Welcome.
So this is a practice in interoception,
Your ability to sense what's happening inside of your body,
Your heartbeats,
Your breath,
Tension,
Warmth,
The signals that tell you how you're actually doing often before your mind catches up.
Emotion shows up in the body first,
And the better you get at noticing it,
The earlier you can catch stress and the more choice you have in how you respond.
So over the course of this practice we'll tune into the heartbeat,
We'll notice what a little stress does in the body,
And what enjoyment does,
And we'll explore how the breath can shape it.
There's no right way to do this.
If anything feels like too much,
Simply open your eyes,
Feel your feet and come back to the room.
So I invite you to find a comfortable seat.
Or you can lie down and let's begin.
You can start by noticing where you are.
Letting your eyes wander.
Noticing the shapes around you,
The light.
The colors.
As you scan your environment,
Let one object hold your attention for a few moments.
And feel where your body meets the floor or the chair.
And listen to the sounds around you,
So sounds near and far When you're ready,
If it's comfortable,
Let your eyes close or soften your gaze.
Allow your forehead to smooth out.
Take a slow breath in.
And let it go.
Again in.
.
.
And as you breathe out,
Let your shoulders drop.
Now scan down through your body.
And find one place that can soften a little.
Bring your attention now to your exhale following it all the way to the end And at the end of the outbreak,
See if you can sense your heartbeat.
In your chest.
Or your belly.
Or your fingertips or somewhere else or nowhere,
And that's fine too.
Just keep listening.
And if you can,
Feel your heart beat.
Just notice what happens to it as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out And now we're going to do two quick check-ins.
Firstly,
How activated do you feel from zero,
Completely still,
To 10,
Fully switched on?
And how pleasant or unpleasant.
That feel from minus five to plus five.
And what is it in your body that's telling you that?
Now I'm going to invite you to bring to mind something mildly stressful.
Keep it small,
A 3 or a 4 out of 10.
Just enough to feel something shift.
And as you bring to mind this mild stressor,
Notice what changes the heartbeats.
Temperature.
Tension.
May be an urge to move.
And checking in again now,
Where are you now?
Activation 0 to 10.
Pleasantness,
Minus five to plus five.
Is there an emotion here?
Is there something you need more of or less of?
Is there something you want to do?
Now,
Without throwing out what you notice,
Just get curious.
What else might this sensation be telling you?
Let it go now,
Just breathe in and let it leave with the exhale.
And now bring to mind a moment of connection play or appreciation or something that made you laugh.
Let that moment come back to you in detail.
Who was there?
Where were you?
And notice what changes.
Where do you feel it?
Does your attention spread out or gather in?
And what happens to the activation?
Scale of 0 to 10 and what happens to the pleasantness.
Scale from minus 5 to plus 5.
And now ask yourself,
If I breathed it in a way that let me feel more of this,
How would I breathe?
Don't think too hard,
Just try it,
Just play with it.
Notice what changes when the breath becomes a choice.
Does the sensation change or your relationship to it?
And now let the breath go back to doing its own thing.
Feel your feet on the floor.
The weight of your body,
Your hands.
Move your fingers and toes if you like.
When you're ready,
Gently open your eyes.
Look around the room.
And notice what you see and what you hear.
Thank you for practicing with me.
