With each breath,
Drawing yourself more deeply into the posture,
Into being here,
Letting go of any thoughts that you have that you're carrying.
Noticing how you're seated,
Feel free to shift from side to side to find that center.
Maybe roll out your shoulders and notice how your head and your neck and your spine are aligned.
With your next breath,
Notice how the air enters your nostrils,
Becoming present to the sensation of the breath on your upper lip.
Notice the quality or texture to that breath,
It's moist or dry,
Warm or cool.
And with your next breath,
Draw the air into your sinuses,
Noticing your cheeks,
The area under your eyes,
Breathing in and relaxing the hollow spaces,
The cavities of your sinuses.
Notice if your eyes relax naturally as you release any tension in the muscles of your cheeks,
Lighten the pressure of your eyes if your eyelids are closed.
See if you can go as deep as relaxing your eye itself,
Muscles holding your eyes,
Allowing your pupil to slowly relax and dilate.
Now drawing your attention to your eyebrows and the space between your eyes,
Place some referred to as the third eye,
Relaxing,
Opening,
Drawing your breath into this area.
Now notice the muscles of your jaw.
See if you're holding any tension,
Loosen your mouth,
Opening it slightly to allow the breath to exhale from a slightly ajar mouth,
Just letting your tongue rest where it feels most natural.
Now with the next breath,
Draw your awareness to the muscles of your neck and your upper shoulders,
Areas where we often hold a lot of thoughts.
Take a moment to experience what the breath is in these regions as you relax into the muscles,
Noticing and noting any areas of tension.
And from your shoulders,
Become present to the muscles along your ribs and your back,
Down your spine,
Noticing the symmetry that our body offers us.
As you draw that awareness from the top of your shoulders all the way down to your lower back.
Now from your lower back,
Feel how your posture and your body is being supported if you're seated such as I am on a seat by your pelvis,
The muscles of your hips.
And breathe into this area,
Again,
Expanding and relaxing any tension that you might be holding.
From the pelvis,
Draw our attention to our thighs,
The muscles along the backs of our legs.
Notice what the experience is of becoming attuned to these areas of your body as we did with the upper lip.
Notice if you feel any texture or quality to the experience of relaxing the muscles of your legs,
Perhaps some tingling or some warmth.
Now draw your awareness even further to your feet,
Experiencing the feeling of your feet from within them,
Noticing the spaces that your foot makes with the ground or your inner aspect of your shoe,
Or if you're in a bed,
The space surrounding your foot.
If you're seated in a chair,
Consider putting pressure on one foot and then the other to notice and really experience what it feels like to have the solidity of the floor below you meeting your foot.
Notice if you can sink into the support of the earth below you,
Both with your feet and with your posture as a whole,
Just relaxing into being.
From your feet,
We're going to shift the awareness upward and into your heart center.
So draw that awareness up your legs and up all the way until it reaches your chest.
And take a few deep breaths here,
Noticing the rise and fall of the chest,
Perhaps the beating of your heart centered.
I'd like to spend a few moments here in silence,
Offering this thought of generating compassion.
Here it's compassion for ourselves.
This may be in the form of loving kindness or phrases of compassion,
Or it can be through the experience of feeling the breath and recognizing the humanity in the similar experience.
All of us are having with experiencing the breath,
So I'll spend three minutes in silence.
Notice how compassion arises for you when you're centered in your body.
And does it take on a different flavor,
A different presence?
Now I invite you to take your view of compassion,
However it's shown up for you,
And see if you can generate it for others.
You might reflect on an individual or a group of people who might be in need of some compassion,
Some strength.
See if you can generate your own words of compassion for other beings.
Let us return from the space of thoughts to our bodies,
Noticing where we feel this compassion in our bodies.
After that noticing of how compassion arises in the body,
I invite you to,
In our last few minutes together,
Take a moment to offer some gratitude.
Gratitude for practice,
For anything in your life that you're feeling grateful for.
And when you hear the bell,
I invite you to sit for another moment,
Taking in the breath before returning to our space together.
