Hi I'm Jeline Coutts and this is a practice in finding space to lead.
I wanted to share with you one of my favorites passages from Lord of the Rings.
Frodo is halfway up the mountain at this point towards the end and he's despairing of the role he has to play and he says I wish it need not have happened in my time and turns to Gandalf and Gandalf says so do I.
So do all of us live to see such times but that is not for them to decide.
All we have is to decide what to do with the time that is given us.
And I know so many people at the moment feel like Frodo with the ring halfway up the mountain wasn't the job that you thought it was going to be but you're the one with the ring in this moment and you need to keep going.
So this is a practice in being able to find space,
Accepting where you are and being allowed to give yourself the space for what you need to keep going.
Finding a round of balance and taking a few deeper longer breaths all the way in and all the way out and all the way in and all the way out.
As you continue with that longer deeper breathing just gently scanning your body on the in-breath for any areas of tension and gently relaxing and releasing on the out-breath.
Again scanning on the in-breath relaxing and releasing on the out-breath.
To help you relax just a little more bringing your attention to the muscles in your face and particularly relaxing the muscles in your forehead,
Muscles around your eyes,
Muscles in your cheeks and your jaw,
Even letting your tongue fall slack in your mouth.
Just going down the back of your head now down the back of your neck across the top of the shoulders.
Again relaxing and relaxing.
And so as we're doing this if you find your mind is still wandering always give you permission,
Self-permission just to come back to allow yourself to really rest and nurture yourself in this moment.
So with that permission continue to scan down your arms,
Your upper arms and lower arms.
Scanning down your torso again relaxing and releasing any tension you find.
And scanning around your pelvis noticing any unnecessary effort in the way you might be sitting.
And scanning down your thighs now down your shins and your calves.
All the way down to the experience of your feet flat on the floor.
And knowing with a longer deep out breath every time you breathe out you're activating the parasympathetic nervous system,
The rest and digest system.
It really helps you tend to what you need in this moment.
So when you are as relaxed as you can be in this moment just gently bring your attention now to the experience of breathing.
Focusing wherever that's strongest in your body it might be your belly,
Might be the sense of breath at the tip of the nose,
Or maybe even a sense of the whole body breathing.
Allowing your attention just to rest there.
Just noticing the calm of the breath.
Finding that space,
That calm at the eye of the storm.
And if it helps to stay centered on the breath just counting your breath at the end of each out breath.
From one all the way to ten.
When you get to ten just turning around counting back to one and continuing in cycles.
At some point you might notice that your mind wanders away from the breath.
At that moment all you need to do is just relax,
Release whatever it is that's kept at your attention and redirect your focus to the breath.
Allow yourself to sit in that space of gentle awareness,
Gentle focus on the breath.
Not seeing any spaces of calm and ease.
You might also notice that your mind is just really busy.
Too much thoughts or information whirling around.
And in this practice it's not about getting rid of that necessarily.
We have 70,
000 thoughts a day they're gonna come and go during this practice.
But what we're trying here is our capacity to notice it and choose where our attention goes without layering it with judgment or frustration or somehow wanting it to be something else.
Notice your mind wanders just gently relaxing,
Releasing and returning to the breath again.
The experience of the breath in the belly.
And the final moment of the practice just taking a moment.
So again,
You can acknowledge yourself for creating this space.
To know that you can do what you need to give yourself the resources to get through this.
But there's always this calm sense of peace waiting for you.
The calm at the eye of the storm.
So with that take three deeper longer breaths all the way in and all the way out.
And when you really let go of the practice,
We're wishing you a good day.
Thanks very much.
