And whatever is going to support you in arriving.
It could be a candle,
It could be a visual,
It could be a sound,
A scent,
A taste,
A touch.
It could be breath or a thing or a texture.
Let's put it that way,
A texture of some sort.
So letting your attention have some permission to find that which is in this moment.
It could not even be in another moment.
This candle could not be in another moment.
It can only be in this one.
So finding something that can only be in the moment for you and bringing your cognition toward that.
It doesn't mean that we're denying other things in our attention or trying to evade or avoid or push away or not doing that.
We're just gently inviting our attention to find something to anchor within this moment.
That's pretty simple.
It's doable for your attention.
No supposed do's here.
No rights or wrongs or good or bads.
In this moment,
My fingers are appreciating the texture of this candle holder.
It's,
For whatever reason,
I don't know why,
It's useful and simple to anchor my attention in this way.
So letting you find what's accessible for you.
What is just so simply here right now?
It doesn't require figuring out.
It isn't right or wrong or good or bad.
It just simply is.
Your attention may be meandering.
Maybe you had noticed a sound that was just simply an actual factual and then maybe your attention moved to a sense of touch.
Maybe it moved to an image.
So that's great.
Just letting your attention meander to find what is actual factual,
Simple in this moment,
What requires no figuring out.
We do this as a gift to our brains and to our nervous systems.
You'll start to feel something,
Maybe something very subtle,
Maybe not,
That's telling you,
Ah,
There's some increased regulation now.
Maybe your shoulders drop a little bit.
Maybe you can feel the weight of your body.
Maybe you can't even find words to describe it,
But something's a little different now that we've slowed down and the brain can regulate to this moment instead of trying to regulate to spinning thoughts,
Which does not really bring regulation.
But we do it anyway,
And we don't try to not do that.
We just gently bring attention to what is simply here.
And then letting yourself feel that shift or calibration or settling,
Something,
Some word that might make sense for you.
And just hanging out here doesn't mean the problems of life are gone.
I just want to give the brain a fair shake at being regulated in our nervous systems,
Some space to regulate.
And from here,
Then we might include more.
We might include more of the sitting body.
I might just notice other actual factuals of this moment,
The legs positioned how they are,
The feet positioned how they are.
I might notice the field of gravity behind us and under us that we're resting within.
And as we exhale,
We might feel our systems,
Our bodies,
In some kind of tangible way,
Fall into that field of gravity.
As the breath releases,
Our bodies do fall slightly back to the earth,
Back to the chair,
Back to the object that you're sitting upon.
And then we can feel the breath come in and lift us up a little bit.
This is just the physics of breathing.
And we can be with it in real time,
Just observing,
Just experiencing this ebb and flow of breath that's always here.
It's always dependable,
Just like the field of gravity is always here,
Always dependable.
So if we're creatures who like security,
Like me,
Maybe like you,
The field of gravity and the breath provide the most security we'll ever find on some level.
So letting our nervous systems and our cognition and our bodies sync up to that truth,
The dependability and constancy,
That which is always here.
The experience might change,
But they're always here,
Nevertheless.
It can be useful to do this kind of practice before you do the other practices,
Before you do your inventories or anything else.
It can be useful to do this first,
But not necessary.
Sometimes the practices bring us closer to actual,
Factual,
And sometimes we can do a rest to bring us to actual,
Factual,
And sometimes it's a combination,
Right,
Not either or.
But if we're going to do inquiry or we're going to do truth-telling,
We might as well do it from a regulated brain and nervous system.
Let's do a couple more cycles of breath,
Maybe naming for yourself something that you've connected with in the last ten minutes that you'd like to identify as useful or something that you want to carry forward into your life,
Into your practices,
Or into utilization of some sort.
Maybe a remembering has come in.
Maybe emotions have come in,
Or gratitude,
Or the opposite of gratitude.
Just noticing what's come in,
And in this moment just acknowledging.
As we come to a close here,
You might want to write some things down,
If you'd like.
