The Calm in the Storm Welcome to this practice,
Connecting with your calm in the storm.
These words in this practice are for you,
And there are many of us out there.
We all need a little self-nurturing,
Especially when times are tough,
Caught within that storm within us.
Rest in this moment,
Settle into this moment.
Get comfortable,
And as you do this,
Notice yourself settling.
The moment you notice yourself settling is the moment you give yourself a gift.
This gift is to you and from you.
You chose this moment.
You chose to practice this with me right now.
Thank you.
We're going to explore a metaphor today.
A metaphor of this calm in the storm.
But first off,
Let's drop into this moment by consciously bringing attention from your head below the level of thought and into your body.
Many animals have a sense that alerts them to oncoming storms.
This is so they can escape danger in time by leaving or taking shelter until a storm has passed.
When there is a hurricane,
Some migrating birds actually migrate sooner than they usually would.
Particularly if a large storm is approaching.
Others get caught up in the outer edge of a hurricane.
They are let down far away from where they were before.
And then there are the other ones.
These birds actually take a ride inside the eye of the hurricane.
This is the calm within the storm surrounded by high speed winds and rain.
These birds fly calmly under the blue sky in the eye of the hurricane.
Cameras have actually caught them in action,
Flying calmly inside this calm in the storm.
They continue flying around in this space of calm surrounded by a wall of turbulence which gently encapsulates them in the centre.
Maybe you can picture this in your mind's eye right now.
If so,
See if you can visualize the birds flying calmly in the centre,
The blue sky above them,
And despite the turbulence all around them,
Get a sense of what that calm feels like.
And so,
Here's that gentle reminder,
Something that deep within you already know,
And yet sometimes when we're going through a struggle we can forget.
The breath.
The rhythm.
The movement.
19,
000 breaths a day,
And yet rarely do we give attention to them.
Now let's get into this.
Simply by taking attention,
Applying a gentle focus upon your out-breath.
If someone was sitting next to you,
They wouldn't even know.
Just the out-breath,
Tracking that gentle movement,
How it speeds up,
Slows down,
And comes to a pause.
Stay connected to this,
So as to be more centred,
Grounded,
Rational,
And expanded.
Noticing your out-breath in detail,
Extreme detail,
But not with effort.
It needs to be effortless,
A gentle focusing of attention,
And noticing the subtleties of this gentle flow,
How it speeds up,
Slows down,
And comes to a pause.
Stay with this.
Gently focusing on the out-breath,
As everything else happens around you.
Sounds,
Sensations,
Thoughts coming and going,
Like birds in the sky,
Whilst you are connected to your out-breath.
And now I'm going to invite you to choose.
You can either continue your breathing just as you are,
Noticing that rhythm of your out-breath.
The in-breath taking place as it will,
If you notice that,
That's okay.
Or what you can do is to apply just a little more softness to your out-breath in this moment.
So noticing just how gentle your out-breath is,
And gently softening this by just a touch.
Becoming more and more familiar with your out-breath,
And then that beautiful soften by maybe just 10%,
Just a touch.
Bringing just a touch of softness to your out-breath in this moment.
Every time this soften takes place,
It's like giving your nervous system an extra soothing stroke.
Breathing to soften,
Or simply anchoring to your out-breath as your body breathes at its own rate and rhythm.
Whichever you choose should be effortless.
Whilst you connect to the breath,
This rhythm in its perfection,
This is your point of calm amongst everything all around you.
And the more familiar you become with your breathing,
The more you ground yourself to this calm point of connection.
Whatever's going on in the external world,
Whatever's going on in your internal world,
The thoughts,
Feelings and sensations,
They all have the space to do what they will.
The thoughts and feelings that are sometimes part of the storm are free to come and go in the background.
We don't need to push away on them,
We just need to anchor to the calm whilst the storm disappears completely or lingers in the background for a while.
Acceptance,
Emotional concoction,
No doubt.
Feeling your body gently held in this position and recognizing that right here and now this is an act of self-kindness.
It doesn't matter how many times you may have been distracted or what your thoughts have said.
Your actions speak louder than those words in your head.
The only thing on the agenda right now is this breath,
This connection,
This calm.
There's nothing else to do.
Here you are.
In this experience of the breath,
It's giving you this depth of connection and centeredness.
Now that you're connected to your breathing in this particular way that you have chosen,
You might like to get a sense of the you that looks out behind your eyes.
So even though your eyes are closed,
Notice the scope of what you can see behind your eyes as your breathing takes place.
And recognize whilst your breathing continues here,
There is this awareness that's behind your eyes,
The awareness that holds everything.
Now experimenting a little further,
Allowing that beautiful soft rhythm of your breath to continue whilst you notice what you can see behind your closed eyes at the same time.
Two points of connection at the same time.
Getting a sense of the movement of your breathing and the stillness from where you look out,
From behind your closed eyes.
Or if you prefer one or the other,
That's fine.
This is about finding the easiest point of connection,
The easiest point of connection to the calm.
What do you choose?
The I am that's behind the experience of my breathing.
The I am that's behind my closed eyes.
I am the I am.
As we are at the end of this practice,
Feeling your body gently held in the air,
You are feeling your body gently held in this position.
And finally,
Forming the gentlest of half smiles,
Nothing forced,
Just like the Mona Lisa.
Saying thanks for this point of connection,
This anchor,
This calm in the storm.
