So now we're going to take a moment to tune into ourselves and ask ourselves what we need,
What we're feeling,
And what we need to do about it.
And the first thing we're going to do to invite presence and awareness into our bodies is to take three deeper than usual diaphragmatic breaths,
Which just means as you take the air in through the nose,
Comes down,
Expands the lungs,
Feels like it's pressing into the belly as the diaphragm presses down.
And then on the out breath,
The diaphragm relaxes,
The air comes out of the lungs and up and out of the nose.
And it helps to have a small one or two second gap between the in breath and the out breath,
And also to make sure the out breath is just a bit longer than the in breath.
So let's start off with these three diaphragmatic breaths.
We can then return to our natural rhythm of breathing,
But with the intention to stay aware of and present to the sensation.
Of our breath as we're going through these questions.
So the first question that we're going to ask ourselves is,
What am I feeling right now?
So bring the awareness into the body and just ask the question,
What am I feeling right now?
Check to see any physical sensations,
Any emotions,
Any sense of movement or even any numbness.
And you can just use a simple word to name whatever you're feeling.
Like if there's pain,
You can just say pain.
If there's butterflies in the tummy,
You can say butterflies.
If you can notice an emotion,
You can say sadness or fear or whatever it is,
Just name it and acknowledge it.
Once you've become familiar with and in touch with the feeling,
We can then move on to the question,
What do I want?
So still staying present within the body and breathing,
Ask yourself the question,
What do I really want right now?
And give yourself time to breathe with the question and watch what answers come up for you.
There's no need to be spiritual or kind,
Try and think the right thing or want the right thing.
Just see what naturally comes up and see what the body wants to ask for without any filter at all.
It's good to remember that there's no forbidden desires.
It's only our words and actions that are able to hurt others.
So to let these natural desires come up,
To be aware of them,
To let them come up and move through you is a really healthy thing to do,
To be aware of.
And know that you don't have to act these out just because they've come up and arisen.
We could immediately check to see,
Is this going to be helpful to me and others or is this going to be harmful for me and others?
And if you have the intention for it to be helpful,
Then that will be immediately clear to you as you notice the desires coming up.
What do I really want right now?
Just let it all come up to be seen and felt.
And then we're going to stay in touch with the body and the breath and come to this question,
What am I going to do about it?
And to see what response the body wants to go with.
So if some of the desires that came up seemed like they might have been harmful to yourself or someone else,
Then you can just acknowledge that and see if there's a way that you can calm or soothe yourself.
Instead of going out and acting out on that desire and to find a deeper sense of a desire that might be more helpful for you or others.
And if the desire is something that would be helpful for you or for others,
Then we can just feel into it,
Spend some time with it,
Noticing what we really want to do about it.
And we might come to a space of noticing that the thing that we desire requires some help from someone else.
And if that's the case,
Then you can ask or plan to ask someone for something,
Remembering that there's no need or guarantee that anyone fulfills your requests.
So just knowing that when you ask them to not be too attached,
That no one owes you anything.
And you have options if they say no,
Then you can ask someone else so you can find a way to try and meet that need within yourself.
So if the desire is there for you and you're in touch with it and you know it's helpful,
Then there's no need to suppress it.
We need to find a way to be creative in meeting our own needs and our own self-care.
So we can just attune to,
Is there a way that I can fulfill this desire for myself?
And sometimes that means getting in direct contact with what it is that we specifically want.
For example,
You might think,
I really just need to take the day off work.
And you might be able to give that to yourself or ask that from someone else and have that met.
But if not,
Then we might be able to look a little bit deeper under that desire and go,
Well,
I feel as though I want that to meet an underlying need of rest or alone time or some time to just be with myself.
So maybe you can find with some creative thinking another way to meet that for the time being until there's an opportunity to have a full day off.
So just sitting with that sense of what am I going to do about it?
Getting clear on what the most practical and useful way for you to take responsibility for meeting your own need and your own desire is.
And once you've come clear on that,
Then you can take a moment to take another three diaphragmatic breaths to recenter and reground yourself in the body.
I.
And then you can return to your natural rate of breathing.
And from there,
You might have a sense of clarity or empowerment around what's going on for you and how you can meet your own need.
And that will give you what you need to go out and find that for yourself.
So I hope that's been useful for you.
