Hi,
And welcome to today's practice.
So finding a comfortable position,
Have a fidget,
Have a stretch,
And take your time to do this,
Just bringing some awareness to your posture,
Your position.
And then either close your eyes,
Or you can have a soft fixed gaze at a point in front of you.
And then become aware of your breath,
With a very light awareness,
Nothing too strict or forced,
Just aware that you are breathing,
Noticing the movement of the breath in and out of the body.
Doesn't matter if the mind is racing,
Or the body is full of energy,
We're just starting to check in with ourselves,
To wake up our awareness,
Perhaps for the first time today.
And now becoming aware of the body,
Noticing how it feels,
Heavy,
Light,
Relaxed,
Energetic.
There's nowhere else to be,
There's nothing else to do,
Just sitting still,
Breathing,
And checking in.
Noticing now the contact you're making with the chair,
The floor,
Or whatever is supporting you,
Allowing your body to be supported,
And to soften into that support as much as it can in this moment.
Noticing that feeling of weight pressing down,
As you drop your shoulders,
Allow the arms to be heavy,
And breathe into a soft belly.
Now becoming aware of any sensations that are present in the body,
Tingling,
Comfort,
Discomfort,
Heat,
Cool,
Are they coming,
Going,
Or sticking around?
Don't try to push anything away,
Or change anything.
In the same way you'd look out the window and notice what the weather is doing,
Simply notice how your body is doing.
Now becoming aware of any sensations on your skin,
Your clothes touching you,
The movement or temperature of the air,
Giving yourself some time and space to notice these sensations.
Now becoming aware of any sounds you can hear around you,
These could be in the room with you,
In the building,
Or perhaps further away outside,
And we're not labelling them,
Or creating a story around them,
We're just observing that sound is happening,
And sharing space with you.
Now becoming aware of your breathing,
Noticing the whole experience of breathing,
Subtle movement in different parts of the body,
The different sensations of breathing,
The belly filling as you inhale,
A feeling of release or letting go as you exhale.
Now I invite you to open your awareness to your whole experience,
The breath,
Opening to sounds,
Opening to sensations.
Open your awareness to both notice and allow these things to come and go,
Moving from the foreground to the background of your awareness.
Not grasping onto them,
Not trying to catch them or check in with them,
Just allowing the breath,
Sounds and sensations to appear in the space of your awareness.
And if you get lost in thought or pulled away by something,
That's totally fine,
You're not doing anything wrong or making any mistakes if you become distracted.
Just return back to the breath,
Placing all of your attention on it,
Grounding yourself for a moment,
And then open your awareness to your full experience once again.
Opening to the breath,
Sounds and sensations.
All of these things are all happening at once,
And all you have to do with this practice is allow them to happen.
And again,
We are learning to become comfortable with this movement within our awareness.
Things come and go,
And we simply watch them.
And now letting the technique go,
And focusing just on the breath,
Once again watching the coming and going.
Starting to become aware of the contact you're making with the chair,
Or whatever it is supporting you.
Noticing the sensations of touch with that support,
That feeling of weight pressing down.
And taking some deep breaths,
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
And if you feel comfortable doing so,
Maybe adding in a breath hold on the last one after the inhale.
Bringing some gentle movement back to your fingers and your toes.
And when you're ready,
You can open the eyes or lift your gaze,
And take in the space around you.
Thank you so much for joining me today,
And I look forward to sitting with you next time.
