Coming into a comfortable position where you are able to embody something of your intention for this practice.
So both a sense of being relaxed and available for the practice,
Combined with a sense of alertness,
Aliveness,
Presence.
So just explore that.
There might be some adjustments you need to make so that you are signaling through your embodiment,
Through your body,
Something of your intention to meet the moments of your life,
To meet moments of difficulty with a quality of presence,
Of dignity,
And yet also a relaxation,
A receptivity.
And then when you're ready,
Begin to invite your attention inwards.
So our attention,
Which is very trained to move out from ourselves outwards,
See if you can bring your attention back inwards.
And taking a few moments to ground into the body.
So if your feet are on the ground,
Then just noticing the plane of contact.
Between your feet and the surface beneath you.
And just dropping into an invitation for rootedness,
For groundedness.
Sense of here-ness.
And perhaps even a sense of stability or support.
Then moving up into how you meet the surface that you're sitting on,
Your seat.
Could you see if it's possible to relax into the sensation of being held,
Of being supported,
So there's the sense of subtle support that's here.
In every moment.
There's a subtle sense of support.
You don't have to hold it all by yourself.
You are being held.
And now turning your attention to the sensations in your hands,
Your palms,
Your fingers.
And could you explore making contact with the sensations that are here?
The language of the body.
So they might be tingling,
Vibrating.
Temperature.
Moistness,
Dryness.
And exploring making contact with the aliveness that's here in the body.
And allowing your attention now to be drawn to the heart center.
And if you'd like,
You could place a hand on the heart.
And just resting here.
Opening up to the qualities of the heart.
And the heart is how we meet our experience.
What is the nature of how we meet what unfolds?
What is the quality?
Of attention.
And just imagine that you could tune the heart like you could tune a musical instrument.
Just imagine.
You're tuning this instrument of compassion.
Of contactfulness.
Of sweetness,
Of care.
And you're welcome to let your hand rest there or bring it back down.
Just noticing that we've created the conditions for sitting with our experience.
We've brought our attention inwards,
Into presence.
We've connected with the support that's here,
The aliveness that's here.
And we've begun to tune the instrument of the heart.
So that we can more and more skillfully meet what's here in our experience with kindness,
With friendliness.
With warmth.
I invite you now,
If it works for you,
To find the expression of your breath in this moment.
Where do you most vividly notice your breath?
It could be at the nostrils.
Could be at the rise and fall of the ribcage,
The lungs.
Lifting and lowering.
Perhaps the belly.
Rising and falling.
And spending a little bit of time being with the breath.
Connecting with the breath.
Moment by moment.
And life moving through you.
And working very skillfully with the mind if it begins to churn.
Offer an opinion or a narrative about the process.
And just gently notice that and let it go.
Returning to the breath that's being breathed right now.
And let's begin now to work with what is difficult,
With what is challenging.
So maybe there's something up very directly in your body.
Might be pain or fatigue or strain.
Or maybe today it's something you need to bring to mind.
But first,
Could you make contact with what is here,
With what is difficult?
And could you begin to breathe?
With what is difficult.
So it's infusing what is difficult with each in-breath.
Letting go with each out-breath.
Breathing with this experience.
And now could you invite in the instrument of the heart that you tuned so beautifully at the start of this practice?
And could you invite the kindness of the heart?
The compassion of the heart.
To be here with the breath,
With the difficulty.
So however that makes sense to you,
Just experimenting inside.
Can I bring my heart?
Can I bring my breath?
To what is painful.
And to know that the intention is enough.
It doesn't have to look or feel a certain way.
Simply to be here and to have this intention is the practice,
Is enough.
There's nothing to get right here.
This is how we learn to be with what is difficult.
To breathe,
To be present,
To bring in the qualities of the heart.
The how we make contact with our experience.
And so for the last few moments of this practice,
Allowing what you've experienced to be absorbed and integrated.
To settle inside you.
To be known by body,
Heart and mind.
And could you sense that which is painful?
Could thank you for being with it in this way.
With just a moment of gratitude for your own practice that you've chosen today.
And then when you're ready,
Allowing your eyes to gently open.
And feeling yourself in the space that you're in.
And that brings this practice to a close.
