Welcome to this short practice to help you reset.
This practice is ideal for the in-between times,
When you've just finished a task or some project during the day,
And you're ready to go on to the next thing,
But you want to take a little moment just to reset with yourself,
With your body,
To see how things are doing before you go to the next activity or event that you might have going on in the day.
So there are three stages to this practice.
The first is noticing,
Looking around visually in your surroundings.
And then the next is to listen,
Listening to the surroundings,
Listening to the sounds far away,
Close to you.
And the final step is really going inward and paying attention to the body,
The sensations inside the body.
So to begin this practice,
You can do this sitting down or lying down or even standing up.
So you might start by breathing in and breathing out,
And starting to look around slowly and gently.
You may like to turn your head,
But see if you can use your eyes as well and look me back and forth.
Now,
How quickly you do this is really up to you.
If you've just come out of a frantic state or if you're in some type of more anxiousness right now,
You might go a little bit quicker,
Which is fine,
But see if you can,
Whatever pace is natural and comfortable for you,
You can do that as you're looking around.
See if you can notice non-judgmentally just your surroundings,
Not paying attention to anything specific,
Just looking and noticing.
All right,
When you're ready,
You can just let your gaze be soft for a moment.
If you want to close your eyes,
You can,
But just let your gaze be soft now,
And we're going to move on to the next stage,
Which is listening.
You are now going to hear a few sounds in the recording,
So you can pay attention to those and pay attention to any sounds in your environment.
And so just take your awareness to the different sounds.
Notice if the sound seems farther away or if it sounds closer up.
So the next and final stage is focusing in on the body.
So if you haven't already,
You might close your eyes and bring your awareness inside to the body.
It might be helpful to start at the top of your head and noticing things like your forehead,
Your eyebrows,
And your eyelids.
And if you can,
Take a moment just to relax those different parts of your body,
And then you can kind of work your way down through the cheekbones,
The tongue,
The jaw,
Loosening and letting go,
And just noticing the different sensations inside the body.
And you can keep going down through the neck and the shoulders.
See if you can relax any tension that's happening in the shoulders,
Also down through the chest and through the arms.
You might notice the texture of the clothing or anything that is touching your skin.
Just simply notice that on the outside of your body,
And then bring your awareness deeper into the body.
You might be noticing air coming in and out of your lungs,
Noticing how the body moves with the breath.
And just be at ease and relaxed and let your body be breathed.
And you can bring your awareness down through the body,
Through the legs,
And on down through the feet.
And again,
Just noticing where your body makes contact to the surface below it,
Or even how the body is making contact with the clothing or the surfaces that the skin is touching.
Just simply noticing that for a moment.
And of course,
Remembering to keep breathing slowly and gently.
When you're ready,
You can go ahead and gently open your eyes.
Keep your eye gaze soft and relaxed.
And this is a really great opportunity to gently enter back into your surroundings.
And as you're ready,
You can just slowly look around again.
You might notice the sounds in your environment.
And just notice yourself in the space where you are.
So that is the short practice.
Thank you so much for joining me today and doing this practice with me.
And feel free to do this any time you need,
In any space that you're in.
Looking,
Listening,
And then going inward and paying attention to the body.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
