Position.
You can be seated,
You can be laying down,
Whatever is the most comfortable for you.
And if you're in a space where you feel free to do so,
You can let your eyes gently close whenever.
And take a big cleansing breath.
Inhale to fill up through the nose and expand in the body.
And exhale to let it all out,
Maybe out through the mouth and sighing it out.
Let's do another round of a cleansing breath.
You can inhale,
Filling up a long,
Deep and slow breath in.
Exhale to let all of that go.
So you can let your breath start to return to a natural state.
And finding those areas of stillness on either side of the breath.
The inhale and that pause,
Followed by the exhale and the pause.
And just start to notice where you're at in this moment.
Where is your mind at?
Where is your body at?
And just noticing your posture,
Noticing anything the mind is trying to focus on or talk to you about.
And we'll start by bringing our awareness into the physical body.
So just noticing the shape that your spine is in,
The shape of your posture.
And then we'll start to align it in a straighter line,
More proud posture.
So you can feel your shoulders right over your hips.
Also you could feel aligning the back of your throat with your pelvic floor.
Just feeling that straight line up and down your spinal cord.
You can feel the crown of your head reaching up toward the sky and your sit bones grounding down toward the earth.
So whether you're sitting or laying,
You can feel your head,
Your heart,
And your hips all in alignment.
Maybe even your heels if your legs are extended.
And just notice where your heart is sitting in your shoulders and let your heart come forward and lead you.
So feel expansion across your collarbones and feel that triangle from both collarbones to your sternum and allow that to get a little bit wider.
Allow your shoulders to relax.
All the muscles in your arms relax,
The hands,
The fingers.
And then feel a lot of length in the back of your neck as the crown of your head reaches up a little bit taller and you feel that clear channel from your heart space through the neck into the mind.
And relax your forehead.
Relax the muscles in your eyebrows,
The muscles in your eyelids,
And soften your jaw.
And soften your tongue,
Your teeth,
Your lips.
Just feeling all the muscles in the face almost hanging off of the bones.
Any expression wiped away from the face just by softening all of those muscles.
Now start to bring your awareness into the ears.
And notice if there's any energy going anywhere else,
Either in the mind or in the body.
And just becoming the observer of the mind and the observer of the body of the world.
And releasing the need to change anything about the way you're feeling right now.
Releasing the need to get to a different place.
Releasing any should feelings of how you think this practice should be feeling or should be going.
There are no rules in this practice.
There is no,
There is nothing that you should be feeling.
Whatever you are feeling is what you should be feeling.
So noticing what it is that you're feeling and then consciously noticing how your ears are feeling.
Maybe noticing all of the sound that's entering the ears.
All of the sounds outside of the body.
Even the tiniest little sound.
Just listening with all of your awareness.
Listening to your surroundings.
The different layers of sounds that exist.
Music that is unique to your ears.
As you remember that only you are hearing exactly what it is that you are hearing in this moment.
Your ears are shaped in a unique way or sound enters them in a unique way.
Just reminding yourself of how special your ears are.
Thanking the ears for allowing sound to enter them.
Allowing yourself to hear words that shift you and music that moves you.
In conversations and laughs.
Thinking of all the joyful sounds you have ever heard.
Maybe almost hearing them right now even.
That echo within your ears.
One of your most beloved sounds that are always there inside of you.
I'm kind of hearing that natural symphony that is occurring between your outsides and your insides.
So hearing all of those sounds in your surroundings.
But also hearing the sound of your heartbeat.
The sound of your digestion.
Maybe of you swallowing or the blood running through you.
Any other sounds that you can hear inside of your body.
And then bringing your attention back to the ears and feeling the pulsing sensation of your ears.
Almost as if each of your ears has a heartbeat.
And then just tracing the insides of your ears with your awareness.
Start to travel inward.
Let your awareness go into the eardrums and through the inner ears so that your awareness meets at the space in between the inner ears.
As you rest here allow your shoulders to drop even more.
Allow your face to soften even more.
And then let that awareness sink down into your heart space.
All that joy,
All those joyful sounds from the ears came together and sink down into the heart space.
And now feeling,
Listening to the beating of your own heart.
The core of who you are.
This heartbeat where your soul meets the physical world.
And just reminding yourself of the unique beauty of your own heart.
Of the core of who you are.
And as you remember how at all of our cores exists love.
Exists light and compassion and gratitude.
Forgiveness.
Patience.
It's taking this time to truly listen to yourself and notice anything that comes up.
Notice anything that has come up throughout this practice so far.
Any thoughts in the mind that are begging for attention or areas in the body that are speaking a little bit loud.
And the practice isn't about ignoring anything bad and negative and bringing awareness to positive.
But it is about noticing everything that is present,
Whether that is positive or negative.
And learning to sit with that too.
Even if you happen to be in extreme physical pain at this moment.
If you have chronic pain or any issues with your mind on a chronic basis or body.
There is a space you can get into even if it's just for a moment where you can be present with those uncomfortable feelings.
You can be present with the pain and not try to change it.
That is where most of our pain and suffering comes from.
It's from that resistance to it and that need to make everything better and different and make the pain go away.
And that causes so much stress for us internally because we're just fighting with what is here.
So oftentimes the lessons from extreme pain are more valuable where for me personally I would not change it.
Although pain is uncomfortable it teaches you about yourself which is the most valuable lessons you can learn.
So just allowing your body to soften,
Allowing your breath to be soft and continue to soften the body as you just bring on feelings of acceptance for whatever it is,
Whatever stage you are in in your life.
Just remembering that every single storm runs out of rain.
Whatever you are experiencing now will be part of the past and all good things are always on their way.
Anything joyful and loving and positive and uplifting and healing is in your future.
It's on the way.
And in a society like we live in where it's productivity all the time just get things done as fast as possible,
Work as hard as possible,
Just remind yourself that you're already on your way to where you want to be and you don't have to be riding at a hundred miles an hour at all times.
You can also pull over whenever you need to.
You can take breaks,
You can cruise at a 65,
You can put your hazards on and ride in the right-hand lane.
It's not important how fast you get to where you want to get to.
It's about enjoying that journey on the way by reminding yourself it's not a race.
Your life is not a race.
Your life is a beautiful story,
A beautiful journey that can be appreciated every single step of the way.
Whenever you take that time,
Whenever you take a breath,
Take a moment to just sit with what is happening even in those uncomfortable,
Dark,
Unpleasant times.
Sitting with what is happening and moving from a space or acting from a space of understanding in the temporary nature of things but as well as the everlasting nature of things.
That this feeling,
These feelings are temporary but also eternal.
And love is also eternal.
Joy is eternal.
Pleasure.
You are eternal.
So just doing the next best thing for you,
Whether that is laying on the couch,
Whether that's going for a run,
Getting work done,
Doing some stretching or just sitting,
Not doing much at all.
Whatever the next best thing for you is.
Giving yourself permission to do that.
And allowing this practice to have sort of synced you up with what you do want.
Sometimes it's very difficult to even know what the next best thing is for us.
So many distractions these days.
We're constantly taking in information from outside of us that we lose ourselves.
We don't even know how we feel anymore because we're too busy listening to how others feel and then mistaking that with how we feel.
So any amount of time you can unplug is great and taking a practice like this or moments like this you're already doing it.
To just sit with yourself,
Inquire within.
Maybe after this practice taking out a journal and writing down some of your findings.
There are some things that came up that might surprise you.
And just remembering that you are always on schedule.
You're not falling behind or you're not gonna miss out on things by taking more time for yourself.
But in fact you will enhance all of the time that you spend with others by taking that time with yourself.
It's a gift to everyone if you take time for yourself.
So all of that love and care that you pour out into others,
Into family and friends.
Reminding yourself to pour into yourself first.
Cannot pour from an empty cup.
So doing things like this practice to fill you up a little bit more so that you can move through the world in your own personal world with more grace and wisdom and love to share.
So you can feel all of these messages soaking into you and trusting that your core understands these as truths.
And whether or not it feels like it feels like that right now,
It is irrelevant.
And at your core you know that you are exactly where you need to be at all times in all ways.
And that love is your fuel.
So having a little bit of compassion for yourself,
A lot of compassion for yourself and gratitude as well in what you've been through,
What you're going through and what you will go through.
So if it feels natural for you to do so you could bring your hands to prayer at heart center to seal this practice.
Breathe into the body a bit more consciously and fully,
Feeling your spine proud and feeling your palms pulsing into each other,
Reminding yourself of your power.
And then gently bowing your head to your highest self for guiding you to this practice,
To everyone else in this space who has practiced with you.
And may this practice continue to heal you through the rest of your days and nights.
And may you bring this love and understanding into everything that you do and to everyone that you see.
Namaste.
