Hello and welcome to day 19 of mindful morning challenge.
My name is Rodney Yee and I'm so happy to be here with you to start our day together.
Every morning I get up and I watch my breath.
I meditate on my breath and my posture.
It's been my friend for 40 some odd years and it's been the best foundation for my aliveness and my joy.
Let's start by finding a seat comfortable in a chair or sitting cross legged or even lying on your back.
Whatever is easy and what allows you to be still.
Notice your breath,
Lightly close your eyes.
Hear all the ambient sounds around you and inside of you.
Feel your face receptive,
Your sense organs receptive.
And notice your breath.
If it's possible breathing through your nose.
If not,
A small gap in your mouth.
Receive the inhale and let go of the exhale.
As you receive the inhale,
Let it move across your upper lip through your nostrils,
Down into your lungs.
Even feeling like it fills down into your feet and to the tips of your fingers.
On your exhale,
Be willing to let it go from your extremities back through your torso up and out your nose or your mouth.
Notice that there are four parts to the breath.
You receive the inhale,
There's a suspension.
You let go of the exhale and there's an emptiness.
Four parts just like four seasons.
Receive the inhale,
Suspend,
Let go of the exhale and empty.
For this moment,
We're going to focus on that emptiness at the end of the exhalation.
So it feels like I inhale,
I exhale and I pause.
Let the pause be just a moment of landing and settling.
No sense of holding,
No sense of hardening,
No sense of desperation.
And be spontaneous with the length of that pause,
Whether it's a quarter of a second or a second or two seconds.
Let it truly be a moment of emptiness.
And let the seed of your inhalation come from the foundation of that quietness and silence.
As you receive the breath,
Notice how soft your face continues to be,
How clear your throat,
How easy your spine moves with the fluctuations of your breath.
So as you sit,
You sit in a way that the spine is supple,
Supported and free,
All the way from your tip of your tailbone to the soft palate of your mouth.
Easy inhale,
Easy exhale and pause.
Receive,
Let go,
Empty.
If at any time this simple configuration of the breath begins to create anxiety,
Let it go and observe the breath.
Even if observing the breath is irritating,
Don't hesitate to let your mind wander and come back.
No judgment.
There's a sense of fully receiving without fear,
Fully letting go without fear and having a moment of silence where all your stories and identifications disappear.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Pause.
Now let go of the pause and come back to just observing the breath.
And start at the crown of your head and feel any movement at the crown of the head from the in and out of the breath.
The receiving and letting go.
Come to the skin of the forehead and feel how the skin of the forehead is like a field of flowers blowing in the wind.
Your temple skin is soft,
Receptive,
Hollow.
The skin to the back of your skull is broad,
Receptive.
The open catcher's mitt,
Receiving from the five senses.
The gap between your skull and your neck,
Free as a beautiful flower on a stem.
The neck itself navigating the blowing of the wind of the breath.
Not rigid,
Not weak,
Not collapsed.
Fully awake,
Resilient,
And yet flexible.
Coming down to where the neck meets the broadness of the shoulders and the base of the neck and the top of the torso.
This beautiful broadness of the parachute of your upper chest.
Raining down into the arms.
Raining down into the breath.
Knowing,
Feeling all the way down through the rivers of your arms into the wrist and the flowers of your hands.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Feel the inhale and feel the exhale.
All the way down into the belly that's being pressed down by the diaphragm and expanding.
Feeling how that expansion of the belly also supports the lower back.
Into the foundation of the pelvis,
Where the pelvis meets the legs and the hip joints.
Where water meets earth.
The earth of the legs,
The strength of the legs,
The nourishment of the legs,
The root of the legs.
The guide of the tailbone rooting towards the center of the earth.
Notice your body.
Feel your posture.
Feel where you can more easily support the torso so that the torso breathes with ease.
Receive the inhale,
Let go of the exhale.
Receive unconditionally.
Receive without bias,
Without desire,
Without adversion.
Receive and let go completely.
Knowing that you're letting go is the foundation to receiving.
Inhale,
Suspend,
Exhale and pause.
Inhale,
Suspend,
Exhale and pause.
Very slowly let your eyelids begin to open.
And gaze into the world and feel your eyes themselves.
Receiving the world as you inhale and letting go of the exhale with equanimity as you exhale.
And simple breathing.
Moving your fingers and your toes.
Getting ready to greet the day with your centeredness,
Your beauty and your joy.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you for your patience and showing up for this challenge and making a commitment to prioritize your mental health in this new year.
Good luck tomorrow for day 20.
You're almost there with the challenge.
Steadiness and ease and sheer joy.
Thank you and Namaste.
