Let's take a few minutes to slow down,
To let the breath lead you into stillness,
And to rest in the quiet pause that lives between each inhale and exhale.
And so starting by finding a comfortable position.
You can be sitting or lying down,
Making any adjustments your body wants or needs in order to get even 1% more comfortable.
Letting your shoulders drop,
Letting your eyes gently close,
Or simply softening your gaze downwards,
And starting to notice the rhythm of your breath.
Not changing anything about it for now,
Just noticing.
Noticing the rise and fall of your torso with each breath,
The wave of movement as the breath flows through you,
The natural rhythm your body already knows.
And now gently starting to notice the pause that happens at the top of the inhale,
And the pause that happens at the bottom of the exhale.
Just noticing that quiet moment,
That in-between space,
That gentle pause.
It might be brief,
It might feel subtle,
But it's always there.
Inhaling,
Noticing that gentle pause,
And exhaling,
Again noticing that soft pause.
And just continuing in this way,
And now starting to let yourself rest in the pause.
Not holding,
Not controlling,
Just allowing the space between.
Each pause is a still point,
A space of quiet,
A doorway into presence,
And starting to allow these pauses to naturally lengthen,
Settling into a rhythm of breath and stillness,
Movement and pause.
The pause isn't empty,
It's alive with rest,
A space where the nervous system can settle,
Where the mind softens,
Where your whole being anchors into stillness.
Just continuing in this way,
If the mind wanders,
Simply coming back to the rhythm once you notice,
Inhaling slowly,
Exhaling gently,
Letting the soft space in-between hold you.
No need to figure anything out,
No need to be anywhere else,
Just right here,
In this moment,
In this breath,
In this pause.
Few more cycles of breath now,
Staying gently aware of the space between them,
Feeling the body settling,
Experiencing the quiet within.
Letting go of the practice now,
Just feeling your body as it is in this moment,
Maybe noticing that stillness,
That steadiness,
That sense of being held.
You've remembered something simple and sacred,
That between doing and doing,
There's being.
And your breath will always guide you home,
Taking as much time here as you want or need,
Only when you're ready,
Allowing your eyes to softly open,
Maintaining a sense of that stillness as you do.
