So we'll start this evening just taking the arms up overhead.
We'll interlace the fingers and turn the palms towards the ceiling and you can even let your shoulders shrug up towards your ears a little bit.
Maybe let your face scrunch a little bit towards your nose.
Take a deep breath in.
Exhale.
Let everything draw.
And then we're going to take that again.
So interlacing the fingers,
Lifting the arms,
Scrunching,
Take a deep breath in.
Exhale.
And we'll take that one more time.
And as you take that last exhale,
Just feeling the letting go of your outbreaths in your body,
Letting the eyes close,
Let your facial muscles relax so that you can let go of any expression that you have felt you needed to put out into the world today.
And you can instead let yourself turn inward.
You don't need to perform or project anything outward at the moment.
Instead letting your mind's eye dive into the body.
Feeling that sighing feeling softening your jaw and your tongue.
Feeling the sigh of releasing your shoulders,
The weight of your arms.
Letting your hands rest quietly over the legs without needing to hold them in any particular way.
Feeling that sighing feeling travel into your chest,
Letting go of any holding,
Any tightness in that space that you can let go of.
Feeling a willingness to be open through your practice tonight as much as you can be.
Feeling your heart space willing to be open.
Letting that softness of your sighing move down your spine and into your belly.
Letting go of any tension and gripping in your belly.
Letting the body enjoy being wide and deep and spacious.
And encouraging the breathing to relax down into the body,
Into that spaciousness that you have created.
As you feel your body settling and your breathing relaxing.
Letting your attention move towards the feeling of breathing wherever it is most vivid in your body right now.
It might be that you look towards the feeling of breathing in the nostrils.
Being closest to the eyes is often a good place to help hold the attention of the mind.
Feeling the sensation of air moving through the nose.
Or you might find that you need a more embodied experience in your practice today.
And so you gravitate your attention downward towards your solar plex or towards your belly.
Feeling the sensation of breathing there.
Wherever you choose to place your attention commit to that place.
This commitment does not mean that we won't wander.
We know that we will.
But when we bring the attention back we'll bring it back to this place.
So that we're always starting over from the same spot.
Bringing a sense of consistency,
Familiarity to our practice.
As you tune your attention to the breaths in the body let the breathing be.
Wherever it is right now.
So that there is no sense of controlling the breathing.
Just a willingness to observe and to feel the breathing in that place.
Okay.
When you notice the attention has wandered away,
The mind has become busy letting go of thoughts not wasting time with judgement of thoughts just bringing the attention back to the feeling of breathing over and over again finding a willingness to be open to the present moment of your experience any thoughts or frustrations in the health and wellbeing of Value Noticing sounds and sensations in the body.
Reminding you that you are here.
Sitting and breathing.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
And then the attention shifts to memory or to imagination.
Just being courageous enough to bring yourself back to what is happening right here.
Right now.
Aware of sounds.
Aware of sensations.
In the foreground,
Aware of your breathing body.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Let everything that happens inside the container of your practice this evening be part of your practice.
The way that you shift the body.
The way that you let go of thinking.
The way that you direct your attention back to your breathing body.
All of it.
Part of your practice.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
Noticing sounds.
