Hello and welcome to your practice.
I encourage you to find a comfortable way to be.
Laying down is okay but try to sit.
Finding a wakefulness in the body.
And if sitting is your posture,
See if you can feel sits bones.
Drawing you closer to the earth and see if you can lengthen the spine.
Lengthening the spine helps us to be taller.
Gives us more room in the center of the body.
See if you can round the shoulders back.
Creating more space in the chest.
Lifting the chin so that the chin might be parallel to the earth.
So opening the throat.
Maybe feeling any sensitivity in the chest and in the throat and the neck.
I'm finding your posture here.
We'll begin by taking three rounds of breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Deep in the belly.
Inhaling.
Exhaling out.
Again inhaling.
Exhaling.
And again inhaling.
And out.
And from here just taking a moment to scan.
Scanning the mind.
How is the mind doing?
Awake,
Alert,
Sleepy,
Compressed,
Busy,
Distracted.
Releasing that.
Drawing a breath in.
Floating the attention towards the heart and checking in with the heart here.
Exhaling.
How is the heart doing?
And releasing that.
Drawing a breath in.
Floating attention over the entirety of the body.
Checking in with the body.
How is the body doing?
Tired,
Energized,
Sleepy,
Achy,
Open.
Whatever you're noticing.
And so in our practice we check in so that we're able to meet ourself as we are in this moment and offer at any time curiosity,
Wonder,
Awe,
Love,
And kindness.
So we'll start with curiosity.
Is there a space,
A thing,
A person that you've been curious about?
Just letting that sort of arise.
Something you're curious about.
Not straining to think too hard.
And then shifting the curiosity back towards yourself.
So what can,
What might you be curious about yourself?
Where could you lean in to discover more?
We're not figuring anything out.
We're also just being curious.
So there's no destination in our curiosity.
We're just simply open,
Non-judgmental.
You can breathe in.
And as you exhale you can repeat the mantra,
I love,
Approve,
I forgive myself.
Drawing a breath in,
We'll begin to explore our appreciation of ourself or gratitude.
So again exploring.
You can be grateful for practice.
You could be grateful for breath.
Grateful for ideas.
Grateful for a way that you interacted with a friend.
Something that you can appreciate about yourself.
So letting that come to mind as a thought,
As a memory,
As a feeling.
Drawing a breath in and exhaling,
Repeating,
And I love,
Approve,
And forgive myself.
And so we'll come back to the space of the heart.
Just taking a moment to exist here.
Maybe placing a hand over the heart and feeling.
And to the beating of the heart and kind of tapping into love and how expansive love is.
You first might think of all of the people you love.
Just noticing what that does.
And breathing into the heart space to keep the heart space open.
Keeping the chin lifted to keep the throat open.
And all of the love that you're sending out towards these people,
Allow it to return back to you.
It's almost like warmth being poured like a pot of honey into the space of the heart from all of the people that love you and all the people you love.
You might imagine this circle of people extending beyond the body,
Extending to include the planet,
Universe,
Universal love.
A love that approves of you,
A love that adores you,
A love that accepts you exactly the way that you are in this moment.
A love that provides for you,
A love that is generous,
Expansive,
Meaningful.
A love that is safe and comforting.
A love that feels like belonging.
A love that is affectionate and warm.
Just feeling love as lightness.
And drawing a breath in and exhaling,
Repeating,
I love,
I approve,
And I forgive myself.
When you are ready,
You may slowly begin to flutter the eyes open,
Transitioning into whatever is next.
