Make yourself comfortable in your chair with your feet on the ground and your hands in your lap.
For now keep your eyes open finding a spot opposite you and softening your gaze.
Start with some deep breaths in through the nose and out through your mouth.
Enjoying the rise and fall,
The expansion and contraction.
In and out.
In your next exhalation gently close your eyes and allow your breath to fall into its own natural pattern again.
With your eyes closed start tuning into your four remaining senses,
First focusing on what you can feel.
Your feet on the ground,
The chair underneath your body,
The clothes against your skin and the temperature of the space you are sitting in.
Noting the sensations and then letting them drift into the background.
Next,
Turning your attention to anything that you can hear.
For a few moments intently listening to your surroundings.
Maybe you can hear cars passing in the distance or your neighbours moving around.
The sound of your breath.
Hearing the melodies and rhythms of your life.
And then letting them too fade away until they become white noise and you can fully surrender to your practice.
Last but not least bringing into awareness anything that you can taste or smell.
The last thing you have eaten still tingling on your palate.
Maybe you can catch hints of your shampoo or perfume.
Letting in the scents of your room without labelling them as good or bad.
Taking in the sensations and then letting them evaporate into the background of your awareness.
Listening once more to the steady rhythm of your own breath.
Take your attention inwards and direct your focus to the base of your spine.
Imagine a beautiful red flower bud sitting there.
Take a few breaths all the way down your vertebrae and with each breath the flower opens a little further unfolding ruby red glowing petals.
This flower has two strong roots and with the next exhalation send those roots down each of your legs.
Past your hips,
Into your thighs,
Past your knees and down your shins into your feet.
Through your soles and into the ground planting them in the soil and sending them deeper through all the layers of the earth.
Your roots grow deeper and deeper until they reach the core of the planet where a big fire is flickering red,
Gold and orange.
You pause a moment and take in the beauty and the comfort.
You dip your roots into the flames and draw the light,
The heat and the colours through your roots up into your body.
The energy touches your feet and fills your toes and heels,
Flowing up your legs.
Into the cradle of your hips and filling your torso all the way down your arms to your fingertips and up your neck into your face.
You feel the energy spreading through your body as the warmth and the red golden light flows into every corner of your being.
It fills your organs,
Your cells and your marrow.
You are safe here in your body.
You belong here.
You are home.
Bring your awareness once more to the flower at the bottom of your torso and feel the roots growing downwards while your spine and extension is reaching upwards.
Feel the connection to the earth,
Your roots anchoring you while your entire being glows.
Taking a deep breath,
Draw your roots back into you while the warm energy continues to radiate through your body.
Become aware again of your feet on the ground,
Your body in the chair.
Slowly but surely drawing your awareness to the surface again.
Bring your hands into prayer position and rub them together generating heat.
Bring the palms of your hands gently over your eyes.
And whenever you are ready,
Blink them open in the shelter of your hands until you are fully ready to return to the here and now.
