Pause,
Connect as we take our pause from whatever you might be doing,
Whatever I have been doing with the busyness of my day,
Of not hardly finishing one thing before another thing comes up,
All good news even,
But still a non-stop flow that keeps me busy and not as connected with self as I would like to be.
So I pause,
Actually here at dusk on a trail near my writing studio,
Sit down,
Let the evening air settle on me and the silence of this beautiful woods that I am safely in,
Holding me,
Inviting you to do the same thing as you pause.
Have a seat,
Lie down,
Free your hands,
And in this pause we're going to connect with body and breath.
Let's do body first,
Allowing yourself to release your shoulders,
Feeling the weight of your arms through your wrists and out your fingers,
Noticing if your hands have been gripping or holding in ways that you can let go of right now,
Noticing the back of your neck,
Maybe giving your head a little gentle softening stretches if you wish,
But then in your mind's eye tracking down your spine through your shoulder blades,
Through the small of your back to your sits bones,
Feeling them anchoring you in your seat,
Maybe they are working harder than they need to be,
The muscles in there,
And you can just soften them a little as you still sit in a way that's dignified and awake,
But not working any harder than your body needs to.
So,
Traveling down in your mind's eye through your legs,
Upper legs,
Knees,
On down through your calves,
Ankles,
And into your feet with awareness of whether they are barefoot,
In socks,
In shoes,
Notice the sensations holding your feet,
Your feet,
What it feels like to also be having the soles of your feet on whatever they are touching.
And as you release your hands,
Your fingers specifically,
Releasing toes too.
See,
Simply by just noticing these parts of our body,
We can notice and let go in ways that release tension,
Stress,
And in ways that bring us in contact with ourself here and now.
Now,
Bringing your awareness,
You're noticing to the surface of your face,
Checking in with your jaw,
Any teeth grinding or tightness that you can soften simply by letting your mouth hang open,
An imperceptible amount.
Checking with your tongue in tightness or positions it doesn't need to be in right now.
Checking in with your eye cavity,
Eye cavities for any squinting or activity like you're trying to use your eyes when in fact,
We're just not even looking or using them,
Or we are softening our gaze.
Noticing your brow.
And in general,
Notice any habitual expressions that maybe you keep in your face that right this moment,
None of them are needed.
In this moment of your pause,
And now you're noticing,
You can let that go.
Whatever facial expression,
You can let it go.
And now with this awareness,
This noticing a body,
Let's gently bring our focus to our breath.
Simply feeling air coming in through your nostrils,
And out through your mouth,
If that's comfortable for you,
As opposed to out through your nose.
The exhale through your mouth helps you make it longer,
Releasing more out so your lungs can take more in,
And slowly working into a deeper breath.
Because it is that deeper diaphragmatic breath that's bringing us a relaxation.
So in the silence now,
Just follow your in and out of your natural breath here and now.
And as thoughts arise,
And they will,
Judgments,
Inspirations,
Notice,
Notice them.
But then just come back and connect with your breath.
We're connecting with our body,
And we're connecting with our breath.
As important paths to deeper connection with self,
They are also paths to simply calming and resetting our nervous system.
And in the spirit of my codependency work,
They are tools that bring us in deeper connection with self.
In the silence,
Where you are and where I am in this woods,
Just follow your breath for another few cycles.
We paused,
And we've connected with body and breath.
So gently open your eyes.
If you wish,
And or just look up,
Orienting yourself to something you see in your environment there now,
As I am here now.
Staying connected with your breath another cycle or so.
As you now prepare to move on a bit more connected with you to the activities of your day,
Or in my case,
My evening.
