So if you aren't already,
Just take a moment to settle.
And I do have our candle here.
I forgot to.
.
.
I'd already lit it when we started,
But I forgot to show you.
Yeah,
Candles sometimes can just help orient us in the moment.
So,
Eyes open or closed,
But I'm going to start with my eyes open,
Because we are going to consciously include the space that we're in with using our cognition,
Which our eyes are connected to cognition real well.
So we're going to slow down to include that,
The brain's cognition,
And to name that the space that we are in,
The room,
The room that we're in,
The chair that we're in,
Or bed,
Whatever we're sitting upon,
That there's no threat or dangers in our room.
And we're really connecting to that from an actual factual.
None of us would be choosing a room where there was a threat in.
So we can kind of assume that there isn't,
But we're really letting our cognition include that naming.
Like,
I can look around and see the neutrality of the walls and have a nice exhalation with that recognition.
I can see with my eyes,
The solidity of the floor,
And if my feet were on the floor,
I'd feel that,
But they're not.
So I can just see it.
Have a nice exhalation of recognition with that.
The ceiling is stable and solid.
Having a nice exhalation with acknowledging that in our cognition,
And then we can also just name that we have,
There's probably windows and doors.
And why we include this as we want our brain to really get that we are not stuck in this room.
We have choice in this moment.
We have chosen to be here and at any moment we could leave if we needed to.
Right.
Well,
We could close the computer,
Of course,
And we could if we wanted walk out the door and whatnot.
And we might be able to see out a window.
Yeah,
So we we can see with our eyes that we are situated in a space.
And there is lots of space outside of us.
There are some that's comprised of we might say oxygen.
We know that experientially because we breathe it in every,
Every other minute or more.
So we are always in relationship with the space outside of us in this direct way.
This isn't conceptual.
There is conceptual space outside of us.
But in this moment,
I'm really inviting us to notice.
Oh,
I breathe in what had been right outside my body a moment before.
And so I am in direct relationship.
Physically and physiologically with the space around me.
And we can if we want we can keep the eyes open or we can let the eyes closed and we can still feel that relationship.
When I breathe in the air from outside of me.
My my body takes up a little more space because my rip my my breathing mechanism is taking oxygen in.
And so my ribs,
Of course,
Are expanding a little bit.
My belly is expanding or my diaphragm is expanding a little bit.
And then I when I breathe that oxygen back out into the room,
My body gets a little smaller.
Takes up a tiny a tiny bit less space.
And I can just track that I can even track it with my eyes open just to watch my form get bigger with inhalation.
And then get a little smaller with the exhalation and I can feel it also.
This is just an actual factual relationship of form and formless,
The form of the body in relationship to the space around us in the air of breath.
It's going to be quiet for another moment so you can study this with eyes opened or closed.
We're just observing the words I've used.
The experiential nature of what I've said.
If you get distracted,
That's OK.
If you get distracted in physics or what's for lunch,
That's OK.
Just gently bring your attention back,
Noticing that the breath moves the body.
The inhalation moves the body.
The exhalation moves the body.
Neither one is right or wrong or good or bad.
It's a mechanical interchange.
And I'll be quiet for a moment so we can just experience that exchange that participation with the space that we're in.
The literal space that we're in.
Now,
We haven't included other things that might be useful to ground in,
So we might want to pause on that study just to let the rest of our body know that,
Oh,
Yeah,
You're here,
Too.
My legs are here.
My legs are being supported right now very concretely by the couch.
My legs are cross legged.
And so there's a lot of solidity under my legs,
Under my feet,
My ankles.
If my feet were on the floor,
There would be solidity under my feet.
So in your own context,
Just noticing the touch points of feet and legs.
Eventually,
You'll bring attention up to where your sit bones are connecting to solidity,
Unless you're standing,
Then you'll just have the feet but if you're sitting you'll have these touch points to the sit bones to the back of the thighs.
Maybe the small of the back.
I don't really have,
I have a pillow that goes up to the midpoint of my back but I don't have anything up behind my shoulders or my upper back or my head but you might you might have solidity that goes all the way up through the spine and the head and if you do,
Let your nervous system include that like oh yeah that's here to these touch points of solidity.
So of course the breath comes from the space around us and we can experience that but with our chair is also the space around us it holds,
It's kind of a tangible representation of the space around us,
Or the floor is a is a is form,
A form of space that that is outside of our,
Our skin.
And we feel it directly our skin receptors and our nervous system loves that there's solidity under us and behind us and so when we bring that cognition,
Like oh yeah that's here to the solidity and the predictability of the chair.
No danger behind me no danger under me.
I'm assuming you're not in a dangerous chair.
The chairs not dangerous solid.
The floor is not dangerous solid and really feel the neutrality.
There's no morality in the floor,
No judgment in the floor and judgment in our chair.
Just unconditionally here to hold and support our bodies,
Our nervous systems.
Just like breath is here to support our bodies.
And we don't have to earn any of it,
Any of that support it's just here.
Always.
This field of gravity is here always always supporting our bodies but we often just may not include it with our cognition so today we're really slowing down to notice that the field of gravity,
Which is what's holding our bodies through the chair is here.
Thank goodness we never have to worry about floating away or floating up or,
Or having an actual anchor to hold on to like the field of gravity really holds our bodies,
All the time,
So that we can surrender our muscles.
So we can receive nurturing in this,
In this moment we can let the arms and legs go soft because they don't have much of a job right now.
We can let the bellies or the chest or maybe some other area of the body go a little softer with that exhalation because the chair catches our exhalation,
The field of gravity catches our exhalation.
And we're really putting a lot of attention to kind of the periphery,
Kind of the space outside and under us or behind us and then the kind of the outside ish parts of our body.
The ribs the skin.
And then we have the muscles to.
We haven't really connected a whole lot to the viscera,
Although the breath does move through there.
So we haven't been acknowledging the breath that moves the body does.
Sometimes we can feel the visceral through the breath.
And what I want to,
I want to invite us to stay connected to the solidity to the what's not threatening in this space.
And I want to acknowledge that sometimes we have a lot of feels going on,
Or a lot of challenging sensations in our viscera.
Sometimes we have chest sensations or belly sensations or throat or,
You know,
All the way down lower into our pelvic floor,
You might have lots of uncomfortable or comfortable sensations.
Sometimes when those sensations are uncomfortable,
We might feel a sense of threat.
And in this moment,
If that's happening,
If you're noticing a sensation in your chest or your belly or anywhere else that feels a little uncomfortable,
And it and therefore maybe a little bit threatening.
We're going to slow down to acknowledge that,
And to remind you that there may be that felt sense of discomfort and or danger or threat,
And at the very same time we can if we need to we can open the eyes or recalibrate to the safety of the chair,
The non threatening ness of the chair itself.
The non threatening ness of the floor,
Or the walls,
Or the,
Or the air that our mouths or noses are breathing in.
So we're just going to slow down to acknowledge both and.
Sometimes there might be a little bit of discomfort or threat.
And there's also not threat or danger.
Sometimes this discomfort can even feel a little bit like urgency and that that came up for me this morning.
There were some things going on and I could feel my old patterns of of heightened heightened state in my body and thoughts.
And one of my go to states is,
Is urgency a sense of urgency,
Or believing in urgency is here.
So I had to really slow down and be like okay yes I can,
I can see that my system is really feeling urgency,
And let me not forget to include the lack of urgency.
There's no urgency in the chair,
As I'm feeling the sense of urgency,
In other words,
And just to include that so my nervous system and my brain can be taken care of.
While I'm feeling this response is really common for us as survivors it's one of our first go to responses.
Some of us might live with a subtle sense of urgency all the time.
And so just to,
If that if that's,
If that's one of the listeners just to be like oh yeah I have a lot of urgency I just habitually move from that space you're not alone in that.
It's a lot of us are programmed to live that way.
And we may not even know it.
So,
To acknowledge that is really important.
And then to train or teach ourselves that there's also a coexisting reality where there isn't any urgency is very important for our nervous system and nervous systems and brain regulation.
It's not to deny that there is,
There might be a sense or a perception of urgency but it's to also include like wow at the very same time.
Yeah,
There's no urgency around me,
Or in the space that I'm in,
In this moment.
And if there is then you have permission to leave that room for example if there was urgency in my room right now in real life,
I would leave the room right if I could.
So we're assuming,
Mostly that there is no urgency around us.
So there's,
There's just to let your mind settle on that one.
If you of course are in a room where there's urgency Yes please do get to safety to actual safety in this moment I'm going to presume that we're not in rooms where there's urgency.
And then we might be feeling,
Or having thoughts of urgency,
And those realities can coexist and they do coexist and we want to include the reality where there is an urgency,
Because we'll forget that accidentally.
So at any point we can reconnect or reestablish connection with some part of our experience that has a neutrality or an ease to it.
So if I if I'm feeling discomfort or for some reason some urgency yeah we can bring attention toward that which is okay.
Maybe it's the feet.
Maybe it's the armpits.
In this moment for me my excuse me the favorite place to rest my attention is the small of my back that feels really nice to me for some reason right now so that's what my attention is including really letting myself really meld or melt with that in the small of my back and let the rest of my,
She's made my nervous system attuned to that resonance.
Having a nice long exhalation letting my nervous system tune into that.
And so inviting yourselves to find that space of this moment where your attention can last or rest with a little bit that resonance that you can slowly and gently redirect your attention back,
Back toward when you when you get distracted by something.
Or when you need that reminder.
Oh yeah,
There's some neutrality here there's some ease here or there's some support here in a very practical way let me,
Let me include that to keeping in mind we're not trying to have an either or reality,
We have we always have and both realities we always have coexisting realities so we're going to invite ourselves to remind ourselves of that that we're not just experiencing x,
Not just experiencing discomfort and or whatever else that translates to for us we're also including some ease.
And if you're mainly feeling is in this moment you do not need to go look for the disease,
We want to give the nervous system opportunity and and space to really get nourished.
So if you're mainly just feeling the ease you can stay with that,
Let that be your,
Your,
The resonance that you're just kind of letting yourself melt with or be supported by.
And then be quiet for a couple moments.
If your eyes are are closed let them stay closed for another moment.
Let your attention and your cognition name for yourself.
What in this moment right now is a useful resting place for attention,
Or what has been a useful resting place for your attention today,
So that you can cognitively and consciously bring attention back to this resonance as need be in your day.
And these locations do change so it may not be useful later but it may be so we just experiment and explore,
See what's possible.
As you slowly let the eyes open let your attention continue to stay with that resonance that conveys neutrality or okayness or support with the eyes open you'll be including more visceral or more data of the space outside of you.
That's been here all along and invite you to still stay connected to it and as simply as possible through your breath through your chair on the floor.
And when you're ready you can come back to the screen.
