So if you are just waking up,
So you've had hopefully a good sleep but maybe a medium sleep or not a good sleep,
Whatever it is,
But it's time to get up.
Many people wake up with an alarm clock,
Whether you do or not,
Just to kind of bring yourself into that moment.
Your alarm is set early enough that you don't have to rush,
You have a little bit of time.
You're laying in bed,
Notice what that feels like,
Your body's laid out.
Notice what it is that you do first.
Your eyes are opening,
Or maybe you keep your eyes closed for a while.
One thing that could be helpful as a beginning practice is to roll around to your left side and to focus on the flow of breath in the right nostril.
That helps to wake up the energy,
The active energy in the body.
You might lay there for 10 or 20 breaths.
Really focusing in on that right nostril energy,
The solar energy,
The more active energy.
Let your body kind of wake up.
You're in your adult space now and look to see if there's anything dangerous in the space,
Anything threatening.
And then either continuing to lie on your left side or turn onto your back,
Open your eyes without really moving your body much.
Just look around.
Notice that you're not in your childhood bedroom.
Any of these tools we use to ground and orient during the day,
We can use them first thing in the morning as well.
And some people have a habit of reaching for their phone.
It's right by the bed.
See if you could resist doing that.
You're laying in bed,
You've opened up the energy on the right side of the body a little bit more.
You've opened your eyes.
You've been looking around.
And notice your breath.
And see if you could breathe with a little bit more depth and ease.
And it might be that you notice you're holding your breath.
That's okay.
As you come to the end of the exhalation,
Let yourself move right into the inhalation without any hesitation.
And as you finish breathing in,
Let go of the breath.
One thing that happens as we notice the breath is that our body is moving with the breath.
And if we're breathing diaphragmatically,
There's a rise in the belly area as we breathe in and a release as we breathe out.
The muscles of the abdominal area soften as we breathe out.
And sometimes we can get into a nice groove with the breath where it's about the same length,
It's smooth,
It's continuous.
And you could start to notice the other parts of your body.
Maybe you could wiggle your toes,
Stretch a little bit.
Notice the sensations in the bed.
Are you warm?
Is it comfortable?
And then use your hands to come into contact with your body.
You could kind of press down on your arms,
Feel your chest,
Your belly,
Your legs.
And as you're doing that,
You could be moving and stretching a little bit.
And notice the level of doom or alarm or anticipation or dread.
How do you feel now about your day?
It might be the same.
We're not really looking for a perfect answer.
We're just noticing what's your feeling now as you think about the day ahead.
And if you think about what's happening for the rest of your day,
Bring to mind the people that you're going to be meeting and or the places that you might be.
And just take a moment to attune to that,
To feel into what does it feel like when you turn that on on your computer,
On your phone.
You see the other people,
You hear them.
Let yourself tune in a little bit to that.
And then what else do you do during your day?
Who else do you see?
And so if you were to just look forward to whatever it is,
If you have an animal,
You might have people that you live with.
Or maybe you're going to be seeing somebody,
A neighbor in person or a friend on Zoom.
Scroll through your day and with each person,
Let them kind of come to your heart.
Just for,
You know,
10 or 15 seconds,
Just kind of bring them into your awareness.
And then another one.
Bring it into your awareness,
Yeah,
I'm doing that later today.
And sometimes when we think about what we're doing,
We might find that we feel that dread around a specific person or an incident.
And it might make sense,
Like that person is kind of a bully.
I don't really want to see them,
But I need to.
And so we could let our shoulders relax,
Let our breath ease that.
So it makes sense.
And then go on to another person or another experience.
Maybe you're going to go for a walk later.
Maybe you look outside,
You can see outside from your bed and you look out there and think,
Oh,
It looks like a warm day today or it's feeling sunny already.
Kind of work through your day and bring yourself into just a light touch with each person or experience or being.
And in particular,
Focus on what might be enjoyable during your day.
The primitive brain has that negativity bias and it will always bring forward what's not going to be fun or enjoyable or how am I going to make it through this or I don't really want to see that person.
For now,
We can let all of that be there.
We're not trying to suppress it or anything.
Just to notice what is there about my day that I'm looking forward to that I could really enjoy.
And it might be that you're getting a lot more proficient at noticing your inner critic and turning to yourself with kindness.
Touch into that for a moment.
What are you looking forward to?
Maybe you've been starting to eat some of your meals in a nicer environment and you're looking forward to cooking something delicious later or having someone else do that for you.
Maybe you live in a place where the air is really fresh and you really love to go outside and just breathe in for a moment.
Come back to noticing your body.
Does it feel like you're aware of your body?
Is your body kind of settled into the support from the bed or the chair,
However it is that you're sleeping?
Or are you kind of holding yourself like a board above the bed?
And whatever that experience is,
See if you can take a moment now to relax your whole body from head to toes.
Notice your breath again.
Notice what there is in this moment to enjoy.
