Peace and welcome.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for leaning into this invitation.
This is being recorded on the very edges of a coastal beach.
The waves of the Pacific Ocean are just coming into a bay.
So they're lighter and smaller,
But steady.
This is in coastal Oregon,
USA.
And for this practice,
Let's go ahead and begin with a minute or two of just light stretching and checking in with the body.
So I invite you to slowly roll your neck to one side,
Slowly in a circle.
Or to slowly roll your shoulders to massage or check in on another part of your body.
Gently rolling,
Gently stretching.
If you notice any tension in your neck or your shoulder or your arm or your leg,
Just invite you to gently go towards it.
Please be invited to pause the recording and continue stretching if you're finding this especially meaningful and relaxing.
Let's go ahead and move into some deep breathing together.
So let's take a deep spacious in-breath,
Opening our hearts and opening our lungs deeply in.
Slowly out.
Let's do another deep breath,
Inviting compassion.
So let's invite compassion with our in-breath,
Inviting it to move inside of us,
All around us,
Deeply in.
Breathing in compassion.
Slowly out.
Let's do another deep in-breath,
Just inviting nourishment.
And I invite you to breathe in a little bit deeper this time and really extend and stretch out your out-breath.
So breathing in nourishment,
Going a little bit deeper,
All the way in.
Slowly out.
Let's do that one again.
Nourishment deeply in,
Going deep with our in-breath and then slowly out.
I often picture the gentle exhale in similar to the way waves of beaches,
Like the beach I'm on right now,
The way waves just spread out slowly over the sand.
So let's take that deep in-breath,
Inviting nourishment,
And let's allow that exhale to slowly move across the sand,
To slowly spread out.
Deeply in,
Inviting nourishment.
Slowly out.
And let's do one more deep in-breath before we go into our Centering Sit.
Let's invite presence to be with us.
Presence and rest.
Let's take a deep in-breath,
All the way in.
Slowly out.
Peace,
Peace.
Grateful you're here.
Thank you for being here.
Grateful to these waves and this flowing water for being here in our ears.
Grateful for the pelicans and the birds that surround the recording of this audio,
With the skies and the sun and the trees and the moon and the earth.
So we're going to move into our 20-minute Centering Sit.
I'm going to play a singing bowl three times to start our sit.
And for this practice,
I'm going to leave the audio on so that you can listen to the waves and the water as we rest together.
And throughout our sit,
If at any point you find yourself in your thinking and in your mind,
Which for most of us will be many,
I invite you to take a deep breath and to release the thoughts.
I often picture a flowing stream or a lake or a beach right outside of me or inside of me.
And with the deep breath,
Honoring and noticing the thoughts and then releasing them with the out-breath.
So for this practice,
It's not about clinging to any thought,
Trying to solve any thought,
But it's also not trying to erase all of our thoughts.
It's releasing our thoughts.
We will get back to them if we're meant to get back to them.
And so you may have to do this 25 times throughout our 20-minute sit.
With your breathing as you release,
Breathe in compassion for the practice and release the thoughts to the stream,
To the water,
To the sky,
To the trees,
And return to a place of rest and presence and existence.
So I'll go ahead and play the singing bowl three times.
I will keep track of time for 20 minutes and then you will hear the singing bowl three times at the end of our 20 minutes sit.
And we will move into deep breathing and a closing.
Peace and health and presence and rest to each of you,
To each of us.
Let's take a deep,
Gentle in-breath,
Honoring this time of rest.
Deeply in,
Slowly out.
Let's do another deep in-breath,
Inviting compassion.
Compassion for the practice,
Compassion for all that moves on the inside,
For all that moves around us,
Imperfect,
Messy,
Unique,
Wild,
Beautiful,
Raw.
Compassion,
Deeply in,
Slowly out.
Let's do another deep in-breath,
Inviting worthiness,
That we are worthy because we breathe,
Because we are alive,
Because we exist,
Because we are here.
I am worthy,
Deeply in,
Slowly out.
Let's do that one one more time.
I am worthy,
I am worthy,
I am worthy because I breathe,
Because I exist,
Because I am alive,
Deeply in.
Let's do one last deep breath,
Just honoring earth and water and waves and wind and birds and trees and all the things that make life possible,
That give us breath.
Deeply in,
Slowly out.
Peace to each of you,
Wherever this finds you.
Peace to your breaths and your movement and all the things that move on the inside and on the outside,
In the hours and days and weeks and years ahead.
Thank you for resting.
Thank you for breathing together.
Peace from the Oregon coast and these flowing waves.
Peace.
