Hi.
I wanted to offer this lovely resilience practice,
Utilizing the breath to cultivate balance.
And just as a reminder,
Resilience is not staying centered and steady 100% of the time.
Resilience is the ability to respond when we are thrown off,
Because we will inevitably be thrown off.
If you are human,
Part of the human experience is that we face adversity.
Part of the experience of just being a living being,
We face adversity.
And resilience is born and grows in our response.
So please know that when you find yourself overwhelmed or acting outside of your values,
Just know that the resilience is the coming home.
So let us practice and cultivate this ability.
Finding a comfortable seat and gently closing your eyes if that feels comfortable to you,
Or just resting your gaze.
Softening the eyes and the eye sockets and finding your breath,
The in-breath and the out-breath.
Just notice if you're leaning forward slightly and just lean back inside your body.
Beautiful.
And as you settle into noting your breath and feeling your body,
I'd just like to invite you to call in the intention of just kindness and bring a hand to your heart or two hands to your heart and just place them on your heart,
Feeling the weight of them,
Feeling the support of them.
I'll just begin to breathe into your heart and into your hands.
Settling the shoulders on the exhale,
Softening the jaw and the face.
And I'll ask you to imagine the inhale,
Inhaling up your spine and out the crown of your head.
Just notice how that lifts you up a little bit,
Lengthens your spine.
And on your next exhale,
Imagine the exhale moving down your spine,
Vertebrae by vertebrae,
Slowly and gently.
And just see if we can find a rhythm with that.
Inhaling up the spine,
Exhaling down your spine and out your tailbone.
We're just using our imagination.
Lean back into your shoulders,
Lean back into your skull.
Feel the chest cavity,
Feel your body being breathed by this with just a subtle intention of feeling the wave of the breath going up and then down.
Beautiful.
And you might note mentally if it's useful to you,
On the inhale,
I breathe in strength and then on the exhale,
Soften.
Inhale resilience and strength,
Exhale and soften.
Just including that internally.
And I'd like you to just bring attention as you inhale to inhale and include your heart in that.
Feel your hands on your heart,
Feel your heart lighting up,
Maybe imagining the breath moving through the ventricles of the heart.
Exhale to settle.
Inhaling strength and resilience,
Exhale to settle.
Just staying with this.
Beautiful.
Beautiful with each exhale,
Letting your body settle and get heavier and heavier while also feeling that lift in the spine and that energy in your heart.
This balance between strength and ease.
Making space in the settling for our strength to come alive,
For our heart to awaken.
Beautiful.
And I'd like to just close with a little mantra with your breath.
As you're breathing into your heart,
Feeling your sick bones and your body being held by the ground beneath you.
Just invite you to note internally,
Repeating after me,
May I release my fears.
May I release my fears.
Let them drop into the earth.
Let them go on your exhale.
Soften around them.
Any fears you may have right now.
Continuing to breathe and just exhaling to release the fears.
And then let's just really breathe into the heart.
Feel the weight of your hands on your heart.
Feel this kindness that you're offering to yourself.
May I trust I have what I need.
So repeating that internally after me.
May I trust I have what I need.
Inhaling into the heart and exhaling to settle.
Stay with this.
Then we'll shift to I have all that I need.
So just repeating internally,
I have all that I need.
Feeling the ground beneath you.
Softening in the face and in the shoulders.
Inhaling to strengthen to the heart.
And if there's any doubt or resistance showing up,
That's okay.
Just welcome that.
It's what the mind does.
It's natural.
We notice that and come back to our breath.
Therein lies the resilience building.
The ability to notice and return to your center.
Notice any doubt or uncertainty and return to the center.
I have everything I need.
Breathing into the heart,
The ventricles of the heart,
Feeling it pumping.
Maybe letting a soft smile come onto your face if that's where you're at.
It's just a sense of arriving in your heart,
Arriving home.
Letting the floor or the earth or the ground hold you up.
Laning on your spine.
Being inside this body in this moment.
Beautiful.
I send you deep compassion.
Namaste.
The light in me sees the light in you.
Be well.
