Taking a few moments to settle into your posture,
Listen to your body and breathe.
Sense what it needs.
To settle.
To come into balance.
You can notice the places your body touches the ground.
And perhaps beginning by just seeing if you can soften.
Some of the muscles in your legs.
In your torso and arms,
Even in your jaw and your face.
And give just a little bit more of your weight to the ground.
Letting your breath be natural and easy.
If it helps you settle,
You can lengthen your exhalation a little bit.
Making your out-breath long and slow.
Letting the body breathe in naturally.
And feeling any sense of soothing or calming that comes as you lengthen the exhalation.
So the sense of settling and arriving.
Is supported by an initial stepping back.
We're setting aside.
Whatever else may be happening in the mind,
In the body,
In our life,
Or in the world.
So there's a temporary disengagement and grounding.
It's like taking a deep breath before you pick up something heavy.
There's a little bit of a reset.
So in the same way,
We're just letting everything be just as it is,
Stepping back,
Slowing down.
Touching into the ground.
Healing the body breathing.
And inviting a reset.
As you arrive,
As you begin to feel.
Little bit more present or connected to the body and to this moment.
Just acknowledging what's present.
What's here for you?
How is it right now?
Things might feel agitated.
Or quiet,
They might feel scattered or collected.
Tense or relaxed.
Pleasant or unpleasant.
So just seeing if you can notice what is,
What's here.
While staying connected to the ground,
To your breath.
Sense of the whole body resting quietly.
When the overall tone of experience is easeful.
Pleasant in some way.
Then the practice is just to receive that,
Notice it.
Allow it to nourish the heart.
Inclining towards presence.
So staying aware,
Feeling the breathing.
And letting any beneficial states that are present just nourish the heart.
Mind and the body.
Sometimes the overall state of things is more neutral.
Neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
You're too inclined towards awareness.
Being awake.
Noticing any quality of contentment,
Calm,
Quiet.
That can arise in relation to things.
Being neutral,
Just in between.
When the overall tone of experience is unpleasant,
Whether it's a mood,
An emotion.
Some energy in the body,
Anxiety,
Worry.
Pain in the heart.
And the practice initially is to just meet that.
Without trying to fix or change it,
But also without going into it.
So to stay steady.
Connected to the ground.
Receiving the breath.
And to just recognize how it is.
Perhaps even to touch the unpleasantness,
The jitteriness.
The sharpness,
However it is,
With a little awareness.
And so in recognizing and meeting,
How it is.
We listen,
We listen for what's needed.
We can simplify the options to say that.
The default is to just.
.
.
Continue to be aware.
Quality of non-interference.
There's an observing and allowing of things to be just as they are.
Allowing ourselves to be held.
In a space of kind awareness.
So this is the default of just knowing and meeting what is as it is on its own terms.
Allowing it to unfold.
Paying present.
The other option is to engage in some way.
Actually gently influence.
That experience.
So if there's agitation,
Worry,
Fear.
Heartache,
To soothe.
Just as we would soothe a troubled child.
Or a friend.
The soothing is a form of deep accompaniment.
So we can be with this troubled energy.
Shakiness,
Its heaviness.
Traction.
However it occurs.
And as we meet it.
As we feel and hold it.
This very gentle intention of calming,
Of settling.
Mostly through the steadiness of our own awareness and presence.
But sometimes through the breath,
Again,
Lengthening the exhalation,
Leaning into the breath.
Maybe with a soft word or phrase.
It's okay.
This too.
It's not a mental process.
We're not thinking about it.
An embodied relationship.
Feeling the warmth and the mass of the body.
Receiving the breath.
Letting the breath do the work.
Of calming and soothing,
Of meeting and settling what is.
This kind of deep reassurance.
Moment to moment.
And the very rhythm and movement of the breath.
Regarding any thoughts.
Memories.
Impulses or worries.
As natural reflections,
Natural manifestations of whatever is right here in this moment in the heart,
Mind,
And body.
Or simply allowing those to rise up to the surface without needing to do anything with them or about them.
You can notice a thought,
A worry,
A memory.
And stay with this gentle accompaniment.
Like sitting with a friend or holding a child.
Just allowing them to be exactly where they are.
With a steady loving gaze.
With a warm,
Reassuring presence.
As we move towards the end of this meditation.
Taking a few moments to just listen more broadly.
What might be supportive today.
Were there any moments that have been meaningful for you that you want to come back to?
That you want to recollect and cultivate as the day unfolds.
And if so,
Just marking that in awareness,
Just recollecting it right now.
Oh yeah.
It can be here.
And take a breath.
I can feel this.
Whatever it is,
However it occurs to you.
Just really receiving that,
Knowing it.
And aiming,
Aiming to remember it,
To come back here.
Whenever you can,
Whenever you remember.
And then in your own time.
Beginning to deepen your breathing.
Introducing a little bit of movement to your fingers and toes.
And whenever you're ready,
You can let your eyes open.
As we end the meditation.
