Welcome to the Letting Go exercise.
Go ahead and get your body into a comfortable position,
Whatever that is for you,
Sitting or lying down.
Closing your eyes or gazing down gently.
And now take a moment to recognize the sensation of your body breathing.
You can put your hand on your belly and you can feel the rise and fall as you breathe in and breathe out.
Feeling your ribcage expanding and contracting.
Feeling the air move in through your nose and back out again.
And we can use words like breathe in and breathe out to anchor our attention on the breath.
And we can check in with our body sensations and notice any tension that we can soften and ease.
We can unclench our jaw,
Softening our face,
Moving our shoulders away from our ears,
Letting them drop towards the ground.
Using our out breath to let go of any tension in our stomach.
Encouraging a full exhale,
Letting go of the belly,
Tension in the chest and softening the muscles of our back.
Take a moment to notice the sensations in your hands.
Touching in with whatever is supporting your hands,
Whether it's your lap or the arms of a chair or the floor.
And feeling the sensations between that surface and your hands.
And then switching from your hands to your feet,
Where are your feet touching?
Is it the soles of your feet against the floor?
Perhaps just the heel if you're lying down.
If you're wearing socks or shoes,
Feel the sensation of that encircling your foot one at a time.
And returning your attention to your breath,
Noticing if your breath has changed at all.
And if not,
That's okay.
Let's take a moment to take a nice full in breath,
Breathing in,
Holding at the top for a moment.
And then releasing the breath all the way down.
And just holding at the end just for a little bit longer,
Letting the stomach and the diaphragm release completely.
We'll use the out breath to let go of the tension in our face,
Our chest,
Our stomach.
Breathing out to soften the muscles of the back and the hips,
Arms and legs,
Hands and feet.
Continue to focus your attention on the out breath.
And with each out breath,
Feel your body relaxing and softening.
Letting your body fully release and letting go,
Allowing the surface to support it.
Knowing that the surface is stable and unmoving.
And as we continue to be aware of our breathing and our body sensations,
Our thoughts might begin to intrude and take us away from the focus of our body and breath.
Your mind might wander into memories,
Thoughts of the day,
Worries that you might have,
Things you need to do.
And without giving yourself a hard time when you notice that's happened,
Gently bring your attention back to the sensations of your body breathing.
The physical sensations of breath as it moves through your body.
Noticing the tendency to want to control your breathing,
But move to just simply observing and noticing.
Just as if you were to float on the sea.
You're up with one wave and down with the next.
You can't control the duration of the wave or the depth between the waves,
You're just riding them.
Noticing the gentle rolling of the waves as you breathe in and breathe out.
If it helps,
You can imagine that your thought is being placed on a cloud and it gently floats away.
You can also imagine that you take your thought and place it in a soap bubble and watch as it floats away,
Eventually popping into the air,
Releasing that thought before another might appear.
Our thoughts will come,
But let's let them go.
Each time we notice,
We can let those thoughts drift off.
You can make note of what it is that you're thinking.
Label it as worrying,
Planning,
Remembering,
Or even just thinking.
And when you become aware of that thought,
It is easier to then release it.
Continue to practice noticing when you're thinking and then breathing out and letting that thought go.
Don't worry,
They'll be back.
Right now,
All you need to do is just be.
And we'll prepare to gently transition back to our awakened state.
First,
Starting to notice our hands and feet and moving them gently.
Opening your eyes if they were closed,
But begin to gaze about the room you're in.
And with that last spell,
You can return to your day.
Namaste.
