Yeah,
Letting the body find itself here consciously.
And by that I just mean,
Yeah,
Bringing attention to just either with your eyes open or eyes closed just noticing your bodily existence,
Your arms,
Your legs,
Nothing woo woo here,
Just really acknowledging the body,
The form of the body in a very simple way.
And maybe there's things that you might see with the eyes open or feel with the eyes closed that you don't really want to include and that's okay.
And maybe there are things that you find easy to include and that's okay too.
So just even noticing maybe you like certain aspects of the sitting moment or reclining moment and maybe you don't like some and that's perfectly acceptable in both ways.
And just maybe starting off with what you do like,
What is comfortable or easy in this moment whether it's the pillow,
For me I just notice this pillow behind the small of my back like ah I like that,
Feels good to feel that behind me.
But for you it might be something completely different.
Just letting your attention gravitate towards that which is easy in this moment of sitting.
You might also notice temperatures that you like or other textures,
You might even notice sounds in your environment that you like.
Could be visuals in your mind's eye that you just see that you kind of like to have there or maybe you smell something in your experience that you like to include.
So anything in this moment that your attention likes to include,
Likes to be conscious of are all so different so there will be not a right thing to gravitate to or a right aspect of your experience.
There's just kind of what you find to be simple or easy or comforting,
Different words could be used here.
You may find something easy or simple and then the mind's thoughts come in quickly and kind of steal your attention away from that so to speak.
And if that is happening that is really normal.
The mind does like to be front and center,
Those thoughts like to be front and center and so they will come.
We can just assume that they'll come and we can just acknowledge that like oh I'm in thought again or I'm in thought or here comes that thought.
Or here comes that theme,
Am I doing it right or thinking about yesterday or thinking about the future.
So we have themes of thought,
Sometimes past,
Sometimes future,
Sometimes they're worry oriented,
Sometimes they're fear oriented,
Sometimes they're just random and who knows,
Wandering thoughts.
Sometimes it can just be useful to acknowledge the theme or just the fact that we are having thoughts.
And then to also let our attention come beneath the level of the thought to what else is happening,
What else is also here.
For me it's back to that pillow behind my back and for you it might be the foot on the floor or the feeling of air on your face or any number of things.
And to include that consciously with your attention,
That's here too.
We are kind of trained in our culture or through our schooling in lots of different ways to put thought first.
We make thought the most important thing or figuring out or analyzing or critiquing or what not.
We kind of do that first and we make it the most important thing,
We make our thoughts the most important aspect of a moment.
We're almost all trained to do that so that's really,
Really normal and we just take a moment to see what else might we include before thought or what else might we make important.
So maybe it's cushion behind the back first and we keep reorienting to that.
I'm just using my own example and for you it might be something completely different.
Maybe it's feeling your sit bones in the chair or your back leaned against the whatever you're leaned against.
And really letting your attention include that simple easy aspect of your experience,
Making it the most important or the first thing that gets referenced.
Maybe it's a temperature,
You include that or the feeling of warmth in your body and you make that important enough to include first.
Maybe it's the support of the chair in whatever way you experience it,
Whether it's the solidity under you or the solidity behind you,
It's like oh yeah that's really important for me to feel.
I want to make that first or keep remembering that,
That being included.
You may notice a little flavor of well being,
I know that's kind of a broad term but maybe just a little tiny sense of ease and somehow in your experience.
When you make that first,
The most important thing to reference.
And maybe it's breath.
For some this is what allows them to include something other than thoughts first.
So it might be the nostrils,
Just the nostrils taking air in and out.
Or some other aspect of your breath and so maybe we can just try that on,
Making breath first,
Making breath the most important part of a moment.
Even the easiest way that it comes to you.
As your attention drifts away,
You just gently bring it back,
Back to breath first or whatever that experience was,
That first reconnecting.
And just seeing what it's like to make something else more important than your thoughts.
And this is truly an agenda-less experiment so you may like it and you may not like it,
We're just kind of doing a random experiment here.
What is it like to put something else ahead of,
So to speak,
As more important than thought?
And then,
If we use the breath a little bit more,
Focus on breath.
And utilize this experiment of utilizing something other than thoughts first.
And we make breath first.
We can be curious about this breath,
Even if it's just the nostrils,
The breath in the nostrils or just the breath in the diaphragm or just the breath in the lungs,
However you want to connect with it.
Or even if it's literally just watching breath happening,
You can have your eyes open and just watching that breath is happening.
You can observe it.
You don't have to feel the interior of breath,
You might just observe that it's happening with eyes open or closed.
Even for a moment or two to acknowledge that breath is at the core of our existence.
In some traditions,
God and breath are synonymous.
Or even breath and love might be synonymous because breath is this life-giving activity.
This life-giving experiential part of every moment.
If we can stay curious about it and just observe that happening,
Even if it's just the nostrils,
We don't worry about how we're breathing and if we're doing it right or all of those very common thoughts,
If we can just notice that we all get to breathe,
We are all gifted breath regardless of anything else about us.
We all come in having earned breath no matter how rich we are or poor we are or popular we are or our gender,
All that stuff,
It doesn't matter.
In breath's eyes,
We're all worthy of it.
We're all worthy of breath.
Breath receives us,
Comes in and out.
We can observe that as a witness and we can also feel that come into us.
Breath first and then the breath in us,
The breath that comes in and out of us,
This wisdom,
This wise experience of breath comes in and out of us,
Through us.
And we're still honoring the wisdom of breath as opposed to how we're breathing or even the experience of it per se.
We're still honoring breath as the wisest force here as if we were acknowledging the wisdom of something greater than ourselves,
Like we might label God or love or in this example,
This experiment,
We're using breath.
And just seeing if we can let ourselves rely on breath in this moment.
I mean,
We already are,
But we're,
If we can consciously acknowledge this wisdom of breath that is taken in by our bodies and released by our bodies,
That our bodies are just doing through the organic wise makeup of having a body and that we are all doing together all over.
We are in this call coast to coast,
Globe all over the globe,
And we are breathing together.
We are with each other in breath in a mysterious kind of way.
When we are able to slow down and connect with breath,
And observe breath,
Even just for moments at a time,
It helps our brains regulate and helps our nervous system regulate.
So when we can,
When we're able to slow down,
When we feel safe enough to slow down and to make breath more important than our thoughts and feel safe in doing so,
We can practice this.
And we can practice this when things are easy for us.
We can practice this when we're just watching TV or in the bath or going for a walk.
Or maybe right now.
So we form a practice of remembering breath's importance.
Breath first and breath in ourselves.
And breath in each other,
Through each other at the same time we're all breathing.
And as we stay with the invitation anyway,
The invitation to stay simple with this,
Our brain works more efficiently.
Our nervous system can chill a little bit,
Find a little bit of ease,
And that can open up the space for clarity.
That is when we can ask ourselves curious questions like,
What do I do next?
What's next for me with X situation or what might I do with such and such situation?
And then we can connect to thoughts because then our brain is working more efficiently or effectively.
If we try to answer questions or connect to challenge first with our thoughts,
Then we can sometimes just get more challenging thoughts.
I think we've all had that experience and that is normal,
Very common.
And also can be a frustrating way to try to get clarity or try to move forward with something that we want to move forward with.
So to really honor and have compassion for ourself that sometimes we problem solve or try to figure things out just through our mental capacities.
That is so normal,
Isn't it,
To do that?
We have been raised to do that.
So to have compassion for ourselves when we do that and then to remember like,
Oh yeah,
I need to connect to that wisdom to really support not just my nervous system but also my brain.
I need to connect to the wisdom of breath first.
It could also be the wisdom of connecting to sitting,
Sitting first,
Feeling that space of sitting.
As we receive the breath and as we receive the support under us and behind us,
We can experience a level of wisdom that can't come from thought,
It can't come from figuring out but can only come through experience,
The experience of receiving the chair,
The support of the chair or receiving the wisdom of the breath's movement.
In this territory of sitting and breathing,
There really isn't anything to fix or necessarily to figure out,
At least in some part of that experience,
You might discover that anyway.
It doesn't mean that thoughts won't still be trying to be doing that,
To still be trying to figure things out but experientially,
We don't need to figure out breath because breath just gives itself to us and we don't need to figure out sitting because sitting just happens and the chair is just supporting us unconditionally.
And if we can,
With our attention,
Check that out,
Let our attention include those experiences,
Include experiences of simple.
So maybe there is something that you are struggling with in your life in some way and maybe just in this moment,
Just taking a minute to just ask yourself for clarity with how to move forward with such and such person or with such and such scenario or and just staying simple with the breath,
Simple with the sitting and just see what comes,
If anything.
It just needs to be balanced less,
All by itself.
And letting your attention connect with whatever,
If anything,
Did come and you can write it down when we're finished here in a moment.
And if nothing came,
Then sometimes that happens.
We just receive space.
We just receive quiet.
And maybe that is our answer.
As you slowly let the limbs start to move a little bit in your positioning,
I invite you to continue to stay with breath and sitting while you come back more fully into your body and slowly letting the eyes open when you're ready and coming back to the screen.
