Getting settled,
If possible,
And if there's a lot going on and it's not so easy to get settled,
Finding a way.
Maybe it could be like going underneath the waves,
Closer to the sand,
Underneath the turbulence in the sea.
We could find somewhere in the body,
Maybe the edges,
Maybe the contact with the ground,
Or patiently homing into the lower belly,
Letting the lower belly gather into itself,
Even though there might be a lot going on,
The lower belly gathering into itself,
And some part of us kind of petal-like,
Staying in touch,
Or from time to time feeling,
Touching into the lower belly,
Letting the many directions that might be going on,
Letting them go on,
And not taking it personally.
Sometimes images or stories,
Memories or dreams might come up,
Or a feeling that then might resonate with a memory or a story,
Something we've lived or something we've heard or read or seen,
And just letting that come up like mist or like as if a ray of sunlight is bouncing off of something shiny,
Letting that image come up and not grasping it.
If getting settled is more difficult today than also being with the breath for a little while,
Letting that rhythm of the breath,
Which is simple and complex,
Nuanced,
Letting that rhythm take you in,
Maybe letting our bodies melt into the ground,
Being ground itself and being open,
And the waves of our breath.
Stretching and pulling and waves,
Until you might start to feel as if you're getting into a flow,
Like when we're walking or jogging,
Swimming,
Whatever,
And after a while we get into a flow.
Staying available to the rhythms of breathing,
Perhaps until we kind of get delivered inward and we could let the tracking of our breathing be more secondary,
More in the background then.
And sometimes we just find that there's not a delivering inward that's going on.
Maybe we're hoping or expecting too much,
Pressuring or tired or distraught,
And perhaps we can fall into some authentic way of being with the breathing or some other place in the body,
Some other place and process.
We could lean more into the in-breath or more into the out-breath.
Sometimes doing less can be helpful,
Even if we feel nervous about wanting to get somewhere,
Just feeling that in our bodies.
And then rather than being with the whole rhythm of breathing,
We could be more interested in just an out-breath,
For example,
With just a gentle route into the experience of out-breath.
Movements,
Temperatures,
Compression,
Stretching,
Opening,
Like a plant in the water might be rooted into the earth under the water,
But also moving with the currents,
With the waves.
We could just be gently rooted somewhere in our body,
Feeling just an out-breath,
Not being bothered in any way by all the other movements that may be going on.
Doing less,
Just a soft connection somewhere where a wave of out-breath comes through.
