Morning,
Good afternoon,
Good evening from wherever you are.
Joining in from in the world.
My name is Rianna and.
.
.
Can I ask you something?
What were you thinking about on your way to Prussian Play on this?
What was it,
That thing that's been sitting on your chest?
The problem you've been turning over and over like a stone in your pocket.
How long have you been carrying it?
Here's what I want you to consider.
In five years,
Will you remember this specific version of this specific problem?
Probably not,
Right?
And in 10 years?
Almost certainly not.
And yet right now it feels enormous.
It feels like the most important thing.
It feels like everything depends on getting it right.
That's being human.
And it's also,
If we're being completely honest,
A little bit ridiculous,
Right?
I'm not saying this in a dismissive way.
In a really deeply relatable,
We are all doing this,
Kind of way.
Every single person on this planet is walking around treating their particular set of worries as the most urgent thing in the universe.
8 billion people.
8 billion urgent things,
None of which the universe is especially concerned about.
That is either terrifying or hilarious.
I choose hilarious.
And so for the next 10 minutes,
I'm going to invite you to choose that too.
So find a comfortable position,
Sitting or laying down,
Whatever you prefer,
And close your eyes or have a soft gaze if that feels better.
And let's begin.
Take a deep breath in.
And fill your lungs completely.
And exhale,
Breathe out all of it,
Every last bit of seriousness,
Right out through your mouth.
Again,
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
Let your shoulders drop as you do.
One more.
Breathe in.
And out.
Let your face relax.
Your jaw.
Your forehead.
That little furrow between your eyebrows that appears when you're concentrating very hard on being a responsible adult.
Let it go.
You're off duty for the next 10 minutes,
Right?
Take another bread in.
And out And feel your body.
Feel the weight of it.
Feel where it makes contact with whatever is beneath you.
Feel your feet on the floor or maybe your back on the bed or your seat in the chair.
Your hair.
In a body.
On a planet.
Spinning through space at roughly 107,
000 kilometers per hour.
And somehow.
.
.
The thing you are most worried about right now.
Is a thing that happened in a meeting on Tuesday?
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
Not making fun of you,
I do this too.
I have spent the entire afternoon replaying conversations.
Optimizing my response to something someone said like three weeks ago.
Preparing arguments for debates that were never going to happen.
The human mind is extraordinarily committed to being taken seriously,
And it will manufacture urgency out of almost nothing.
And you know?
The body follows.
The shoulders tighten,
The jaw clenches,
The breath goes shallow.
The whole physical self braces for a disaster that exists mostly in the story we are telling ourselves.
Take a deep breath in.
And breathe out.
Feel your shawl move right now.
How do you relax?
Are they doing that thing where they're slowly creeping towards your ears as if they are preparing for impact?
See if you can let them drop.
Not because everything is fine but Truly because holding them up there is not helping anything.
Breathe in.
And out.
I want you to think for a moment about something that stressed you out five years ago.
Really stressed you out.
Something that felt enormous at the time.
And how much does it matter today?
Exactly.
This is not me telling you your problems aren't real.
They are real.
They matter.
And you're allowed to take your life seriously.
What I'm suggesting is that the dial might be turned up a little higher than the situation actually requires.
And that turning it down even slightly,
Even just for today,
Might make everything a little bit more manageable.
Because here's the thing.
Lightness.
Is not the same as carelessness.
You can hold something gently and still hold it well.
You can approach a problem with a soft grip instead of a wide knuckled one.
And often you will solve it faster because your mind is actually relaxed enough to think.
Breathing.
And breathe out.
Feel your hands.
Are they clenched?
If so,
Open them.
Let your palms face up.
And feel the difference,
That openness in your hands.
That's what I'm talking about.
That is the physical feeling of not gripping so hard.
Breathe in.
Read out.
Now I want you to do something that might feel slightly strange.
I want you to think about something you've been taking very seriously lately.
Just bring it to mind.
Don't judge it,
Don't analyze it,
Just let it be there.
And now,
Gently,
I want you to imagine it from about 10,
000 meters above the earth.
10,
000 feet.
And you,
Down there,
Very small,
On a very small planet,
In a very large universe,
Thinking very hard about this very specific thing.
There you are.
Doing your best,
Taking it all so seriously.
It's kind of sweet,
Isn't it?
You are trying so hard,
I know.
You always have been.
And yes,
That trying matters.
But from up here,
From this distance,
You can also see how small the thing is compared to how big you are.
How much larger your life is than this one problem.
And how much sky there is around it.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
I'll come back down.
Back into your body.
Back into this room.
Feel your breath.
Feel your hands open and soft.
Feel the weight of your body settled and supported.
Bring that view back with you,
That small planet,
That white sky,
That sweet person down there doing their absolute best.
That's you.
You're doing fine.
Even when it doesn't feel like it.
You are doing fine.
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
And before we finish I want to give you something practical to take with you.
The next time you feel yourself gripping,
The next time the seriousness creeps back in and the shoulders start rising and the jaw starts tightening.
Ask yourself one question.
Will this matter in five years?
If yes,
Take it seriously and handle it with care.
But if not?
Take a breath.
Open your hands.
And let it come down a few notches.
That's it.
That's the whole practice.
One question,
One breath.
Open hands.
You don't need to stop caring about your life.
You just need to stop treating it like a crisis that requires your constant,
Urgent,
Wide-knuckled attention.
Life is allowed to be lighter than that.
So are you.
Breathe in slowly.
And breathe out completely.
And take one more breath.
And then let it go.
Open your eyes when you're ready.
And try just for today.
Hold it all a little bit more gently.
Thank you.
Namaste.
