So I invite you here to focus on your breathing,
Both the inhalation and the exhalation,
Just exactly the way it is.
As you become aware of it,
Try to observe it.
How deep are you inhaling?
And how much are you exhaling?
And follow that for just a couple of cycles of breath.
And as you track that breath,
I invite you to become aware,
Almost as if you're stepping back or expanding your body and the energy from the center,
Expanding it outward,
And bring your awareness to what is happening with the rest of your body as you're following your breath.
Do you feel sensations?
Do you feel expansion?
When you're bringing your awareness,
Do you feel that you need to shift?
Allow wherever you are to be perfectly okay.
You may find that as you inhale,
You're starting to slow the breath a bit.
And you may feel that the exhale,
If it's not quite deep enough,
You can give a little more.
You may feel a rhythm,
A pattern.
Once again,
I'm going to invite you to track two more cycles of your breath,
Both the inhale and the exhale.
Now some of you who are familiar with working with me know that sometimes I invite a changing up of the breath.
And today I'm going to share with you a little bit of a tool.
It's a 4-4-4-4.
And I've seen it done in different spaces.
This was introduced with a shamanic healer in my exposure to it.
So normally as we breathe,
We generally may have 12 to 14 to 16 cycles of breath every minute.
And what we're going to explore now will reduce those cycles of breath.
And they're going to change it up a little bit,
But they're going to invite and bring the awareness to pause.
So we may end up doing about four cycles of breath in a minute.
It's all comfortable,
But it's just good to sometimes to pause a pattern,
Shake it up a bit and bring a little change.
So what we're going to do is when I'll say,
Breathe,
We'll breathe in for four and then I'll say hold and that'll be four and I'll say release and that'll be for four and then I'll say empty and that'll be for four.
And you will be able to feel that count in your own body.
And we'll go through a couple of cycles.
So go ahead and just track one more cycle of normal breath,
The inhalation and the exhalation.
And now inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Empty.
Inhale,
Hold,
Empty.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Empty.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Empty.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Empty.
So now I invite you to go ahead and take a large inhalation and a large exhalation and just go back to observing the breath without the structure.
And I invite you to bring your awareness almost as if you're stepping back and expanding the awareness to your whole body,
Your whole being.
And I invite you to bring your attention almost as if your eyes are visually going upward to that space right above the top of your head and allow your eyes and your awareness to encompass the whole body and the extra space around it.
You might feel like that's two inches,
Three inches,
Four,
Whatever is comfortable with you,
But expand that awareness and now start dropping it slightly to the top of the head,
The forehead,
To the band of the nose and the ears and behind you.
Continue dropping it to the chin,
To the jawbone,
To the back of the neck and just to the shoulders and allow and continue that awareness of observation around the front and the back as you continue down from the shoulders,
Over the top of your arms and the top of your back and down the clavicles and the top of the chest and allow that whole awareness,
Almost like a whole band around you,
To continue bringing that observation of you,
Your being downward to the chest,
The shoulder blades and back,
Your upper arms and continue bringing that awareness down to the elbows and to the middle back and around front is about the solar plexus.
Continue that observation and that awareness down around the belly and the forearms,
Elbows if your arms are bent and the lower back and then bring that awareness continuing down your hips,
Your pelvis,
Your sits bones,
Your upper thighs and continue that awareness around your legs,
To the knees and around the knees and to the upper part of your shins and your hips and continue that awareness and observation down in your legs,
Down closer toward the ankles and the Achilles tendon and the heels,
Also the top of the feet and almost the observation through the bones around the full footbeds and down to the earth.
What we're doing is we're bringing your awareness right to yourself.
We're bringing in your awareness,
Your observation.
You may feel something,
You may sense something,
But it's really good to shift that lens right to you.
And so this time as we continue to turn around and continue back up the body,
I invite you in your awareness to take a pause anywhere that's needed.
So if you feel something,
Go ahead and pause,
Give it a nod,
Figuratively acknowledge it and bring your awareness right to that spot because your body might be wanting to give you information.
So as we bring our attention down to that base of our feet,
I invite you to start there and slowly bring the awareness upward,
Almost like a circle around your feet,
A little bit even wider,
Allow the expansiveness to allow a little bit of the energy that might be extending beyond.
And I invite you to bring that awareness up to your ankles and up to your lower part of your legs,
The front and the back.
Continue slowly up the shins and calves,
Not quite at the knees.
Just notice is there anything that is trying to get your attention?
So I invite you to continue onward,
Up around the knees,
These beautiful joints,
Onto the hamstrings and quads and go ahead and continue tracking up your thighs around the front and the back.
How is everything feeling?
Is there any spot that you're drawn to?
And I invite you to continue along up to the upper part of your legs,
Around your hips,
The sits bones,
The pelvis,
Into the base of the trunk,
That lower gut,
And then upward around the coccyx,
The lower gut,
And then moving upward toward the belly button and the waist,
And continue upward to the solar plexus,
The diaphragm,
And the middle back.
We're going to continue to track this up around the sternum,
Around the upper back,
Including your arms in there,
Maybe at the shoulder blades,
And around again the sternum,
And moving upward over the rib cage,
Over the shoulder blades,
Up toward the shoulders,
Not quite at the shoulders,
And I'm inviting you to pause and just bring your awareness to your complete whole body.
Is there any spot that is trying to get your attention?
Just give it a nod if there is,
Bring your awareness to it,
And acknowledgement to yourself and to your being.
Okay?
I'll look into that.
And I invite you back,
Not quite at the shoulders,
And bringing your awareness,
And we're going to continue the upward view over the shoulders,
Around the neck,
Up the neck,
The jaw line,
The ears,
The scalp,
And the facial muscles,
And the nose,
And the upper back of the head,
And right above the eyes,
And the eyebrows,
And into the forehead.
And right there,
I invite you to notice how the muscles are feeling in the forehead,
And equally around the back of the head.
How are the muscles?
Can you relax them?
If she didn't realize,
She might've even been holding tension.
So again,
What we're doing right now is we're bringing our awareness,
Our attention,
Our focus right to ourselves in this present moment.
It's allowing us to release the past,
The future,
All the things that we carry with us,
And just be present.
Now I invite you to continue the scan upward,
Right to the top of the head,
And allow yourself to hold that awareness right above the head,
Right with that space.
And I invite you right now,
That's actually the crown chakra,
And I invite you to bring your awareness above the scalp,
Above the hair,
And allow to open up really wide,
Almost like there is a bright light that is traveling.
Set energy,
And just being with it.
This is a part of you.
How does this feel?
I invite you to receive in almost like the recharging of a battery,
This light,
And allow it to flow right into you all the way through your core,
Your being down through the feet into the earth,
And also realize that it doesn't go just one way,
But it is also coming back,
And allow that flow of light,
Allow the openness,
Allow the restoration.
In this present moment,
I invite you to bring your awareness to this light that is moving in you and through you,
And bringing a restoration of energy into your being.
So if it's comfortable for you,
I invite you to almost bask in this just for another few moments.
And while you're basking in it,
Go ahead and become aware.
How's my body feeling now?
Do I feel the energy?
Bring your awareness to any parts of your body that might feel something.
Are my palms feeling the light?
Another few seconds,
Just continue your awareness throughout your body and bring it back up right above your head,
That seventh chakra,
And I invite you to visually imagine,
Okay,
Closing it up,
Sealing it,
And realizing,
Okay,
We've brought our awareness,
We've brought in the energy.
And now I invite you to,
As you're coming back to this moment,
Just make sure that you are comfortable and you might settle in even more.
And I invite you to bring both hands,
Palm facing you,
One behind the other,
Almost like a cup,
And I invite you to bring that up to your chest chakra and hold it there and acknowledge your heart,
Your love,
The center of your presence.
You can go ahead and keep your hands there or relax them.
Right now I'm going to invite you to figuratively step right into yourself,
Into your center,
And that can be in through your heart chakra where that pure divine love is.
And that's not a love connected to situations or people or relationships,
But just that actual center,
That heart,
That light,
That pureness.
And it is from there,
When you go right in or come home to center,
Where you can really look to the simplicity and also to the recharging.
So as we scanned our bodies and as we worked with the light and allowed it in and followed that light and that energy back and forth,
Feeling a bit of a refill,
I invite you here in this center,
Which is also the center of love and light,
To be there.
Just be present with the flow.
So this may feel like a little bit of a respite,
A little bit of a pause,
But also an invitation for a recharge,
For restoration.
While we're here in this space,
I invite you to bring your attention back to your breath,
The inhalation and the exhalation.
And I invite you to ask yourself,
If there's one thing that I no longer need to carry,
What would that be?
And if anything shows up,
Take a look,
Bring your heart to it.
And if it resonates that this is something that you no longer need to carry,
Give yourself permission to release it.
And bring your awareness back to your breath,
The inhalations and the exhalation.
And I invite you to ask yourself that question again,
For there may be more that you're carrying.
It is no longer yours to carry.
And you may be surprised and something may pop up that really has never been yours to carry.
Back in with that divine love in your heart.
And if you're ready to release,
Give yourself permission,
Figuratively setting it down,
Saying I release this,
It's no longer mine to carry.
And then go ahead and go back to the breath,
Tracking the inhalation and the exhalation.
For as we come home to center and sit in this heart center,
And I've worked with the light and the energy of,
It's part of who we are.
We give ourselves permission to sit in this divinity within ourselves.
And bringing our attention right to our presence.
Or bringing the presence of our own presence right here.
This is when we can ask and receive really clear,
Quick guidance.
So we'll go through two more cycles of breath.
And also if you feel,
Is there anything else that I do not need to carry?
And once you have completed that,
I invite you to kind of figuratively stand up,
Dust yourself off,
Bring in a large inhalation and feel the freshness of the air around you and a large exhalation.
So almost like you've taken a pause,
You've come home to your very center,
You've brought your awareness in,
Acknowledged every part of you in physicality and in energy.
And also realized,
Hey,
Maybe I don't need to carry everything.
And through this exercise,
Given yourself permission to release a bit to lighten your load.
And when you're ready,
Just feel free to go ahead and open your eyes and come back for the rest of your day.
