Begin by taking a moment and just getting comfortable.
If you're moving,
You don't have to stop moving,
But allow yourself to be present with whatever you're doing.
So if you're commuting,
If you're doing some work,
If you're washing dishes,
That's totally fine.
You don't have to be still.
There is a way to find some stillness without totally stopping.
And often,
If we are really exhausted,
Totally stopping may just drop us right into sleep or into just blanking out for a moment.
So allow yourself to be wherever you are,
However you are,
Right now,
In this moment.
You can have your eyes closed if you like,
Or you can just relax the muscles around your eyes while leaving your eyes open.
Still taking in visual information,
But softening just a little bit.
Often we take in more information visually than we need,
And we strain more than we need to as well.
Taking a moment and beginning to tune into the rhythm of your breath.
You don't need to do anything fancy to it.
Rather,
Just noticing each inhale,
Noticing each exhale.
Noticing the rise and fall of your belly and chest as you breathe.
This meditation is about helping you get back in tune with your own rhythms,
Because chances are the rhythms of the world around you,
As a helper and a healer,
Are chaotic,
Demand a lot of you,
And perhaps don't refill you as much as you actually need.
This is an opportunity to tune into your own internal rhythms and to be conscious of what you might need.
Continuing to notice your breath,
Just noticing the rise and fall of your belly and chest as you breathe.
The feeling of air moving in and out.
If there's anywhere in your body that feels tight or tense,
You can invite the breath to move towards those places.
Imagine the breath washing up and down the length of your spine,
Bringing softness across the width of your shoulders,
And even imagining the breath creating space in all the small muscles of your face,
Softening cheekbones,
Softening muscles around your eyes and your mouth,
Bringing softness to anywhere that needs it.
On your next inhale,
Imagine you can take in something you need,
Into your body,
Into your mind,
And on your next exhale,
Letting go of anything you don't need.
Taking a moment to do that a few more times.
Inhaling to take in what you need.
Exhaling to release what you don't.
If you have trouble thinking of something that you might need,
Perhaps thinking of something that you give either physically or emotionally to those that you care for.
Maybe it's time,
Maybe it's love,
Maybe it's kindness,
Maybe it's all of those.
And see if you can reflect that,
Whatever it is,
Back towards yourself.
Taking in a little bit of that for your own self.
Those of us who spend a lot of our time giving,
It's often a challenge to receive,
And especially a challenge to receive from ourselves.
So if it's hard for you in this moment to think of something,
That's okay.
Allowing yourself to just breathe,
Tuning into your body in this moment,
Noticing the length of your body from the top of your head all the way down to the bottom of your feet.
Noticing the width of your body,
Shoulder to shoulder,
Hip to hip,
And noticing the depth of your body,
Reminding yourself that you have an entire back of your body.
We spend so much time moving forward,
Doing from the front of our body,
That we forget that we can soften and relax backwards,
Even just a tiny bit.
So as you notice length,
Width,
And depth,
Also allow yourself to notice and to tune into any rhythms that you notice.
So along with your breath,
You may notice your heartbeat.
You may notice a rhythm to your thoughts.
And if there are thoughts,
Allowing them to just be there,
Releasing the need to push away the thoughts or to have an empty mind.
And inviting the thoughts to take on a bit of a gentler rhythm as they pass across your awareness,
Just like you would notice white clouds moving across a blue sky or waves on the ocean.
Ideally,
All of nature has a certain rhythm.
And when we feel grounded and calm within ourselves,
There is a calm and grounded rhythm that's present.
And when we get stressed,
The opposite happens.
Our rhythms become compressed or rushed or literally stressed.
So in this moment,
Allowing yourself to notice the rhythms that you need and the rhythms that you deserve in order to be present and to care for yourself.
Just taking a moment to notice.
Taking in one more gentle inhale,
A long exhale.
If your eyes are closed,
You can slowly begin to blink them open.
Bring back to full awareness slowly.
As you continue breathing gently,
Allow yourself to notice if any of your rhythms internally or externally have shifted at all.
Every little shift really does make a difference.
It all matters.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Take care.
