Finding the space that you want to spend some time in,
Knowing of course that you can move in your space or reposition or re-maneuver however you need to in our time together here in our rest.
So maybe you have something soft behind you or something soft over you or maybe you you like the hardness of maybe your floor.
I'm just noticing the hardness of my armchair under my arms and I can feel the solidity there through the hardness but I can also feel the solidity under my sit bones with the cushion.
So in your own context just noticing maybe the hardnesses and the softnesses that your body is connecting to.
Floor,
Mattress,
If you're sitting cross-legged you'll feel the weight of your own feet on your body,
A chair in different ways.
Whatever way your the bones of your body are connecting to object behind you and under you.
There's literally nothing to figure out here.
It's just happening.
The field of gravity puts us in this position of connecting to objects because we're not floating in space so we're being held and supported in all moments and in this moment we're being held and supported by whatever your body is connected to literally.
So if your eyes open or closed,
If your eyes are open you can literally look and see oh what are my elbows connected to or what are my feet connected to.
You can also do that with your eyes closed and just let your attention meander into the places that your body is meeting other places.
Saying hi to the heels of the feet or the or the the soles of the feet.
Noticing what the soles or the heels of the feet are connecting with.
Behind the legs see what's being connected to.
Saying hi to those to whatever is found.
Could be space,
High to the space or high to the chair.
Up to the sit bones.
Just letting your sit bones say hi to whatever is meeting the sit bones.
Again whether it's hardness or softness or warmth or whatever.
Up to the lower back whatever your lower back is connected to.
The middle back.
The upper back.
The head.
We don't want to forget the arms and the hands.
And we're literally inviting the part of our brains our prefrontal cortex is to come online to be with what is literally here.
There is no right or wrong or supposed to.
We're all in our own positions in our own contexts.
So some people's heads might be supported by a pillow and that's not right or wrong or good or bad it's just based on a context.
And other others of us will have heads that are just kind of with space behind.
So just differences.
And we use our prefrontal cortexes to just observe and note our own experience as it is in happening already.
And having a body in the field of gravity.
We just make contact.
It's very simple contact.
So simple that the mind might be bored and be looking for challenges right now or what's what this means to be sitting in a chair with these different expressions of softness or hardness and it doesn't mean anything it means that we get to sit and notice our experience of right now without having to worry or change or fix anything.
Which is an interesting predicament for most of us because we're used to doing that.
So if we didn't have to change or fix or worry about anything what would it be like to just notice hands placed where they are?
Hands that don't need to be different.
Hands that don't need fixing.
And hands that can move and reposition if they choose to do that.
Or just remain as they are.
And with that same kind of lens we're going to notice the breath is here too and we're going to try on that same perspective.
What if there was nothing to change or fix or have different about the breath but we were just observing the happening of it.
We could be observing it in just the nostril area or just the chest area or just the belly area or we could be noticing the totality of it so there's no right way to notice breath just in whatever way you find the easiest or simplest.
And in the same way you're just noticing hands just noticing the breath.
Comes in and out.
And moves the body with each inhalation and exhalation and observe that.
You may also observe likes and dislikes or comforts or discomforts within the breath.
And if there's areas of the breath that you don't like or want to engage that fixing changing part of your thinking then just let your attention move to a part of the breath that doesn't need fixing or changing.
Some part of the breath that's okay just as it is.
Some part of the breath that doesn't need to be worried about doesn't need to be changed or fixed.
It just is just like the hands just were.
It just is just like the hands just were.
And in this moment just noticing maybe one area of the body and one part of the breath that both feel really simple and easy.
One area of the body to connect with when one aspect of the breath that doesn't require any sense of worry or change or fixing or problem-solving managing just as.
And some moments we have to get really creative with finding something that's simple and easy.
And so if you are having a hard time finding something simple and easy just keep keeping curious and just keep trying to find something that's simple and easy.
And so if you are having a hard time finding something simple and easy just keep keeping curious.
You let your attention connect into areas you don't often connect to because they are so easy that you don't notice them.
Like the armpits or the eyelids or could be anything maybe the elbows.
And some part of the breath that is just easy could be the the air coming in your nostrils maybe the air on your upper lip or the air coming into some part of your nostrils or the shoulders rising and falling.
There's many other options.
Something that seems simple.
We're not ignoring all the rest or denying all the rest or pretending that all the rest isn't here.
So there may be lots of other resonances of dislike and challenge or whatnot here.
Worry fixing.
That's allowed to be here too.
We're not trying to bypass that.
We're acknowledging that that might be here and we're also just being curious about at the very same time what is easy or simple.
And then I want you to kind of toggle both the maybe what's unsettled in you and what's settled in you.
And just noticing those with your own it's almost like you would have your own cognitive conscious conversation like ah I see you blah blah blah you're unsettled you're frustrated you're you're tight or you're grasping or whatever the word would be for you I see you yeah you can be here and in that same way having a conversation with the part of you that is easy or okay or fine and the same way I see you yeah you get to be here too.
And we want to imagine what well first of all just acknowledging that sometimes the parts of us that aren't doing so well can be the loudest the unsettled or the worrying parts or the tight parts or the maybe a fighting energy those can get the most attention and seem the loudest and can distract us from noticing the okayness or ease or simpleness or even things that feel good.
So we might have to use some effort to connect to the simple or okay and just acknowledge that that is if that's happening right now that's very common to have an internal conversation or dialogue that says yeah I'm just it's gonna keep X in my attention a little bit longer that sense of ease or okayness that I feel with the hands clasped together for example or with feeling the breath and expand my ribs for example whatever whatever is easy for you.
And just connecting to that simple and ease and just notice what happens with the sound.
Staying connected to what's simple and easy and or just fine.
Letting those areas that are simple and easy and fine receive the sound as if the sound was saying hi to these areas and the sound was yes saying hi to these areas and these areas were saying hi in response.
This breathing receiving sound.
Breathing sitting receiving.
And it's not that we're looking to receive anything in particular it's just to notice what happens when sound connects in this way.
And we'll do the same thing with those areas that maybe are have some frustration or angsty energy or stress.
The same thing just gently noticing those areas.
You can even kind of imagine that you're you're a little bit distant from them but you're just kind of observant of those areas of maybe tightness or unsettledness maybe resistance.
Saying hi to those that are welcome to be here too.
And noticing what happens with the sound as the sound says hello to these areas and these areas acknowledge the sound.
Sitting and breathing.
There's nothing you need to do just observe and notice what is already happening.
Sitting and breathing.
And then letting your attention meander a little bit back and forth.
The easy and the fine and the subtle.
And then letting your attention meander a little bit back and forth.
The easy and the fine and the not so easy and not so fine.
They're all here.
They're all experiencing sound.
Acknowledgement.
Permission to be just as they are.
Even those thoughts that say no not just as they are those thoughts get to be here too.
We may feel ourselves in this moment acknowledging that this has been an intense time.
There is a lot happening.
Some unseen and some seen which means some of which we can't see tangibly and some of which we can.
So we may feel things that seems like for no reason sometimes and other times we can feel it connected to something rather tangible in our life.
Either way just asking yourself as you're hearing as you're breathing as you're sitting just asking out loud to no one in particular.
Just asking what is my angstiness or my anger or my ex?
What is my stress?
What is fill in the blank?
What am I needing right now with or in light of this happening these things happening in my life right now and just seeing what arises?
What do I need to remember?
Take a breath and ask what do I need to remember?
What will support me during this time?
Keep breathing.
Keep sitting.
If nothing came to you just letting that be true for you.
Letting the next breath come.
If something did come to you just thanking the wisdom that did come.
Breathing.
And then slowly letting the arms start to move.
Knitting yourself.
If you'd like take a couple deeper breaths.
Your hands and feet re-engage.
You can have the eyes open or closed slowly.
Coming back more into this moment to prepare your eyes to slowly open if they haven't already.
Continuing to notice what's simple and easy or okay.
As well as not acknowledging anything else that is here as well.
And then when it feels right coming back to the screen.
