Well,
Let's get started with the practice this evening then,
Finding a comfortable position.
You might actually want to shift the body around.
I think I say this nearly every time we do this,
But there's a good reason.
We can hold a bit of tension and tightness in our body and sometimes if we just move it and roll the shoulders,
Open up the spine a little bit,
You might find that there's a position that we then settle into that feels a little bit more balanced.
Feeling free to close your eyes if you feel comfortable with that or keeping them open with a soft gaze,
Just something that doesn't have too much of a distraction for you in the visual field.
And then feeling the groundedness of your body and by that I mean feeling the contact of your feet against the floor if they are,
Depends on what you're sitting on.
But just feeling whatever part of your body is making contact with the ground or the support,
The chair underneath you.
And this helps us to just become present in this moment.
We're getting that physical feedback and connection with our surroundings,
Allowing your back to be in a position that feels comfortable for you,
Whether that's with the back quite straight,
Rising up with its natural length,
Or maybe depending on what you're sitting on,
It might be nicely supported by the chair behind you.
Finding that position for your neck that feels comfortable for the back of your neck,
That might be just tucking your chin in a little bit to lengthen the back of your spine,
Or some other position that feels comfortable for you.
Allowing the shoulders to drop down away from the ears,
And feeling the length of your arms,
And down into the hands,
Noticing that point of contact with each hand against whatever they're resting on,
Might be one against the other or against your lap.
And feeling as though the crown of your head is reaching towards the ceiling.
And we'll start by inviting in a sense of relaxation into the body.
Quite often we're carrying,
Unless we're in a position where we're not feeling the same,
But we're feeling the same feeling.
And we're feeling the same feeling.
The same feeling.
Quite often we're carrying unnecessary effort or tension without even realising it.
So we can start with the muscles in the face,
Just letting your attention go to the muscles in the forehead.
And you can use in particular the outbreath just to imagine or feel as though that tension,
If there is any,
Is being soothed,
Releasing,
Relaxing.
And scanning down into your eyes,
You could use your inbreath to scan through for any unnecessary effort or tension.
And using the outbreath just to soften.
Softening through the corners of the eyes.
And then down into the muscles of the cheeks.
A part of the body that so often holds tension.
And with the outbreath,
Releasing,
Relaxing.
Allowing your face just to be soft.
There's no need to be communicating at the moment or expressing.
And letting your attention go down to your mouth.
Feeling a softness in the jaw,
Down to the hinges of the jaw.
And into the tongue,
Allowing your tongue just to feel the expanse of the lower palate,
And softening and releasing.
Letting your attention just soak down through into the neck,
The back of the spine,
Easing any effort that might be held there,
Any unnecessary effort.
And soaking down into the shoulders.
Using the power of the outbreath just to release,
To let go.
And to let go again.
Feeling down again into the arms,
Softening any tightness around the muscles,
In the upper arms,
All through the elbows.
And soothing into the hands and the fingers,
Allowing them to be soft.
Then with the inbreath,
Just scanning through the torso,
Down through the back of the torso,
Just seeing if there's any unnecessary effort or tension,
Any tightness,
Any gripping or holding on.
And if it feels right for you,
Just allowing the outbreath to just let go.
And if it feels right for you,
Just allowing the outbreath to release and to soften.
It's as though you're releasing the effort of resisting gravity to a certain extent.
And through the front of the torso,
The chest can be open and yet soft at the same time,
Perhaps that's possible.
And down through the diaphragm,
And into the belly.
And then just feeling that easing of tension through the pelvis,
And the large muscles through the bottom and the legs,
Relaxing and releasing.
Letting go,
Letting go.
And taking your attention all the way down through the lower legs into the feet again.
And once again,
Just feeling that contact with the ground underneath you.
And no matter how high up you might be in your building structure,
Knowing that there's that connection from whatever you're making contact with,
Through the building into the ground,
To the earth,
The planet.
And then when you feel as relaxed as you can be in this moment,
Just letting your attention gently go to the movement of the breath in the body.
If that feels comfortable for you.
If not,
There are always other anchors of your attention you can use,
Like the feeling of the hands where they're resting,
The feeling of your feet,
Or even just the sounds around you can be the anchor for your awareness.
Whatever it is,
And wherever it is that you choose to focus,
Letting your attention rest there.
So right now the past is gone and the future hasn't yet arrived.
So for now we can just rest almost like a gift to be here just in this moment that we're in right now.
And yet it's very natural that our mind will take us away.
It's what it's evolved to do and that's not a problem,
It's not a problem.
And the moment of noticing that our mind has taken us away is that golden moment,
Because then we've come back into the present,
We've got the choice of letting go,
Unhooking,
Just coming back to your anchor again.
Knowing that you can always return to your anchor at any stage.
We can always just allow those distractions to become part of the practice as well.
And so if we notice a thought,
Perhaps just taking a moment to name it in your mind or to label it.
And as well then just to check into the body and see is there any resistance that you're feeling towards that distraction.
Noticing where you might feel that resistance in the body and what that might feel like.
And perhaps if we allow a quality of acceptance,
Just noticing then how that then affects those feelings in the body.
And whenever you're distracted again,
Just taking a moment to name it or label it.
That in itself sometimes just allows the quality of acceptance,
A recognition of what it actually is.
And then we can feel it in the body,
Feel that distraction,
Feel if there's any level of resistance towards the content of that distraction.
And though we may or may not be able to do anything about the distraction or its content,
We might just be able to use that practice of soothing the tension in the body to be able to just be with whatever may be occurring for us.
And another way of approaching this is the saying of drop the story and feel the feelings.
And so the worry or the anxiety might appear as a story in the mind.
Maybe we can then just feel the feelings associated with that.
And if it's right for you,
Just feeling that softening and soothing is a form of acceptance.
And returning to the present moment,
Feeling the anchor,
Being with whatever it is that you've chosen.
And in doing so,
You're also practicing kindness towards yourself.
You might even imagine that each in-breath is just imbued with that sense of kindness and acceptance.
It expands throughout your body and each out-breath is just a letting go,
A letting be.
At the moment there's nothing else to be done,
Nothing to be undone.
Just sitting and breathing,
Practicing,
Allowing and accepting,
And being with your experience just exactly as it is.
And then for these last few moments,
You might like to just again scan through the body on the in-breath,
Noticing if there's any unnecessary effort or tension that's crept in.
And again using the out-breath just to release and to let go,
To let be.
