Settling in when you're ready,
Making yourself comfortable,
Making any adjustments at all that will help you be really at ease and in your stillness as we rest back.
Let's start with some extra deep inhales and exhales,
Feeling,
Sensing,
Imagining that the lungs are in the belly and that as you breathe in the belly rises and as you breathe out the belly softens and relaxes.
As you breathe in the belly rises and expands and as you breathe out the belly softens and relaxes.
Breathing in the belly full and breathing out maybe opening the mouth sighing it out,
Feeling that with every exhale you can sigh out any tension or busyness or worry in the mind.
Just letting your mind come to rest in this present moment in your body.
Your mind is right here with you in time and space rather than gallivanting off to wherever it likes to go,
Seeing if the mind can settle in the body.
With every exhale the mind calms a little more.
With every exhale there's a sense of the mind anchoring into the present moment,
Into this space,
The space where you are.
I'm bringing our awareness to our heart now and let's breathe into the heart,
Breathe into the center of the chest and exhale at the chest relax,
Let the chest soften and let's with every exhale feel that any tightness or numbness or clenching,
Armoring at the heart,
Whatever you find there can soften and open with the inhale and with the exhale you can let go.
With your in-breath there's a sense of space and opening and with your exhale of letting go,
Feeling that you can breathe into the heart,
Create space and then let go,
Create space and then let go and feeling into the body.
We might feel as we breathe in that we can let the toes and the feet relax and soften,
We might feel that we can with our exhale let the legs rest heavy and soft into the ground,
We might with our exhale feel that we can give the weight of the hips to gravity and let the belly spill out,
Maybe the back can rest a little more deeply into the earth,
Giving the weight of our back body to gravity and the arms may rest into the ground a little more and the fingers may soften and curl up in softness,
The back of the neck can relax and release,
Maybe it can lengthen out and the chin can drop in a little more towards the chest,
Perhaps the bottom jaw can fall away from the top and the bottom lip away from the top lip,
Allowing the jaw to relax and the inside of the mouth to soften and open,
The eyes can rest,
The forehead can rest,
And the temples can soften and the mind may relax,
Feeling into the way the mind seems to grip to the thoughts as you breathe in and as you exhale let that gripping soften,
Let the mind relax,
Let the thoughts be,
So the thoughts can just arise,
No need to get into a dialogue with them just let them arise and pass,
Stepping back,
Let the mind relax,
Feeling into the heart as you breathe in,
Feeling for any clench at the heart that you can soften with the exhale,
The heart is soft and open,
At ease,
And opening the lens to take in the whole of your body,
Breathing in as if you could breathe into the whole of the body,
Feeling the whole of your body expand and then exhale let go,
Breathing in the body expanding and breathing out letting go,
And let's feel that we're able to rest here,
Resting in the ease of the body,
The mind is able to rest here at ease in the body,
No need to jump into the past or the future,
Just resting here on the ground,
And let's rest with our awareness open so we can take in the mind the heart and the body,
And let's feel how we are,
How are we doing today,
And maybe not in an overly analytical sense,
Just seeing what arises,
What sensation emotion thought arises,
And we're going to create a little mantra that goes with the breath,
So if we're having a positive emotion we could breathe in and say that positive emotion,
So for example if we're feeling happy we might breathe in and say happy and feel our happiness,
Feel into our happiness,
And breathe out just relax simply relaxing,
And if we're feeling some kind of deficit or lack something is missing or something is hurting or there's some discomfort,
So for example if we're feeling pain we might breathe in the opposite of that,
So it might breathe in ease,
If we're feeling a little heavy or a little bit glum we might breathe in happiness,
And then we might breathe out that sort of negative or not favorable emotion or feeling or sensation,
So we might breathe out pain or glumness,
So if we have a positive vibe in the body we can breathe that in and take it into our heart and breathe out just relax into it,
And if we're having more of a negative and pleasant experience or sensation feeling we can breathe in and feel into its opposite and breathe out let go of that negative vibe whatever it is,
And if it's helpful for you to create a little word mantra to go with the breath you can do that so could be breathing in we say to ourselves happy and breathing out we might say relaxing into happiness or basking in happiness however it is you experience it to be,
Breathing in we might say ease to ourselves,
Breathe in a feeling of ease and breathe out letting go of pain so finding your own little breath mantra and breathing in these good vibes good feeling and feeling as you say this word that you can really feel it feel it in your bones feel it in your sensations and your cells and breathing out simply letting go relaxing or letting go of whatever it is we feel we could let go trying as best you can to really feel into this embracing and welcoming of this positive energy and this capacity of letting go of whatever's whatever you're kind of snagged on whatever the mind or body or heart is caught on breathing in your word and the feeling the sensations and breathing out letting go feeling that you can kind of shine some light on the positive and perhaps water the positive feelings helping them to grow like a gardener tending to your own inner world and doing a little bit of weeding as you breathe out and let go you can water these positive seeds as you breathe in and as you breathe out letting go of whatever doesn't serve you breathing in feeling that you can shine this light of awareness on this positive intention and breathing out letting go of what doesn't serve us or whatever we would like to give back to the universe and as we breathe in we might start to feel into where this is already true in us where do we already feel that we are this quality this mantra in breath quality feeling into that which we already are and breathing out letting go breathing in feeling this quality already in you and breathing out letting go breathing in turning towards the light that is already in you breathing out letting go feeling into your own goodness as you breathe in breathing out resting into your own goodness breathing in feeling that you already are what you want to be you already have this quality within you breathing out letting go just as best as possible if it's hard to feel it's not accessible just now it's okay you can stay with your word mantra in the sense that you can breathe it in and breathing out letting go of what you don't need what no longer serves you and we're not in any way trying to push away a part of ourselves we're just tuning in to that with it within as that is positive as Suzuki Roshi said famously you're already perfect and you could use a little work breathing in what we already are what we feel we may need and breathing out letting go of what we no longer need what does not serve us and if it's easy for you to feel into this quality already existing in you then there's a sense that your in breath sends your light and your awareness there as if watering these seeds of positivity it's helping them to take root and to grow and if you're in between and maybe a little bit of both we're coming to the end of this part of the practice so maybe just taking in those extra deep breaths to really allow your bones and your cells and your being to drink in this feeling of your goodness of intention that which you wish for and hope for to take root within you or that which you already recognize as being within you and with your out breath you can sigh it out opening the mouth let the breath fall out with a sigh big full belly breath in really taking to heart this positive message this intention and breathing out letting go breathing in taking it in drinking in and breathing out letting go and then you might come back to movement gently and just making any little movements or massage that may help you to ease out the body after that period of stillness and then finding a gentle quiet way to come up to seated for the next part and the closing part of the practice making your way to a comfortable seated position however you'd like that to be and we're gonna bring our hands to our heart so our hands to a prayer positions so a wonderful position that symbolizes connection and humility the reverence and let's bring our hands to the point between the eyebrows and let's reflect for a moment on how we're using this gift of sight how could we see in such a way that would bring more space to this intention this way we would like to feel or like to live how can our way of seeing support this in-breath mantra of positivity how can we use this gift of seeing to help us to see what we need to let go of what would we like to remember making a promise to yourself may I or may I remember to see bringing our palms to our mouth reflecting on how we're using this gift of language our inner voice and our words is there some direction our thoughts and words could lean into to support this positive in-breath mantra to come to manifest and permeate our life and our being is there any way of thinking or speaking that we might like to let go of so we can make space for something new something more positive may I or may I remember feeling into your intention and your promise to yourself and then let's bring our hands to a heart reflecting on what is the most important thing how do we want to be in this world how do we want to live may I feeling for where that's already true in you feeling for your own longing I'm gonna read a poem called all the true vows by David white all the true vows are secret vows the ones we speak out loud other ones we break there is only one life you can call your own and a thousand others you can call by any name you want hold to the truth you make every day with your own body don't turn your face away hold to the center of your own truth at the center of the image you were born with those who do not understand their destiny will never understand the friends they have made nor the work they have chosen nor the one life that awaits beyond all of the others by the lake in the wood in the shadows you can whisper that truth to the quiet reflection you see in the water whatever you hear from the water remember it wants to carry the sound of its truth on your lips remember in this place no one can hear you and out of the silence you can make a promise it will kill you to break that way you'll find what is real and what is not I know what I'm saying time almost forsook me and I looked again seeing my reflection I broke a promise and spoke for the first time after all these years in my own voice before it was too late to turn my face again thank you and namaste
