I invite you to pause for just a moment if you can.
If you're writing,
If you're multitasking while you're participating in our session today,
I invite you just to stop for a moment.
Physically stop,
Set down anything you're holding onto.
You don't have to close your eyes and become aware of your breath.
Simple.
Just notice your body breathing.
Be still.
Start to become aware of what's happening inside in this stillness.
Do you feel a momentum to keep moving forward and doing whatever you're doing?
Do you feel agitation?
Do you feel restfulness?
Do you feel some kind of emotional stirring?
Nothing to judge here.
Just notice how much activity is happening inside.
If we're always trying to get someplace,
Then we miss out on the greatest gift of life,
To experience it.
If we're always trying to get someplace,
Then we miss out on life.
Let your body be relaxed,
But see if you can settle a little bit more into this stillness.
Maybe you need to drop your shoulders or lean back in your seat.
Notice the tendency to always change something,
To do something differently,
To fidget,
To fix,
To get away from,
To shift.
And if you're feeling really stirred up right now,
You may wish to slowly place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly and just say to yourself,
In whatever words feel resonant for you,
Say,
Whatever I'm feeling is okay.
Whatever's happening in my mind is okay.
Whatever discomfort is here right now is okay.
And for these next few moments,
Just practice sitting with this discomfort,
Or maybe there's a lot of peace and spaciousness inside.
Just sit with your experience,
Letting it be just as it is.
Even if that's an internal fight or resistance,
Take a breath and another and another.
Whatever I'm feeling,
Whatever's happening inside is okay.
And you may notice that there are all of these stories right now in the mind.
Maybe your mind is planning things or making lists,
Or maybe it's caught in loops telling you stories about what you think of something that happened or replaying a scenario that happened.
Notice the tendency to believe the stories of the mind and get caught up in them.
These stories that take us out of an experience of being anchored in the present.
We're always physically present.
Well,
You look at multi-dimensional reality,
That's up for debate,
But you know what I mean.
The body's present.
The mind is the aspect that takes us to different places.
So right now,
Let us guide the mind to an experience of now.
And we can have great compassion for this mind that is always distracting us because quite often that distraction is there because there's something uncomfortable inside.
Maybe there's chronic pain or a sprained ankle.
Maybe there are wounds from childhood or yesterday.
Maybe there are emotions inside that have been pushed down for days or weeks or years.
There's this whole world inside of us.
And when we don't tend to it,
When we don't take time to feel our emotions or to explore and be with the parts of us that have been left behind,
That are needing our care,
Then the mind is always looking to take us someplace else because it's just too uncomfortable to be here.
So if you feel okay to do this,
I invite you to really breathe deeply into whatever's happening inside.
If it feels too intense,
It's totally okay to shift what you're doing.
You do not need to force yourself to do anything here.
And then if you can move your body,
I invite you to very slowly start to caress your own hands and forearms a little bit like this very gently.
And again,
If you can't move your body,
You can visualize this and take slow,
Deep breaths.
So very gently just caress your own body in this way.
Doing some really sweet self-soothing caressing to start to calm the nervous system.
And while you do this,
Start to become really aware of the sensations of your fingers moving across your skin.
Make sure you're still breathing.
Really feel what this is like.
You might notice the physical sensations like soft or rough or dry or moist or hot or cold.
And you might also notice the quality of touch,
Tender,
Kind,
Sweet.
Just be here for the next few moments and make sure you're going really slowly.
Your mind might be saying,
What is this weird nonsense?
Or it might be trying to get out of this moment thinking about other things.
All of it's okay.
Just let it be there.
You just focus on sensing this touch.
Great.
And then just gently press your hands together.
Feel this pressure.
Breathe deeply.
Feel the contact,
The temperature.
And now relax your hands and just look at one of your palms.
Find one line or one area on your palm.
And in a very relaxed way,
Let your gaze softly focus on that area.
And of course,
If you can't see through your eyes,
You can imagine this in your mind.
Slow,
Deep breaths.
And just kind of let your eyes slowly explore your palm.
Notice the different shapes and colors just on your palm.
Notice the texture of your palm.
And then relax your hand down.
Close your eyes and notice if things feel any different inside.
Let us open the eyes whenever you feel ready to.
And go ahead and share in the chat if anything felt different.
There's no right way to have an experience.
If you feel nothing,
If you feel angry,
It's all okay.
There's no one way to feel something.
I'm just going to read some of your shares.
Feel more calm and more at peace.
Peaceful.
Felt lightness in my body and loving kindness toward myself.
Stillness.
More subtle at peace.
Calmer.
More focused.
Okay.
Thank you for sharing.
So again,
Maybe you didn't feel that right now and that's okay.
Sometimes there's just so much agitation inside.
We either need a different kind of mindfulness technique to start to calm us down,
Or maybe we need to feel what's going on inside first.
Maybe we need to let our bodies express that anger or that grief or that fear and let it move through us before we're able to come into that more calm place.
So again,
Whatever your feeling is,
I invite you to consider that it's perfect for where you are in this moment.
I see many more comments are coming in.
More calmer.
I had been multitasking and now I no longer want to do that.
Yeah.
Peaceful.
The touch was grounding.
Oh,
That's beautiful.
That in real,
I can give the love I need by my own.
Beautiful.
Yes,
We can give ourselves the love that we're longing for.
So this is mindfulness.
Yes.
We're using our awareness of the sensations in the body,
And also we use the awareness of the sensation of sight to be able to guide the mind into more of an experience of the present.
We gave the mind something to focus on in the here and now,
Which allows,
Again,
Not all the time,
But it often will allow all of the mental chatter and the mind's grasping for some sense of comfort,
Pleasure,
Or safety.
It kind of allows that to fade away and we arrive here where we've always been.
And we can use so many simple forms of mindfulness all throughout the day.
Yes.
I mean,
One thing that I use often is like if you're reaching for your water bottle or your glass of water or your coffee or whatever you have to hold it in your hand,
And rather than just being on autopilot in our lives,
To become really aware,
Like feeling the weight of this glass,
Feeling the texture,
The temperature.
And then when I go to drink the water,
To really feel the experience of drinking.
And it doesn't mean that I have to do everything like in slow motion in my life,
Right?
We can be present and be fully engaged in life,
Awareness of slowing the mind down.
And the nervous system is more in this relaxed state as well.
So we experience life quite differently.
