Hello and welcome to our daily breathe.
I'm Lynn Curry.
I'm so glad that you're joining me for our daily practice to create space and time for ourselves to just check in,
Invite ourselves to get present in our bodies,
Just take some time to practice focusing our attention,
Learning to work with our thoughts.
So as we come into our posture I invite you to do any sort of movement that might feel good in your body,
Allowing yourself to let go of any tightness or tension.
Feel free to be seated on a chair or a cushion or lie down,
That might feel good for you.
I always like to do a couple of nice shoulder rolls,
Giving myself a little stretch in the lower back,
Shaking out the hands,
Wiggling my toes,
Stretching my neck very gently from side to side,
Inviting myself to just be here right now.
And so we're coming into mindfulness of body.
I invite you to feel that beautiful strength in your back body,
Allows us to be upright,
Invite a sense of energy,
Alertness,
Top of the head is reaching up just a little bit,
Back of the neck is long.
Because we have this beautiful sense of strength in our back body,
We can afford to be soft in our front bodies.
So go ahead and just relax the shoulders,
Open the chest,
Let your belly be soft.
I invite you if you're sitting on a chair to have your feet flat on the floor,
Allows you to feel a little more grounded,
Rooted.
Go ahead and just give your weight over to gravity.
Sink in.
Hands can simply rest,
Palms down.
If it feels good,
Go ahead and just close the eyes,
Or take a nice soft gaze,
Cast down.
You can imagine your eyeballs relaxing back in their sockets.
And sometimes I like to just do a little mini massage with the tips of my fingers,
Starting on my forehead,
Encouraging my face to relax.
My temples,
Under my eyes,
Gently massage the jaw,
So much tension we hold in our jaws.
Release the tongue and throat.
Just feel your own presence,
Your own beauty emanating in this moment.
This is mindfulness of body.
Next we come into mindfulness of breath.
Breath is our object of attention,
Our focal point.
So go ahead and just rest your attention on the breath.
No special breathing technique,
Just your own natural rhythm.
Start to tap into the inhale,
Breathing in,
And the exhale,
Breathing out.
Inhale,
Breathing in,
And the exhale,
Breathing out.
Sometimes it's helpful to focus on the air coming in and out of the nose,
Perhaps the rise and fall of your chest or belly.
Sometimes it's nice to even say silently,
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
It's more than just thinking about the breath,
But it's actually feeling your body breathing.
Air coming in and air going out.
We're breathing all the time,
But most of the time,
We're not even noticing.
So during our practice,
We can just allow our attention to rest in that cradle of breath.
Riding those waves,
Our natural rhythm,
We're just tapping in and anchoring ourselves to ourself.
And the final step is coming into mindfulness of minds.
Our minds will continue to make thoughts,
And right now we're just focusing our attention on our breath.
And so all of our thoughts can just simply fade into the background.
We continue to just feel our body breathing.
Anytime that we notice that we've forgotten about the breath,
We've gone down the rabbit hole of thoughts.
Doesn't matter what the thought is,
When we simply notice that we're thinking,
All we need to do is let go.
That is the practice right there.
Letting go and coming back.
And we simply come back to our breath,
To ourself,
And we take a fresh start over and over.
That is the practice.
We're strengthening our muscle of mind.
Every time we notice that we're thinking,
We remember that we have a choice,
We can simply let go.
The sense of being very deliberate,
But also with a sense of compassion,
Gentleness.
We're escorting ourselves back to the breath,
New breath,
Fresh start.
Over and over,
We can spend our entire practice noticing that we're thinking and coming back.
So I'm going to set our timer for two minutes and sit together.
Simply let the technique go.
Thank you for your practice.
Thank you for practicing with me and each other.
It's one of the most special things we can do,
Share in our daily practice,
Giving ourselves permission to create space and time to just check in,
See what we might need.
And so I encourage you to give yourself the gift of a mindful moment anytime you need it.
And until next time,
I'll see you again soon.
Take care.
