Find a comfortable seat and allow your spine to sit tall.
Take in one deep breath and arrive here in this moment in this space.
Feel your breath automatically become deeper just from five seconds of attention.
Feel that as you deepen your breath your belly will start to welcome this with more movement.
So as you inhale your belly rises and as you exhale your belly falls.
Sit here and breathe gently,
Easily,
Without control for a moment and just arrive.
Wherever possible see if you can soften and release through your breath.
Soften your shoulders,
Your belly,
Your arms and allow your body to rest here.
Deep inhale breath and a long exhale breath.
Today we're practicing with the Lotus Mudra.
Bring your hands into a prayer in front of your chest and slowly unfurl your hands just like a lotus keeping the base of the hands together along with the thumbs and the little fingers and just allow the index,
Middle and ring fingers to gently open.
This is one of my favorite Mudras to use.
Acknowledging the mud and the lotus,
The murkiness and the beauty and our capacity to hold both and see both.
Gently close down your eyes.
One more time allow your spine to sit tall and arrive here with your body relax and at ease.
Lotus Mudra is opening up our awareness of the beauty and the mud,
Opening up our awareness of our breath.
Where perhaps there is some opportunity to lengthen or to let go.
Take some moments to pay attention to where the breath is.
There is no reason to control the breath.
Rather perceive the breath as you would sound in nature.
Just a relaxed awareness.
Noticing that sounds might come and go and thoughts might come and go.
But your relaxed,
Full focused attention is here on your breath as you breathe in.
And as you exhale.
You might have naturally held your Mudra,
Your lotus around your heart.
And this is perfect.
But if it feels a little too tired or you're feeling a little too stuck in the mud to hold your hands up there.
You can let your Mudra sit wherever you like.
In your lap,
Resting on your forehead.
Finding the beauty in your mind.
Wherever it needs to be for you to feel comfortable.
Breathing in and breathing out.
This breath is your home base and place to feel relaxed and at ease.
Feel the breath start to open up and bloom on the inhale.
Feeling your lungs and then along exhale letting go.
Letting go.
Letting yourself sink further and further into the depths of your exhale to allow for a greater release.
And in doing this,
A greater inhale.
Widening the breath to feel the whole body so you're full with breath.
And with the exhale letting go.
Letting go.
Allowing the breath in its natural rhythm to deepen and allowing your mind to be in relaxed attentiveness.
Resting in this wakeful,
Open moment.
Letting life just be as it is.
Letting your breath just be as it is.
Moment to moment.
Breath to breath.
Inhale and exhale.
You might turn your attention back to your mudra.
As you inhale let the fingers open just a little wider as if they were reaching up to the sun.
And as you exhale allow yourself to sink further and further in a relaxed supportive way.
In a surrender.
In acceptance and acknowledgement of the mud but the beauty that can be found.
Here we allow ourselves to soften our heart.
And relax our heart.
Relax our breath.
Resting.
Resting in the awareness.
You might gently ask yourself if it's possible to relax just a little bit more.
If it's possible to release through your shoulders,
Through your belly and through your mind.
And take one deep inhale.
And on your exhale gently release your mudra.
Allow your hands to rest down on your knees.
Your palms can turn up or face down.
Resting here with your spine tall.
Complete awareness on your breath.
Complete ease with your breath.
Resting.
Resting in your attention.
AYA GRRATES
