Begin this period of exploration by making yourself as comfortable and at ease as you can.
For me it means to sit upright,
Relaxed with my hands in my lap,
My feet placed on the floor in a way that I feel supported,
Grounded,
Centered.
If there's any discomfort,
Anything that gets in the way of feeling good,
Feel free to adjust your posture,
Remove any physical discomfort to the best of your ability.
And as you go through this first stage,
Begin connecting with your breath.
We use breath in this exploration and relaxation as a gateway that leads us into communication with our body and mind.
Since we cannot communicate verbally with our nervous system,
Our digestive system,
We cannot tell ourselves to digest food,
To circulate blood,
To secrete hormones,
To fire those nervous impulses.
We have to use another way.
And this way is through your breath.
Every time you are present to the natural flow of your breath,
In-breath,
Pause,
Out-breath,
Pause,
You are sending a powerful message.
That message is,
I'm okay,
I'm not in danger.
Because if I was in danger,
The awareness of my breath would be the last thing that I wanted to focus on.
So if you have the ability to shift your awareness towards your breath,
You already begin that communication and conversation saying,
Everything is okay,
I'm ready to relax.
In the second step,
To reinforce that message,
Begin directing your breath through the center of your heart.
So we call it heart-centered breathing.
In this way,
You will activate the neural network around your heart that begins sending messages to your brain.
So what we are doing here,
Scientifically speaking,
Is bringing ourselves,
Our body and mind,
Into the state of coherence,
Or harmony,
Where your body operates beautifully and wonderfully,
Optimally.
So as you continue consciously breathing in and out through your heart,
Add one more stage to this heart-centered breathing and slow down your breath.
If you feel that your thoughts dominate this conversation,
It may help to count from one to five every time you in-breath,
And from one to five every time you out-breath.
So breathing in on the count of five,
And breathing out on the count of five,
Which brings the rate of breathing to about six breaths per minute.
And this,
Once again,
Is to reinforce that message that you use in the conversation with your nervous system.
I'm okay,
I'm at ease,
I'm ready to relax.
And you may already notice that you moved deeper into relaxation,
But now you can go even deeper by focusing on your out-breath as a tool of release,
Releasing any worries,
Any tension,
Anything that gets in the way of you entering the state of deep relaxation.
So be aware of your breath,
Direct your breath through the center of your heart,
And stage three,
Slow down your breath.
Now I will let you go deeper with this process on your own,
As I stand by your side to hold the space at some point of this relaxation.
You may notice that you enter a more expanded state,
Where incoming thoughts are less frequent,
Where you feel safe,
Where you feel at ease,
A place where you feel at home.
No longer need to go anywhere or do anything,
But you are perfectly comfortable with things the way they are.
And that's where exploration begins.
That's where things may come to the surface,
Or you may ask questions,
Inquiring about things that are important to you.
But most importantly,
This is the space where you can be fully and truly yourself,
Where your true nature of human being can be expressed.
Space from which occasional thoughts are met with acceptance,
Not resistance,
Where we can fully embrace arising emotions.
In this space,
You are loved,
You are supported,
And you are enough.
Everything that comes to the space from the ego level becomes a story that you are no longer identified with.
And now it is time to return.
Embrace your gratitude for everything that you experienced,
Everything that you received on the conscious level and on the level that you are still not aware of.
So in order to fully return to the physical reality,
We reverse the process and begin connecting with our physical senses and with our thoughts.
This is a good time to think for yourself how you feel right now.
Connect with the sound of my voice.
Connect with your vision.
Even through your closed eyes,
You still can see darker and brighter spots.
Even senses of taste and smell,
You can touch upon and reconnect with them.
And finally,
Start perceiving the space around you through the boundaries of your physical body,
Perceiving the space,
The room around you,
The chair underneath you,
Your hands resting in your lap,
Your feet on the floor.
And now add a gentle movement,
Starting with your toes.
Gently move your fingers.
Very slow and gentle,
Tilt of your head to the left.
Feel the muscles in your neck stretching and flexing.
Tilt of your head to the right.
Feeling muscles on the other side of your neck.
Back to the center and finish with one deep conscious breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
And when ready,
Open your eyes and welcome back.
