Aum.
Allow yourself to settle down,
Either lying down or sitting.
And just tuning in to the feeling of your body in the room that you're in.
So allowing yourself to be here.
And allowing the space of the room to be supportive of you.
You can feel your feet against the floor.
You're aware of your legs.
Aware of your hips and your buttocks.
And your spine rising up.
Aware of your shoulders dropping.
Allowing your arms to be heavy.
Your hands on your knees or in your lap.
Being aware of the feeling of your head,
Particularly the crown of your head.
And the third eye center in the middle of your forehead.
Eyes soft,
Either closed or if you do have some fear or difficulty going on.
Or you tend to get lost very easily.
Just keep your eyes lightly open.
Aware of your throat.
Just checking in with your throat.
It's here that we get a lot of our anxiety and difficult feelings.
Things that need expressing or moving.
Being aware of your chest area,
But particularly your heart.
And your abdomen.
Your whole body.
Felt from within just with your felt sense.
Letting go of any attempt to achieve a shift in state.
But just meeting yourself with kindness and curiosity.
Give yourself this time.
Give yourself into the space of this moment.
And as you meet your natural breath,
Just coming and going.
Notice where that is in the body for you.
It may be the abdomen,
Maybe a little higher up.
Not trying to change the breath in any way.
Simply noticing that you're just breathing.
And so I'd like to offer you two self-soothing holds within this practice.
So I invite you to place one hand on your heart.
And just feeling that gentle contact with your heart.
That physical touch.
And we're not seeking anything.
We're just feeling how this feels for us.
And your other hand you place on your forehead.
Your palm against your forehead.
And let's just remain like this for a moment.
And just notice what you feel in your body.
Notice if there's any shifts.
Gentle attention on the breath.
The feeling of your whole body from within.
The space of the room around you.
And then I invite you to take the hand from your forehead and to place it on your abdomen.
So we keep the hand on the heart.
And again just feeling that kindness towards ourself.
You can feel your mind energy.
Just notice that you notice your mind energy.
Not trying to change your mind.
But just noticing with kindness how your mind feels.
And you allow yourself to feel your emotions.
The energy of your emotion rather than the story of them.
Whatever they are just meet them with kindness.
And as we sit here for just another moment.
I want to offer you some words that I wrote earlier this week.
Just let them drop into your practice.
As if the words were little stones that you were dropping into a clear lake of water.
And you could see them falling to the bottom.
The path has never been about the loss of your human-ness.
Nor has it ever been about overcoming ourselves.
Rather the true path is the realization of your humanity.
And the meeting of even this part of your journey with love and grace.
Discovering and revealing the light of who you really are and have always been.
Meet every part of your life.
Frailties,
Strengths.
All of it with gratitude.
It is the path itself.
And so you can continue sitting like this should you choose to.
Or you can take your hands down onto your knees or onto your lap.
Just aware of your breath.
Aware of that sense of witnessing and wholeness that is really who you are.
That comes first before all the experience.
Recognizing your true beauty at this level.
Feeling your body from within.
Feeling the space of the room around you.
Your sounds from inside and outside of the room.
Your feeling of presence.
And with that,
With all the blessings of my heart,
I want to say thank you to you for your practice this day.
And I will now call this meditation to a close.
