Find a comfortable seat to rest.
Lift up out of the waist.
Engage the belly ever so slightly to support the lower back.
Lift the shoulders up towards the ears and then slowly lower.
Do this twice more with the breath.
Inhale lift,
Exhale lower.
Inhale lift,
Exhale lower.
Let the shoulders fall down the back and leave them there.
Relax the muscles of your face.
Soften the space between the eyebrows and gently close the eyes.
Seal the lips,
Finding a natural breath in and out through the nose.
This is your only task.
This is your only responsibility or requirement.
There is absolutely nothing more for you to do here.
And although you could certainly try,
I invite you instead to shift your focus on the act and art of being.
There is plenty of time for doing.
This is not it.
Simply breathing in and out through the nose,
Listening to the sound of my voice.
And if the mind wanders or rather when the mind wanders,
Come back to this breath.
Relax the body again,
Relax the mind and come back to the present moment.
However you're feeling today,
Whether you want this to be over or perhaps you'd like to stay here forever,
I don't know.
What I do know is that this moment and this practice,
They'll both eventually end.
Not now,
But soon,
Like most things,
Like the breath.
One inhale,
One exhale.
Breathing in,
We grow.
Breathing out,
We let go.
Breathing in,
We grow.
Breathing out,
We let go.
Perhaps you repeat this mantra in your head,
Using it as an anchor with the breath,
Reminding yourself what you are doing.
You're breathing in and then you're breathing out.
You're breathing in and then you're breathing out.
Breathing out.
Relatively as humans,
When things are good,
We want them to last forever.
When things are less good,
We want them to change.
This clinging to the good and aversion of the bad,
It holds an important lesson for all of us that many or most of us will revisit and relearn over and over and over again.
That lesson is that everything is in flux and nothing lasts forever.
If impermanence feels threatening,
Think of a time when you were sick and then got better.
If impermanence feels daunting,
Think of a time when you fought with a family member or friend and then made up.
Think of a physically demanding workout,
Which thankfully ended,
Or an overwhelming time at work,
Also not ongoing.
I invite you now to think of a joyous moment,
A moment when the whole world seemed to stop.
How less special that would be if it went on indefinitely.
You see the magic of both the good and the bad is in the moment,
But it's also in the fleeting essence.
It would mean less if it was forever.
The value is in the experience itself,
But it's also in the ephemeral nature.
And as moments seem to slip through our fingers,
Many of us tirelessly try to hold on.
But when we hold tighter to what we want or oppositely resist what we don't,
What we're doing is removing ourselves from the experience.
We take ourselves out of the present moment and give away our presence.
It's like going through the motions.
And the more we go through the motions,
Either wishing things to stay the same or change,
We miss the moments entirely.
We get lost in the good or the bad and that's all we remember.
Our perception.
Our relationship too.
So can you pause your narration?
Can you lean a little more deeply into the breath?
Into the silence?
Into the space between action and response?
Can you resist the urge to fill the void and instead choose to softly sit in it?
Can you meet the moment?
Linger a little longer.
Breathe a little deeper.
Move a little slower.
Tread a little lighter.
Can you meet the moment?
And take a full breath in through the nose now.
Grow a little bit taller.
Open mouth,
Exhale.
Let it all go.
Twice more like that.
Big inhale,
Fill up.
Open mouth,
Exhale.
Last one.
Biggest one of the day.
Breathe in.
Take one more sip of fresh air at the top and hold for three,
Two,
One.
Exhale release.
Let it all go.
Bring some movement to the fingers and the toes.
Perhaps gently roll out the neck.
Or come into some seated cat cows to wake up the spine.
Moving mindfully here,
I invite you to continue throughout your day.
Breathing a little bit more in the moment.
Knowing that it's temporary,
It's fleeting,
But it's here now.
And thus special and worthy of our presence and attention.
The good,
The bad and absolutely everything in between.
As a whole.
This is our life.
Savor it.
Enjoy it.
Be present.
