Welcome to today's practice.
Find a comfortable seat,
It can be cross-legged,
On a chair,
On a couch,
With the feet well planted on the floor.
Remove any distractions for the next 10-15 minutes.
Adjust your body until you come to a place of stillness,
And maybe you can close down your eyes as well,
And let's begin by taking three deep clearing breaths.
Inhaling through the nose,
Open mouth,
Exhale out.
Again,
Inhaling.
One last time,
Inhale nice and deep.
Hold it for a moment.
With the next exhale,
Release all the tensions from your body.
Bring your attention to all the points of contact between your body and the floor of the seat,
And soften all these parts that feel this contact.
Allow your body to become a little bit heavier.
With a quick body scan,
See if you can let go of a tension that you might be carrying without consciously knowing or being aware of.
From your feet,
Scan all the way up to the top of the head,
Softening up a little bit more your physical body,
Without collapsing,
Without dropping your shoulders.
So find the upright,
But not uptight,
Position,
Posture,
Where the spine is nice and long.
Create a little bit of space in between your vertebrae,
As if there is a string that is pulling you up from the top of the head.
With the next exhale,
Relax your shoulders,
A little bit further from your ears.
How is your breath this morning?
What is the first sensation that you feel when you look at your breathing?
Is it in the belly?
Is it in the chest?
Is it a deep and soft breath?
Or it feels quite shallow?
Maybe it feels tight,
Like it's not so satisfying.
For now,
Allow it to be,
Without judgment,
Without knowledge of right or wrong.
Remain in observation and take a mental note on how does it feel to observe your breathing this morning.
Slowly begin to take control of your breath,
Allow the inhale to become a little bit longer.
The exhale as well,
Be heavier,
Always through the nose if you can.
Pay particular attention to the pause that happens after the exhale.
You don't have to hold your breath there,
As bringing your attention would be enough for that space to widen a little bit.
As you keep focusing on your breath,
You make it a little bit deeper,
A little bit fuller.
We'll invite a mantra that you can repeat in your mind while you breathe,
As a way to anchor into the present moment.
The first mantra goes as follows,
As I inhale,
I'm aware of my body.
As I exhale,
I'm aware of my mind.
As I inhale,
I'm aware of my body.
As I exhale,
I'm aware of my mind.
Moving into the second phase,
As I inhale,
I calm my body.
And as I exhale,
I calm my mind.
As I inhale,
I calm my body.
And as I exhale,
I calm my mind.
And finally,
As I inhale,
I smile to my body.
As I exhale,
I smile to my mind.
As I inhale,
I smile to my body.
As I exhale,
I smile to my mind.
Keep following this rhythm,
Soft and natural.
And let the breath and the words become one gentle flow.
And slowly let go of the mantra,
Let go of these words.
Remain in awareness,
Noticing how you feel right now.
Noticing what is your state of mind,
Your state of presence in this moment.
You can stay here,
Resting in this awareness for as long as you need.
Otherwise,
You can slowly begin to move your hands and your toes.
Deepen the breaths.
And softly opening your eyes,
Allowing the external world to come back to meet your internal world.
And remaining with this sense of calm and peace.
Maybe you want to use your notebook to write some notes down,
A reminder to yourself.
An intention,
How do you want to show up today?
How do you want to feel next week?
I wish you a wonderful day.
Namaste.
