Find your way into a comfortable seat or you can lie down if that's more comfortable.
Find a position in which the body is completely supported,
Comfortable and at ease.
Make a moment to settle in and then just notice a sense of softness into the body as you arrive.
The face can soften,
The eyes can soften into their sockets and perhaps the eyes fall closed or simply a softening of the gaze,
Softening the point of focus of the eyes.
As you sit here or lie,
Bring your awareness into your breath.
Notice the rise and fall of your breath.
Notice where you feel the breath in your body.
Notice the quality of the breath.
Is it smooth and fluid or short and fast?
What's the temperature of your breath?
Release any expectation or judgement of the quality of your breath.
Simply allow it to be as it is in this moment.
And begin to naturally deepen the breath to find a smooth fluid rhythm of the inhale and the exhale,
Equal in length.
Feel the breath wash through the whole of the body,
Inviting prana,
Energy,
Life force into the whole of the body.
Perhaps it's easy to find a rhythm of the breath by counting the inhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
The exhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Inhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Continuing at your own rhythm.
And just noticing a quiet in the mind as we bring our focus into our breath.
Now bring your awareness to your sitting bones.
Visualise your sitting bones in contact with your mat or your chair or the earth.
Imagine roots anchoring both halves of the pelvis into your mat,
Your chair,
Deeper to the floor and deeper still into the earth.
Feel a sensation of being completely anchored,
Grounded and supported by Mother Earth.
From that centred,
Grounded place,
Bring your awareness to the centre point of each half of the pelvis,
To the base of the spine.
Feel the spine rise up from your roots,
Drawing upward like the trunk of a tree to the crown of the head.
Imagine the crown of the head as the crown of a tree,
Reaching higher and higher towards the light of the rising sun.
Draw your inhale in down the trunk to the earth into your roots and the exhale from your roots,
From your base,
Your trunk back out of the crown of the head.
Feel the nourishment and support of the earth as your body opens and unfolds in the light of this new day.
Now bring to mind the image of a dense forest.
Imagine yourself surrounded by ancient mighty trees.
You are part of the forest.
You inhale as the forest exhales.
As you exhale,
The trees inhale your breath.
You are in tune and in rhythm with the trees,
With nature and with the world around you.
Continue to breathe in this way,
In harmony with the forest,
With the earth,
With all of nature around you.
Find comfort and harmony in your exchange with nature.
Nourish yourself with the breath of nature.
Find union with nature in every cycle of breath.
Feel yourself soften into this connection,
Knowing that you are a being of nature.
And when you feel ready,
You can release the visualisation.
You can take a deeper breath and a long smooth exhale.
Then bringing your awareness back to your physical body,
To the points of contact between your body,
Your mat,
Your chair and the earth.
Come back to the rise and fall of the chest.
We'll seal our practice with the sacred sound of AUM,
Feeling the vibration through the whole of the body,
Uniting the vibration of our body,
The cosmic hum of the whole universe.
Breathe in fully,
Breathe out fully,
Breathe in.
AUM Allow a moment for the vibration to resonate,
Reaching,
Bring your eyes open,
Feel the light of the new day enter the body through the eyes.
Offer thanks for this new day out.
