Close your eyes,
Just checking in with your body,
Feeling the belly expanding on the inhalation and sense the air coming out through your nostrils as you exhale.
Exploring how your body is feeling this morning,
Sweeping your arms up as you inhale,
Reaching up for a nice big stretch,
Maybe interlacing your fingers and staying here with a few breaths,
Lengthening the spine.
Slide your ribs to the right side,
Coming into a side stretch.
One deep breath here.
Return to the middle.
Inhale,
Lengthen the spine and slide your ribs to the left side,
Stretching the left side of your body.
Coming back to the center,
Place your hands and arms in cactus shape,
Opening the chest.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears.
Maybe rolling out the wrist,
Feeling how the chest expands on your inhalation and squeeze the scapula together as you exhale.
And place your hands on your shoulders.
Start drawing circles with the elbows,
Going both directions.
When you're ready,
Placing your hands on your knees or beside your body.
And by now you're already dropping into the meditation practice.
You're connecting to your inner space and the sensations in your body.
Slowly in your own time,
Arriving to a comfortable position.
Finding a position that feels effortless,
Feels comfortable,
A position where you can stay alert.
Slow down your breath,
Sending your breath to the back of the body,
Feeling how the back inflates on the inhalation and softens as you exhale.
Stance your hips grounded to the floor.
See if you can relax your glutes and your legs.
Give yourself the permission to relax into this posture a little bit more.
Feel the lower belly expanding on the inhalation.
The air traveling all the way to the lower belly,
Helping you ground yourself more into this moment.
Perhaps you sense the air also traveling through the chest area.
You can sense that connection where your heart and your breath meet,
Right behind the sternum.
Feeling the sensations around this area of the chest,
The slight movements of your breath.
And of course it's normal for the thoughts to arrive.
Use your breath and this connection to the heart as a way of grounding you back into your practice.
Into this present moment.
If the mind goes into thinking,
Gently draw your attention back to your breath,
Back to the point behind the sternum,
The heart space.
Notice how any tension around the head melts down below your shoulders.
Send your breath to your face,
Your eyes,
And allow your breath to relax any unnecessary tension in your face.
Your jaw relaxes,
The forehead,
Your eyeballs.
All the tension melts down into the chest.
One breath at a time.
Your shoulders relax away from your ears and the arms and hands relax from the inside out.
Perhaps you sense your whole body and being a bit more relaxed,
More open to receive this present moment.
You're open to receive the sensations in your body just as they are without needing to change anything.
Simply allowing it.
Sensing the constant flow of sensations.
Follow your breath all the way to the top of the inhalation and all the way out.
No other agenda.
Simply following your breath effortlessly.
Breathing through the heart space.
The heart is a doorway to the deeper layers of your being.
Sense some depth,
Presence in the middle of the chest.
A sense of me and all of those small worried parts of yourself melt into this energy of the heart space.
The presence helping you to arrive into this moment,
Which is all there is.
Now we're gonna introduce a pause between our breath.
So pausing for a moment between your inhalation and your exhalation.
So inhaling all the air in,
Pausing for a moment,
Sensing a little gap of stillness and exhaling all the air out,
Pausing for a moment at the bottom of the exhalation.
Continue like this in your own time.
These gaps between the breath are a window into the vast formless presence in the background.
If your attention contracts into one thought,
Gently relax back into this vastness of presence and awareness.
Wave of relaxation travels down through your body.
Notice how your breath is coming from your heart.
Welcome your whole experience with an open heart,
Little resistance,
Full acceptance.
Maybe a palm rests on your chest,
Helping you receive this moment through the heart,
Becoming curious to your experience.
Notice how it feels like to say yes to this moment.
Perhaps you feel more relaxed.
Maybe there's more space between your thoughts.
Taking deeper breaths,
Breathing through your whole body,
Place your palms in a comfortable,
Meaningful position to seal off your practice.
Maybe your palms are in prayer or a palm rests on your chest or belly,
Sealing off your meditation practice,
Honoring your effort of being here.
