And we'll begin our practice just by noticing our bodies.
How does your body feel?
What's happening in your body right now.
Are there any signals the body's sending you or messages that it's giving you?
Take a few moments to be fully present with your body.
Listening to what it has to say.
Now bring your awareness to the points of contact between your body and the surface beneath you.
Just grounding down through these points.
Focusing on them for only a moment.
Now begin to awaken your breath.
You don't need to push it or force it in any way.
Just notice how the breath moves in and out of your body.
And perhaps expand your inhales and exhales even by 10% or even a 5%.
Allowing the breath to still be smooth and feel effortless,
But taking the full inhale and the full exhale.
And then as you breathe,
Move your awareness to your feet.
Imagining that on the inhale,
The feet expand and on the exhale,
They gently contract.
Almost as if it's your feet that are breathing.
Inhaling,
Feet expand,
Taking in that breath,
Exhaling,
They gently contract,
Releasing the air.
Now shifting your awareness to your ankles and lower legs.
Feeling the breath move to this area.
On the inhale,
You feel the ankles,
The shins,
The calves gently expand,
Taking in the breath.
And exhaling,
Gently contract,
Releasing the air.
And just feeling the breath move into the ankles and lower leg,
Absorbing all of that great oxygen.
Home.
Now shifting your awareness to the knees and the upper legs.
Sending the breath here now.
Feeling that gentle expansion and contraction in the knees and upper legs with every breath.
And moving your awareness up to the hips and the pelvis.
Breathing into this space.
Letting it be filled with oxygen on the inhale and then Relaxing and softening the muscles here on the exhale.
And then moving your awareness.
To your abdomen.
The sides of your body and your low back.
Send the breath right to this area,
Feeling it expand on the inhale.
Gently relax and contract on the exhale.
Send all of that breath right into the abdomen,
Sides of the body,
And the low back.
And now shifting that awareness and breath to the mid and upper back and your chest.
Letting these areas be filled with nourishing breath as they expand.
And relax and soften with the exhale as they relax.
Now beginning to breathe into your shoulders and arms all the way down to your fingertips.
Feeling them expand on the inhale and soften and relax on the exhale.
And now breathing up into your collarbone,
Your neck and your throat.
Feeling that expansion and relaxation with every inhale and every exhale.
Now breathing into the face and the head.
Letting all those little muscles of the face be nourished with breath and relaxed on the exhale.
And now your whole body at once.
On your next inhale,
Your body expands,
Absorbing all of that oxygen and breath.
And exhaling the body softens and relaxes.
Letting your whole body breathe.
You can stay here for as long as you'd like,
Breathing into your body.
But this is where I'm going to leave you with my guidance.
Thank you for joining me today.
