Hi and welcome to today's practice.
So finding a comfortable position allow the body to settle as best as it can in this moment and when you're ready I invite you to close your eyes and take a moment to be still nowhere else to be,
Nothing else to do we'll just begin by becoming aware of how you're showing up to this practice stressed,
Calm,
Energetic,
Heavy,
Neutral,
However you're showing up is completely welcome and as your awareness starts to gently wake up perhaps for the first time today start to become aware of sensations in the body noticing where they are,
If they come and go or if they stick around for a bit are there any emotions present?
How is the mind behaving?
Is it busy,
Cluttered,
Light,
Quiet?
All we're doing is being still gently observing our experience and whatever's coming up in our awareness rather than identify with it all and get caught up in it we're using our natural stillness as an anchor giving yourself the space,
The opportunity to fully check in with yourself and what comes up is what comes up and then start to take some deep slow breaths in and out through the nose as you inhale allowing the belly to feel like a balloon and slowly exhaling getting a sense of letting go,
Of softening and as each breath rolls on you might be able to go a little deeper with the inhale and you might be able to slow the exhale down a little more but we don't want to use any force but there is often this natural slowing down that happens when we start to breathe a little more consciously letting the body know it's okay it's safe that it doesn't have to be doing anything else other than being here and if you haven't already just allowing the breath to return to a natural rhythm noticing any sounds you can hear around you close by in the room or they might be further away and rather than chasing them just allowing them to come and go noticing how they might move but you are able to stay and be still noticing the sensations of touch,
Your clothes touching you the contact with the chair or whatever is supporting you hands in the lap,
Feet on the floor becoming aware of that gentle sensation of weight pressing down and then softening into that support a little more just as much as you're able to with the next exhale and becoming aware of your face noticing all the different sensations you can feel on the face behind the face any energy,
Tingling,
Pressure,
Tension this space where for many of us we feel like everything in our experience happens and then beginning to soften the face the forehead,
The eyebrows the forehead,
The eyebrows allowing the eyes to soften,
To sink using your exhale to allow any tension you might find to gently go softening the tops of the cheeks the jaw relaxing the tongue and allowing the face to gently drop,
To rest allowing your shoulders to drop now,
Softening across the upper back and then relaxing down into the arms into the tops of the arms,
To the elbows through the forearms,
To the wrists and relaxing the hands,
The fingers,
Your thumbs as the arms become heavy and supported and becoming aware of any sensations,
Tingling or feelings of aliveness in the hands or the fingers allowing the back to soften now and enjoy the support of what you're feeling whatever might be behind it letting any tension release from the chest and the ribs each time you exhale breathing into a soft belly expanding with the inhale,
Shrinking as you exhale then with the next exhale,
Softening the hips and the tops of the legs a part of the body that does so much work for us it's allowed to enjoy some rest relaxing the back of the legs too all the way down to the space behind the knees softening the front of the knees and allowing this release of tension to gently pour down into the bottom half of the legs down into the calves,
Down the shins all the way into the ankles and the heels this relaxation filling the feet and all of the toes and noticing any sensations or energies or feelings of aliveness in the soles of the feet and noticing the sensations of touch with the ground beneath you now opening your awareness to take in the whole of the body taking in the whole field of sensation and don't change anything,
Judge or critique just observe and rest here and if you become distracted or lost in thought that's totally fine come back to the field of sensation of the body or the outline of the body,
Reconnect and then rest connecting with your body and it's constantly changing experience of the moment and then checking in with the sensations of touch again with whatever is supporting you clothes touching you the temperature touching your skin,
Any movement of air and just getting a sense of the space you're in once again and when you're ready you can blink open your eyes and before you move off just become aware of how you're feeling and then finding a point in front of you to gently gaze at noticing color,
Light,
Shadows,
Textures take a big deep breath in and let go thank you for joining me and I look forward to sitting with you for the rest of the day see you next time
