation?
Maybe some tingling.
A fluttering.
A burning.
Or something else.
Staying curious with whatever sensations are arising.
We're just noticing,
We're just observing and allowing your experience to be what it is.
The sensation that you notice in your body,
Is it moving or is it still?
Does it shift around?
Or does it feel stagnant and stuck?
What is its temperature?
Is it hot?
Or cold or lukewarm,
Somewhere in between.
As you notice these sensations,
See if you can notice how long they've been there.
How old are they or how far back?
Do those sensations go.
And there's no need to question whatever arises.
Try not to analyze or judge what you're feeling.
Just see if you can be with it.
Be right here.
Witnessing these sensations from the inside.
See if you can observe them.
Just watching your sensations happen as they're happening.
And see if you can allow yourself to listen to your body.
And what it's telling you through these sensations.
You might offer a question of curiosity.
What does my body have to tell me today?
What is my body communicating to me today?
And then when you're ready,
We'll let that go by returning to your natural breath.
Noticing your inhales and your exhales.
We have one more practice today.
And for this next practice,
You'll need to be standing up and have some space around you.
So you should be able to stretch your hands and your legs out a little bit without bumping into anything.
So go ahead and find that space and I will meet you there.
For this practice,
We're going to be doing a little bit of trembling and shaking to release stuck energy,
Stressed energy,
Anxious energy,
And even traumatic energy.
So what I want you to do is find a space where you can move and then take your feet about hip width distance or slightly wider depending on what feels right in your body.
And then you can just allow your hands to come by your side.
Maybe closing your eyes if that feels okay for you,
Or you can rest your gaze down on the spot on the floor.
Put a little bend in your knees.
And then I want you to imagine that the earth is starting to rumble beneath your feet.
And you can feel this shaking coming from the earth and up into your feet.
From there,
The shaking continues to move up your body,
And you can feel the shaking in your ankles.
Maybe just.
.
.
Shaking your ankles side to side a little bit.
Moving that shaking up into your knees,
Allowing your knees to have a little bounce here.
Continuing to allow that shaking to move up into your hips.
Maybe getting a little hips action side to side.
And then into your fingers and your hands.
Your elbows,
Your shoulders.
And into your head.
And I'm going to invite you to shake here in whatever way feels right for you.
We're going to do this for about three minutes or so.
So I want you to move in an organic way.
You can move side to side.
You can twist around.
You can shake your arms overhead.
You can kick your legs.
Just exploring whatever organic movements feel right to you as you shake.
In this space.
So I'm going to mind the time.
And just continue to shake.
Allowing?
Yourself to make any noises that make sense or feel good in your body,
Following whatever feels good.
Grrrr!
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo We'll continue here for about another minute.
This shaking can be as big or as small as you would like it to be.
It can be as intense or less intense as you would like it to be.
I want to invite you to choose what feels right for your body.
Noticing my breath is increasing here.
Just a few more moments.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH And slowly start to slow your body.
And come to a standing position,
Still your feet bent.
Are hip-width distance or wider?
Shrugging your shoulders up to your ears and then letting them go.
One more time,
Shrugging your shoulders up to your ears.
Exhale and let them go.
Take one hand to your heart and one hand to your belly.
And draw your attention inward.
Noticing what is happening on the inside of you.
Noticing your breathing.
Noticing your heart rate.
Noticing any heat you might have created in your body as you were shaking.
Noticing any lingering sensations.
Maybe a tingling in your fingertips.
Your legs.
Or somewhere else.
And just allowing your experience to be what it is.
And knowing that whatever shows up here today is completely fine.
You can stay here for as long as you like,
Or if you're ready to be done.
You can gently blink open your eyes and just take a moment to orient yourself to the space that you're in.
By taking a look around the room.
And just seeing everything that you can see.
And then when you're done for the day,
I invite you to do a little journaling practice about how this short 15 minute somatic practice was for you.
And I'll see you tomorrow.
