Good morning,
This is Julia.
Let's move into a short practice to start our day off on the right foot.
When you're ready,
Find a comfortable seated position,
Preferably upright.
Take a moment,
Stretch and wiggle around,
Maybe even reach your arms up overhead.
Really give yourself permission to get comfortable or as comfortable as possible.
Broaden your collarbones,
Feel the crown of your head reaching up,
But the weight of the rest of your body relaxing down.
Taking a short moment to just glance around the space that you're in,
Whether you're in a cozy and familiar place or a new foreign place.
Just simply notice using your eyes.
If it feels comfortable to do so,
Slowly close them.
Start by just taking a really deep breath in,
Filling up your lungs,
Even down into your belly,
Really big.
Let that breath go out through your mouth.
Two more of those.
Take a deep,
Full breath in.
Notice the expansion of your physical body to accommodate space for your breath.
Really let it go.
One more time for now.
Breathing in,
Filling up,
Maybe even more.
Maybe it's the biggest breath so far.
Letting it go,
Big sigh.
Observing your body here in the seated position.
Doing your best to just notice the entire length of your body from your head to your toes all at once.
As you watch your body,
Maybe you notice some part of yourself tensing up.
Sometimes simply through noticing those spaces,
We can encourage them to soften and relax.
Begin to pay attention to your breath as it happens,
Without changing it.
Just noticing the subtle flow of your in-breath and your out-breath.
Just sitting here observing.
Maybe you notice thoughts sneaking in.
Without judgment,
Just noticing when that happens and letting it go.
Just focus for another moment on the experience of your in-breath and your out-breath.
We're just stilling the mind.
And though that's sometimes easier said than done,
Our goal right now is to simply focus before we begin to energize.
Noticing your in-breath and your out-breath.
You can begin to let that go.
Bring your awareness back into your body.
Noticing again from the very top of your head down to the tips of your toes,
Everything all at once.
See if there's room to straighten up a little bit more with your posture.
We're going to move back into those deep breaths that we did just a moment ago,
But we're going to add just a little bit of movement with them.
So when you're ready,
Take that big expansive inhale and as you do,
Lift your shoulders all the way up towards your ears like a big shrug.
Let your breath go out through your mouth with that big sigh,
Dropping your shoulders,
Relaxing them back and down.
Let's do that again.
Gathering up a deep inhale,
Shrugging your shoulders up to your ears.
With a big sigh,
Relax your shoulders down.
One more of those big inhale,
Lifting the shoulders,
But this time when you get to the top of your inhale,
Hold your breath.
Keep your shoulders lifted just for three,
Two,
One.
Big sigh,
Let the shoulders relax.
Let's notice how you feel.
Still staying in this position,
Take a short moment to bring your hands together in front of your heart and rub your hands together rigorously.
Back and forth,
Rub the hands together,
Create a little bit of friction until you start to feel your hands warm.
Keep rubbing the hands together.
Then you can do a little dry washing of the hands,
Just rubbing the hands together in that way,
Sort of a figure eight motion.
One more time,
Regular back and forth,
Rubbing the hands together,
Noticing that heat that's built.
And then slowly take your hands and place the heels of your palms just over your closed eyes.
The ceiling off the light,
Feeling that warmth,
Like a soothing little hug.
Take a deep breath in here and a soft exhale out.
Slowly relax your arms and your hands to wherever they feel comfortable.
One more time for a posture check-in,
Sit up nice and tall.
And we'll take one last deep breath with a pause at the top of the inhale.
Big inhalation,
Fill up your lungs,
Down into your belly,
Inhaling,
Pausing and holding your breath.
Relax your face,
Relax your jaw and your shoulders.
Let out a big slow sigh.
When you're ready,
Open your eyes,
Take in the space around you.
Ah,
I hope that this helps you feel ready for the rest of your day.
