Closing your eyes and taking some fuller breaths.
You might stretch your arms overhead,
Letting the ribs open.
Letting this practice be about settling into the body.
So let it move around,
Let those fuller breaths facilitate any small adjustments.
Might soften a smile into your cheeks.
Exhaling every drop of air out right to the bottom of your breath.
And then filling up your belly with a big softening breath.
Releasing again out of the mouth,
Let it all go.
From the back of the neck,
Scan all the way down the back of the body,
Using your breath to melt and untie any sticky parts.
Bring in some gentle movement into the spine at any time,
Deepening your connection to your felt sense of what's here.
You can turn your attention inward into your joints,
Your tissues,
Sweeping the full healing breaths through the inner space.
Sinking a little bit heavier through the seat.
And then sinking your mind from the forehead,
That energy drifts down and settles into the heart space.
Bringing a palm to the chest or the hands in prayer for a few breaths.
So you breathe in and out of the heart space,
The skin and face can soften even more.
Just cut away the outside,
Cut away my voice for a moment,
Be fully present to the chest area.
Feeling whatever is here.
Breathing with whatever is here,
Just for the next few breaths,
You don't need to think about it,
Just let yourself feel and be.
Your hand can return here or release at any time as we cultivate trust in this meditation.
Starting with the body,
Seeing if there's any resistances to what is.
You might be holding tension physically or mentally,
Resisting yourself or your past or your future.
So scan for those edges and use your breath to melt.
You might call situations to mind that there's a resistance with.
And just use your breath to soften as much as you can around it.
Extending that it will be okay.
A big breath to lengthen up your spine and soften down your face and shoulders.
Full belly,
Full heart breaths,
Everything will be okay.
And then next we can take the breaths through the center of the chest again and sense what trust feels like in the heart,
In your being.
Maybe it feels similar to love,
It might even feel like a pleasure,
A sweetness.
Breathe in the feeling of trusting life.
You might sense it like a universal energy of allowing everything to be as it is,
A sacred energy like a surrender.
Trust is spreading into every cell like a smiling light.
Exhaling the energy of trust,
That wholeness and relaxation into all the body parts,
Especially through the back of the body,
Especially any sticky spots.
You might come back to some fuller breaths,
Just letting any effort of your practice relax away now.
And then we'll explore the pauses.
So between inhale and exhale,
Let there be a short pause,
A gap of half a second.
Experiencing that little space of stillness,
That little gap between your thoughts,
The same stillness at the center of the heart space.
And notice that background of stillness,
The quietness that's here behind the sounds,
The present moment is a kind of trust.
Allow yourself to surrender into the pauses,
Emptying out 100% into zero.
The freedom of being.
The breath slow and full,
The heart open.
Another few minutes here in silence for you to deepen the heart,
The relaxation and the stillness even more.
One more minute,
Maybe a palm comes back to the chest or to the belly or prayer.
Feeling both the stillness and the energy of your being.
You've got the option to remain here as long as you like.
I just want to savor this or reflect on something a little bit longer before moving into the rest of your day.
