Being Like Water

Let's go ahead and settle in together.

Your eyes can be open or closed,

But if you wish to close them,

You can gently do so now.

And feel into the eyes and the muscles of the eyes and behind the eyes.

You can allow them to soften.

Become aware of your body resting here in space.

Notice whatever part of your physical experience feels tight or rigid or flexed.

And see if you can allow it to soften however your body knows how.

Whether it's your jaw,

Your shoulders,

Your chest,

Or your stomach.

Notice whatever is tight or holding on and allow it to soften.

And at the same time,

You might lift yourself up just a slight bit into this really awake and energized position.

Ready to receive all that's available right now.

You might imagine yourself as like a flower naturally moving in the direction of the sun to receive all of its life nourishing energy.

And as you feel yourself in this grounded,

Awake,

Energized,

And relaxed position,

Let's turn our attention to the breath.

And take a few intentional deep breaths on the exhale letting it go completely.

And then just waiting for the inhale to come back in naturally on its own.

And just settle into the natural rhythm of the breath.

Whatever it is is totally fine.

Notice again what your posture is like and make any adjustments to come back into that wakeful and energized but also relaxed and receptive posture.

And I'd like us to now switch for a moment into a visualization.

So in your seat,

Imagine yourself as rainwater trickling down a mountain.

You find exactly the right path,

Easily traversing bumps and ridges,

No effort or force exerted.

Simply falling down naturally and collecting yourself in the soil at the foot of the mountain.

In our identification with a self separate from the world around us,

It can at times feel like a fight,

Like a struggle to survive in spite of the world's efforts.

And this can be seen as like the water attempting to stop its downward motion and struggle back up the mountain,

Or at least to try to stay in place.

The thought of water doing this seems absurd.

What about for us?

How much do we struggle to get back up the mountain?

To hold onto ourselves as this particular unique raindrop?

Sight of falling to and becoming a part of the soil?

We have so many raindrop things to do,

We must become the best raindrop we can be.

But try to feel yourself as this raindrop and experiment in your body with what it might feel like to let go.

To exert a new sort of passive effort of embracing your connection with all of this.

Your falling from the sky and your natural progression down the mountain into the soil.

No wasted energy trying to reverse the process.

You are all of this.

So what does this reverse effort of letting go feel like in the body?

Where do you notice it?

Is it light?

Is it heavy?

Any particular sensation?

What's it like to let go of struggling back up the mountain?

And just naturally falling?

Now where do you notice any resistance to this?

Any resistance to this opening,

To this letting go?

Explore that resistance and see if your body knows how to let it go too,

Just for this moment.

My most core resistance resides in my stomach,

In the pit of my stomach.

Something always feels like it's holding on.

So find whatever that is for you and see what arises when you breathe into and out of it.

When you open it.

And let's just take a few deep breaths together,

Breathing all the way out on the exhale.

And you can gently open your eyes back up if they were closed.

You can move around in your seat a little bit.

Now as you go about the rest of your day,

Notice the ways in which you might be struggling to get back up the mountain.

Notice all the ways in which you're exerting effort and just become interested in how you might open to your experience in a more natural,

Receptive way.

It might be in relationships,

In your work,

In your daily activities.

How much you let go of hanging on to your separate self-identity and open up to your connection to the whole thing.

See if you can adopt the stance of just learning from everything.

And I'll leave you with a related quote from Ram Dass.

The quieter you become,

The more you can hear.