If you're already established in your posture,
Just feel free to take three deep breaths.
Such a profound practice,
Three deep breaths,
Can make all the difference between responding reactively or creatively to ourselves or others.
So here we can just allow these deep breaths to support us to land more fully in ourselves as we are just now.
And then allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm,
We're just going to spend a little bit of time here feeling the contact with the earth,
So important for our practice to be connected here,
And really taking the time to let the body settle into those points of contact,
Sensations here,
Pressure,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Numbness,
Maybe some physical pain.
Allowing these sensations to be a gateway into contact with the qualities that the ground has to offer us,
Stillness,
Support,
Steadiness,
Safety.
And then from here,
Just appreciating however you are right now,
Sensations,
Emotions,
Thoughts,
Mood,
And the invitations to just welcome all of that as it is,
Allowing it to be here in the space of awareness,
An open,
Receptive,
Welcoming space.
And if it's comfortable and you feel ready to just starting to attend to the breath,
Maybe just seeing how much effort's needed here to allow awareness and the breath to find each other,
These two unconscious yet fully present aspects of being alive,
Our awareness and our breath,
Which become alive to us as we bring them together more fully.
Noticing the location of the breath,
Where do you feel it?
Feeling the movement here as air comes and goes,
Changing sensations,
Aware of the depth and breath of those sensations,
How deeply inside the body they can be felt,
How widely out on the edges they can be sensed.
Noticing how each breath has its own length,
Some maybe shorter than others.
And that moment just before the next in-breath,
Where there's a gap,
And that moment right before the out-breath,
Movement,
Stillness,
Movement,
Stillness,
Movement,
Stillness,
Noticing the temperature of the breath,
And also if there's any smells that come with it,
Or even a felt sense of what's riding the air,
Particulates.
Might even notice the weight of the breath,
And its texture,
How it feels as it comes and goes,
Its relative density or humidity.
So we'll hang out here for a little while,
Attending to the breath,
And then just noticing when thoughts begin to pull you away,
And then noticing,
Appreciating any clarity that comes,
And just playing around with how much effort it takes to find the breath again.
You might notice that at the moment of noticing,
The breath is already there.
It's sort of ready for you to find it again,
Just waiting right at the edge of your awareness.
Ending with a warm,
Open curiosity to each and every breath.
How is it?
And this one,
How is it?
If you're feeling a bit drifty,
Or sleepy,
Or vague,
You could just ask yourself,
What supports presence,
Being here,
Doing whatever you know works for you.
Reconnecting with the ground,
Opening the eyes,
Having a little look around,
Taking a few deeper breaths.
You could even shake up the posture a bit,
Breaking up any rigidity or resistance.
Self-touch can also be helpful.
Hand on heart,
Hand on belly,
And then finding the breath again.
So feel free to hang out with the breath for as long as feels helpful and creative.
There's also an invitation now to begin to broaden the awareness,
To include and get interested in any sensations that have the taste of freedom.
So anything at all,
Or any place at all in the body that feels at ease,
Maybe there's some tingling,
Or warmth,
Or softening,
More aliveness,
Sensation,
Sense of expansion,
Maybe even dancing colors or lights in the visual field,
Anything that the whole of your physiological system says yes to,
Has a yumminess to it.
And if there's anything like that,
Even just the beginning little hints of it,
Echoes,
The invitation is to direct the awareness and attend to those sensations,
A bit like gently blowing on a fire,
On embers,
And just seeing what happens as you do that,
Seeing if you can allow these sensations to grow and spread and be really fully felt and even appreciated,
Enjoyed.
What's that like?
It could be as subtle as a part of the body that often feels pain,
But doesn't just now.
So the absence of physical pain,
The relief of that,
Breathing with these sensations,
Allowing them to be as they are.
They get confused or lost,
Or it all gets to be too much,
You can always come back to the breath.
Just a simple satisfaction of being with it is enough.
And if we can start to really dwell with these sensations that have the taste of freedom,
We can also allow them to be gateways into the energy body.
The sense of the body is a bit more porous,
Less dense than we usually experience it.
Open,
Expansive,
Flowing,
With thousands of sensations dancing in and out of awareness.
Pulsing,
Vibrating,
Throbbing,
Scintillating,
Dynamic energy body.
And allowing these sensations,
This opening up of places where we might hold tension or contraction in the body,
To begin to support us to drop into a deeper sense of okayness.
Wholeness,
Even.
Contentment,
Ease,
Peace,
Relief,
Joy,
Bliss.
Whatever words work for you.
It could be as simple as just feeling a little bit more here.
And that that's okay.
It's okay to be here.
You're okay here.
And then letting yourself feel the relief in that.
And enjoying a settled,
Okay body,
Mind,
Spirit,
Energy.
And noticing the effect that this has on the heart,
Mind.
Perhaps there's a bit more steadiness or stillness.
A bit more clarity,
So whatever's coming and going is fully known and felt as it is.
Deepening sensitivity to what's here,
Without being blown about by it.
So just noticing how this mind is now.
Dwelling within that and its qualities.
And then for the last couple minutes here,
There's an invitation to connect with the central channel.
So this is a channel of energy stretching from crown to navel.
So it's just in front of the spine and is full of infinite space.
And light.
Deep blue in color.
So just breathing along the central channel,
Feeling the nourishing,
Vibrant energy.
And spaciousness here.
So in a moment,
I'll be ringing a bell to mark at the end of this meditation.
Just take your time emerging,
Doing anything you need to do,
Stretching,
Rubbing,
Caressing,
Yawning.
