Find a gentle,
Comfortable place to lie down and begin to observe in detail your surroundings.
We'll move through some slight stretches,
Shapes here to build our awareness of our body and in doing so,
Imagine you're a puppeteer.
Your body is your new puppet and you're trying it out for the first time.
After working on this project for weeks and weeks,
In this scenario,
How might you feel about this body?
Curious?
Excited?
Loving and tender towards your creation?
Feel free to close your eyes.
Place one hand on your navel,
The other on your heart and notice your breath.
Feel each breath undulation through all points of your hands and fingers.
Bring your left knee in towards your chest and hold the knee.
Release that left knee gently back down and pause here.
Now bring your right knee in up towards your chest,
Holding the knee and release the right knee long.
Notice here how each side feels perhaps if one leg knee felt differently to the other.
Now bring both knees in towards your chest and massage your lower back rocking side to side up and down.
Take your time to notice all these tiny individual elements of your lower back as you rock here.
Gently return to a stable central position and plant your feet closely behind your seat.
So you can tickle your heels with your fingers.
Press your tailbone down into the ground below you,
Thereby creating a small cubby hole between your back and the ground and then release your tailbone back up back to a natural plane of your back.
Follow your breath here a few times to inhale tilting the tailbone down,
Exhaling to release equal inhale and exhale.
Inhaling to press your tailbone down,
Tuning deeper each time into your lower back area,
The frequency of that part of your body and exhaling back to a straight back.
Following your breath one more time as you inhale and exhale to release your back and take a pause once you've finished that last round.
Notice how your body feels.
Bring your arms out to your sides,
Keep your knees in that inverted V shape,
Feet tucked behind your seat.
With both arms out or in a cactus shape,
Allow your knees to fall to the left side,
Gently gaze over your right side.
Perhaps if you need propping a pillow under your left knee,
Make this cozy.
Tune deeper into your breath or simply the stillness of this pose,
The stillness between your thoughts.
Allow your knees to rise back to centre,
Take a pause and then let them fall to the right side,
Gaze left.
Come here,
Roll onto your side,
Taking a moment in this fetal position just to once again collect your attention,
Whether it's on your breath or perhaps it's drifted away with a thought or a sensation,
Tugging it back lovingly to the stillness beyond your mind or to your breath.
And then push up into a comfortable seat,
Legs can be slightly crossed,
Wherever is steady for you,
A comfy place to further deepen your awareness inward.
From your seated position,
Fold forward with the hands over your crossed legs,
Allowing the upper body to sink down.
And then release,
Walking your hands back up to a cozy upright position.
From here,
Begin to observe your thought traffic in greater detail,
Thoughts,
Images,
Narratives and the rest.
Allow plenty of time for your thoughts to circulate,
Plenty of room,
Picture a vast space,
A quiet Heathrow Terminal 5 perhaps,
Just for these energies to zip or drift around inside.
Imagine being inside this expansive terminal,
Airport Terminal 5 at Heathrow right now.
The lights are on,
You're waiting for your gate with plenty of time.
There are a few people dotted around,
But there's space everywhere as you sit near the departures screen.
The duty free section is spilling out onto the seating area,
With offers on perfumes and Toblerones.
A smartly dressed lady in a pinstripe blazer is buying today's paper at WH Smiths.
There's a gentle ding as a flight to Athens,
Greece.
Status changes.
It's calm,
Everyone's got time and you're just sitting there enjoying this uncluttered environment,
Observing.
This environment which can often for us be stress filled at airports in general.
Rushed,
But this time it's full,
This time it's full of time and space just for you.
Everything seems measured,
Spacious.
And then just through one corner from where you're sitting,
A guy comes rushing past,
Trying to find the right gate for his flight.
He's got a nervous energy about him,
He's agitated,
Looking at all the signs in this vast foyer,
This vast airport terminal.
But eventually,
Without anyone's intervention,
He figures out his next steps,
Finds the right gate,
And prepares to board his flight.
In this situation,
Where would your attention fascinate?
Maybe you'd notice this guy enter your space for a passing second,
But would you stop enjoying this calmness in the middle of this expansive airport?
This place which is so often full of business,
Busyness and to-doings and goings on,
But right now is pretty much all yours.
Would you stop the post-pop podcast you're listening to?
Put down the coffee that you're working through?
Would you give this event of this person rushing past much more notice than that?
Much more importance than just a passing event?
I offer you to treat your thoughts,
Internal drifting energies as such,
Seeing that there is an abundance of space for these energies,
Thoughts to shuffle around in,
And that while accepting them as part of your inner universe,
They can figure themselves out.
They can find their own departure.
As we observe our thoughts,
Thinking of that image of an expansive airport terminal just for you and your thoughts to roam around in,
One option is to take your breath as your sole point of focus,
Noticing its idiosyncrasies,
Or simply focus on the nothingness beyond your mind's activity,
That unstirred bliss,
That calmness.
Use your focus as you like.
Has your awareness sat down for a coffee in this airport with a thought or worry?
Whether you become that thought's greatest validator or advocate,
Or accept that the thoughts may linger,
Just redirect your awareness back to your breath or beyond your thoughts to the stillness of you.
Using these thoughts like passengers ready to board a flight.
They have an exit strategy,
They know where they're going.
Soften further into your stillness,
Relieving any final weight or tension in your shoulders,
Arms and legs.
When you feel collected,
Start to flicker your eyes open.
Take a moment to enjoy the coziness of your head,
That warm fuzziness you've created by decluttering your inside,
By focusing your attention on your breath or the space within,
That infinite space just for your thoughts to circulate,
Arrive and depart on their own volition,
These innocent energies.
Begin to recenter in your surrounds.
Notice some new details of your immediate environment,
Perhaps new sounds,
Colours that might shine brighter.
Thank you for listening.
