Let's go ahead with those deep breaths,
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth,
With each breath settling into your body,
Allowing yourself to be here now with this community,
Gently returning to a natural rhythm,
Noticing the quality of the breath as it enters your nose.
Is it warm or cool?
Perhaps you feel it on the exhalation on your upper lip.
Become curious to the sensation of breathing.
Notice where you feel it's present most strongest in your bodies.
It might be in the rise and fall of your chest.
You might feel it in the back of your throat or deep in your belly.
Let's take a few minutes to become curious to noticing the breath and as thoughts arise returning to being with the breath.
Choose an area where you notice the breath the strongest and view that as your anchor for today's practice.
When your mind goes to other distractions or starts thinking about thoughts,
Bring yourself back to that place where you sense the breath in the body.
Now let us take our minds to where the breath is entering our nose and as it enters our nose,
Allow it to gently relax the muscles of our face,
Softening the area under our eyes,
Noticing your eyebrows and the space between your eyes.
Lighten the grasp on your eyelids,
Allowing the light to gently penetrate your eyes.
With each breath drawing it more deeply into the center of your face,
The third eye,
The energy centers,
Relaxing any tension that you're holding in your forehead.
As the light begins to enter your eyes,
Visualize it as warmth,
As warmth from the external sun or from a glowing light that you can visualize in your mind's eye,
Drawing the rays into your eyes,
Now into your cheeks and your jaw,
Relaxing the muscles along your mouth and your face.
With each breath drawing this light energy inwards,
Drawing the breath and whether you visualize it as the sun's light or as a glowing ball in front of your mind's eye,
Drawing that light into our breath,
Into our face to relax the muscles again of the jaws,
Any tension you're holding.
Now draw it more deeply into your throat.
With each breath relaxing the muscles,
Drawing the light further deeper into the muscles of your neck,
Becoming present to any tightness that you might feel there.
Our breath and this light energy is one that we carry with us always and that we can bring to any areas of tension that we feel.
So let us draw it even deeper into our shoulders,
Now into our chest,
Noticing any tension we're holding in our upper back and our mid-back as we draw the breath down into the belly and allow the warmth,
The warmth of this energy to fill the inside of our bodies.
Now let's bring our awareness down into our bellies and our abdomen and our pelvis,
Noticing any tension we might be holding in our lower backs.
Drawing the breath deeply into these areas,
Noticing any tingling that we might be feeling,
Just becoming curious to the sensations of the body.
Drawing that energy even further down into your legs,
Shifting them a little so you become present to any tightness in the tops of your thighs and the backs of your calves.
Now settling on your feet,
Drawing the energy of the warmth of the light,
The warmth of the breath all the way down to the bottoms of your feet,
Which are rooted on this earth.
If you're sitting,
They're planted firmly on the ground,
Feeling the earth supporting you.
Draw the breath deeply down through the nostrils,
Down the throat,
Into the chest.
Allow that flow to go all the way down to the bottoms of your feet.
In the springtime,
I see my feet as rooted in the soils,
Similar to a tree that's rooted with roots that stem deep down into the earth,
The sun and the blossoms that can shoot forward and out.
So for the next few minutes,
Visualize whatever is comforting to you that allows you to stay rooted in your body,
That has you present to the sensations of the body.
And we'll sit in silence for five minutes now.
If you feel your mind wandering,
Come back to the anchor of the breath or whatever anchor that you chose.
Notice if your mind begins to wander,
Return back to being rooted in your body,
Feeling the breath and the warmth of being centered here in your body.
And now,
Let us come back.
As we close our meditation,
I'd like to spend a few minutes taking some time to offer some gratitude,
Using the last few minutes to be in a space of thanks for showing up for practice,
For this community,
And also for yourself for taking the time out of your day to sit in stillness with community.
Now,
When you hear the bell,
I'd like you to remain seated for a moment and continue to sit and breathe until you're ready to come back to the call.
We'll spend a few more minutes in silence before I ring the bell.
