Welcome.
Go ahead and find a comfortable seat,
Whether you're in your chair or sitting on the floor.
Let your spine lift up tall and straight.
Try to feel comfortable like you can just easily release any excess tension from the body now.
Feel your chest lift and broaden as the shoulders drop away from the ears,
Letting go of stress in the neck and shoulders.
Soften your jaw,
Soften your face and let your eyes close.
Begin by taking a few long,
Deep breaths.
Breathe in through the nose fully.
Breathe out through the mouth.
Take a couple more breaths like that,
Really feeling the full sensation of your breath interacting with your physical being.
Noticing any residual stress in the body,
Tension,
Pain,
Discomfort,
Letting go now as you settle into this seat even more comfortably.
Your breath returns to normal.
Let's imagine we can place our full attention on this breath,
Feeling it,
Its introduction at the tip of the nostrils,
And feeling it as it touches the back of the throat,
Comes down to expand the lungs and move the ribcage,
Perhaps travels down lower,
Feeling movement in the abdomen,
In the back,
In the side body,
And noticing the sensation of it exiting again on its own.
Imagine you can just ride in on the breath with your attention and then ride right back out,
Leaving it be,
Leaving it natural,
No urge to change it,
Getting a sense of curiosity about what it feels like right now.
What sensations are there on your breath?
Are there physical sensations?
Does it feel warm or cool,
Shallow or deep,
Fast or slow?
And are there any emotional sensations?
Does the breath make you feel a certain way?
Do you feel relaxed?
Do you feel anxious?
Do you feel energetic,
Lethargic,
Something in between?
Just notice.
Keep watching for the next few moments.
And now gradually start to slow your breath down,
Consciously making your inhale a little bit longer and controlling your exhale.
So it's the same length.
Still feeling comfortable still breathing through your nose.
Body is still open and receptive.
Imagine your breath is moving now in slow motion.
Inhale and exhale equalizing.
And notice how that feels.
How does that make your body feel?
Notice your face again as you breathe like this and see if there is any residual emotion or mask on your face.
See if you can let every bit of that melt away.
You can even bring the corners of your mouth up into a slight smile.
Separate the top and bottom teeth,
Rest the tip of the tongue at the upper palate behind the top front teeth.
Feel that ease and softness wash over your face and into your mood.
Feel that sense of receptivity wash over your entire body now.
And allow your breath to just return to a natural pace wherever that is right now.
Bring to mind something that makes you feel vulnerable.
Could be something that you imagine yourself doing in the future,
Or something that you've had happen in the past,
But bring to mind that state of honest,
Genuine vulnerability.
Perhaps when you wanted to share a feeling or an emotion.
When you wanted to share an opinion.
When you wanted to share something private,
A part of yourself.
Perhaps when you wanted to admit that you were wrong.
Imagine something that makes you personally feel vulnerable.
Bring it to your mind's eye as if it was already happening right now.
Whether this is a future projection,
Something you're imagining,
Or a memory of something that's already happened.
Try to see it in as much detail as you can.
As if you were right there saying that thing,
Taking that action,
Feeling the experience of being vulnerable in this moment for whatever personal reason you have.
And then immediately,
I want you to notice where in your body do you feel this the most?
What do you sense in your physical body when you bring to mind your most vulnerable aspect?
Can you feel a sensation in your chest?
Around your heart?
Is it lower down in the abdomen?
Does it feel like tension around your shoulders,
Your neck?
Is it anxious?
Is it protective?
Try to pinpoint exactly where in the body you feel the most reaction to imagining expressing your vulnerability.
And notice if you have tensed up anywhere.
Are you clenching your palms?
Are you squeezing your teeth together?
Are you furrowing your brow?
And what's happened to your breath?
Is it still loose and easy and natural?
Or is it constricted?
Is it moving a different way now?
Can you just sit with these sensations for a few moments and notice them without the need to soothe yourself or convince yourself of anything?
Can you just notice what this vulnerable feeling brings up in you?
Keep imagining that situation.
Something you would like to say or do that will put you in a vulnerable position or something that you've done in the past.
And as you notice where in the physical body you feel a reaction,
I want you to also take notice and see if the anxiety or a sense of fear perhaps is possibly a sense of excitement that is a little bit misconstrued.
Just entertain that possibility.
Could my nervousness,
My perceived anxiety around this situation,
Around opening myself and sharing my true nature,
My true thoughts and feelings,
Could it actually be a signal to move forward?
Could I actually be feeling excited and confusing it for nervousness or stress?
As you place that notion in your mind for a moment,
Let it marinate.
Do any of the physical or emotional energies in your body shift right now?
When you place that possibility of your vulnerable action actually being exciting and positive,
Does anything to help you?
Go ahead and take a nice full breath through your nose all the way down to the lowest part of your belly and then exhale it out completely.
Bring your hands together in front of you and start to rub them together as quickly as you can create a lot of friction,
A lot of heat.
Go ahead.
Keep rubbing them together fast.
And one hand goes right over the heart and one goes either above or below the navel.
Place the hands on the body,
Feel the warmth coming through the skin,
Through the muscles,
Straight to the organs,
Straight to the energetic centers or chakras.
Eyes are still closed so we can perceive internally a little more deeply.
You can adjust your hands a little if they feel like they're not in quite the right place or just using your intuition.
Shoulders and arms still soft.
Bring a slight smile back to your face.
Start to follow your breath in again.
And as the energy from your hands warms your body,
Perhaps reaching those centers where you experienced a reaction from your vulnerability,
Where we've embodied those sensations,
Where we've built up walls around our emotions,
Our true feelings.
As the warmth from your hands starts to enter and soften into those places,
Just bring to mind the word acceptance.
We accept these messages from our own body and we accept that we may sometimes confuse them.
We may categorize them as anxiety or fear.
We may want to hide,
Turn the other direction.
But right now we accept them as messages with potential for growth.
And we honor these sensations that arise in the body because they are the language that's used to communicate what we really need to grow and evolve from our deepest self,
Our true,
True self,
To our mind that is here,
Present in this very moment,
To this living,
Breathing self,
Interacting with the world.
Say to yourself,
I accept these messages and I accept this challenge.
And if I'm uncomfortable expressing myself,
I know that I'm still safe and I know how to soothe myself back to a peaceful state.
I honor my body's messages and I honor my vulnerability.
Let your hands come down and rest on your lap.
Take a couple of full breaths now.
Breathe down to the belly and back up and out.
Feel your body,
The weight of your body sitting in the chair or on the floor.
And notice again the sensations of the air on your skin and your face.
And when you're ready,
Start to flutter your eyelids open.
So you're just bringing a little bit of light back in,
Sensing the room around you again,
Coming back to the here and now.
Thank you for joining.
