Hello and welcome to this short but juicy practice of taking up space.
Listen to this in your daily routine in the morning to remind you of how big and powerful you actually are.
Or just right before a situation,
A meeting,
A situation where you feel like you're actually making yourself smaller than you are and you want to enter the space with knowing you are feeling whole and you're taking up all of who you are.
Taking up space is nothing about being selfish,
Has nothing to do with a big ego,
It actually means that you are taking up who you are fully and whole,
That you are arriving whole and feeling whole.
So to start this practice,
Just take a moment right now to notice how you're sitting or standing,
Feel your body connected to the ground.
The way that you're standing or sitting or lying,
Wherever you are right now,
You are already taking up space.
Not only physically,
Of course,
There is a space of your body,
But you are taking up more space than you actually realize.
But sometimes we shrink,
We pull back and we hide parts of ourself and we try to quiet our presence.
What if today you gave yourself permission to simply be big,
To fill your space with your energy and your voice and your truth and whatever space you're going to enter after this,
Whether it's your day or whether it's a specific situation.
So I invite you to,
Wherever you are right now,
To take your arms and slowly lift them,
Completely stretched out to both of your sides,
Up over your head and down again,
And then do the same thing to the front of your head.
Front and to the back.
I know this seems a little bit silly,
But physically stretching out the space,
The reach of your body can help to become more aware.
Allowing yourself to do that without feeling silly or weird can be a little bit hard actually sometimes,
So just allow yourself to take that space,
Allow yourself to do the wide open movement,
Remind your body of who you are,
That you don't need to shrink,
You don't have to hide your body,
You don't have to be smaller than you are,
You can arrive into this day with confidence,
You can move through this day and through life with space,
Your body has that natural radius and you can use it.
Make yourself aware of that radius and be aware of using it.
Try and fill it out.
Now draw your attention to your feet and try to really press them into the ground,
Feeling connected and rooted.
Sometimes it helps to a little bit stomp them on the ground and just creating a little bit of energy,
Just a little bit this kind of like,
I am here energy,
I am here and I am present.
Just be here,
You are here and you deserve to be here,
You have a right to be here.
The things that you have to say,
They are valuable,
Remind yourself of that.
So walk into this day,
Walk into this world knowing that you have a right to be here and take up that space that you are fully and wholly.
I'm so proud of you for choosing yourself,
I'm so proud of you of wanting to grow and becoming the best version of yourself,
You got this.
