Okay,
So good morning and welcome.
Let's take a moment to work out what your posture is going to be for your practice today.
You're going to be lying down or sitting,
Maybe you want to sit.
Propped up with cushions.
Maybe you want to lie down propped up with cushions.
Or maybe you like to come to a more traditional Seated pose,
Spine straight.
Hands in lap.
I just feel into it this morning.
Feeling into the posture,
Feeling into the body.
Feeling into the impact of the night that you've just woken from.
The residue of the quality of your sleep.
Is something you're emerging from.
Amen.
Hotter weather a sleep might be a different kind of experience.
Waking might be a different kind of experience.
Suddenly there,
A light is here.
Waking in.
Waking up to blue skies.
Bad some.
Through just acknowledging that where we are now.
I was with a client yesterday.
It was a hot,
Hot day.
She asked for a cup of tea.
And at first I was so surprised.
That she could possibly want a hot cup of tea on this baking hot heatwave of a day.
And then we remembered that.
We'd heard that in fact having a hot cup of tea is exactly the thing to do on a hot day.
It cools you down.
I don't know if that's a.
.
.
An old wives tale or not,
But if it is,
I like it.
Generally,
I like old wives tales.
And it made me.
.
.
Think about how we move.
Away from the thing that's making us uncomfortable.
We reach for an ice lolly when it's hot.
Rather than usually moving towards the hot cup of tea.
She helped me in that moment.
To recognize that pattern.
And how.
The opposite can be true,
In fact.
Moving towards the thing that makes us uncomfortable.
Stepping into the heat.
With a cup of tea.
Can so often be the thing that resolves the discomfort.
Allows it to process.
It's the opposite of bypassing.
The opposite of putting it on hold to deal with later.
So in this moment Maybe you've not slept so well.
Maybe it's already a bit too hot.
Maybe there's something you anticipate in the day ahead.
That you're not looking forward to.
Like reaching for the hot cup of tea on the hot day.
We move towards.
The thing we.
Bite.
Prefer to move away from.
I suppose it's really the essence of your RAIN practice.
Start by recognising.
Recognising perhaps.
The residue of a slightly less satisfying night's sleep.
Or feeling it.
Is something you don't really want to feel.
Luckily we don't usually have to look too far for that.
There's usually quite a few options to play with.
Where is it I don't want to go?
Can I go there?
And we get to the A of RAIN allowing.
Can I go there?
Will I allow?
That feeling.
To be here.
And we move towards a place of Titration,
Like a tap.
That you can.
Choose to switch on and off.
Maybe you just don't.
Allow a drop of the feeling you don't want to feel.
Or maybe.
.
.
Very fine.
Flow.
Of that feeling.
No need to open the tap up.
To full so they go flooded with the feeling.
You can choose.
Sometimes it's just little moments like leaning in and just touching and feeling and then stepping back again.
We're exploring.
In this space,
Our window of tolerance.
We're noticing the very intelligent ways that we stop ourselves from going there.
From feeling too much.
A very tender,
Very brave.
Leaning towards.
Curiosity.
What would it be like just to?
Be here with it.
That feeling.
Sipping from the hot cup of tea in the heat of the day.
Tiny Sips.
Then starting to notice.
How it is.
As you take these tiny sips of the feeling you'd rather not feel.
With each set.
How does it feel in your body?
Perhaps you notice how.
Your mind rescues you.
For taking you elsewhere.
These patterns,
These habits,
They are.
.
.
They're well established.
And this mark.
It takes work.
To sit.
The hot cup of tea.
On the hot day.
Coming back.
Again.
And again,
Staying curious.
Where is it in my body that I feel it?
As I feel the heat travelling down through the throat.
I notice it there.
What do you notice?
Do you notice the way that it moves,
If it does move?
Do you notice your breath?
Responding to your practice.
The body.
The fascia and the muscles.
Responding.
The sensation in the nervous system.
And this feeling that you don't really want to feel.
Let's call it the cup of tea.
Can you ask it?
What is it that it wants?
Ask again.
What is it that it needs?
Different questions.
What is it that you need?
I don't know.
And a third question.
If you get what you need,
How will you feel?
And then bringing.
Bringing the sense of what is needed.
Offering it to the feeling.
Laying the practice down and taking a moment just to be with.
However that experience.
Has left you theming.
What's here now?
And you feel the ground.
On the seat of your chair.
Can you notice the rhythm of your breath in and out?
Can you feel your heart here?
Offering the fruits of our practice.
To ourselves,
To each other and to all beings.
Namaste
