This is a guided return to presence practice.
In returning to being present,
It's not something that we can stay doing for very long.
So expecting yourself to stay present for a period of time is setting yourself up for failure.
It's rather about noticing where you've been and returning to presence.
And every return is a fresh opening to the presence of God.
It's a fresh moment of freedom from being caught up in the self-constructed world of our thoughts.
The drama that we too easily get caught up in.
And so this is a short guided practice on returning.
And a helpful way of returning to presence is to bring our awareness to our senses.
So begin with just listening for a little while.
Let the sounds that you hear around you fall gently on your awareness of sound.
Don't label or judge any sounds.
Just allow yourself to be receptive to the simplicity of hearing whatever you hear.
And now if your eyes are closed,
You can open them briefly and look around you.
But try not to name things because then we jump back into the conceptual.
Just look in a way where you are receiving whatever colours and shapes and shadows and light are coming in through the senses of your eyes.
Now become aware of feeling.
Feeling this body,
The sturdy support of the chair holding you,
Your feet on the ground.
And then the feeling of your breath entering your nose,
The coolness as the breath enters.
And follow this felt sensation of your breath down.
Feel your chest gently expanding to receive the air and contracting in the release.
And feel how it feels to be this presence who is breathing.
Not thinking about that,
But experiencing the felt sensation of being here,
Now,
This I am being alive in the I am being of God.
And remain with this felt sense of being present here,
Now,
For as long as you would like to.
God Bless.
