And yeah,
So if you'd like to just get yourselves into a posture that for you embodies a sense of wakefulness,
Maybe just creating an intention to practice right now.
Maybe noticing as you change your posture how that feels.
Maybe noticing even before we've really got started any sense in you of wanting this particular practice or not wanting this particular practice.
If there's any resistance to this or any sense of being grateful or happy that we're going to do some seated practice for a while.
So feeling free as well if you wish that you can change your posture.
You don't have to be seated.
You could be lying down.
You could be standing up.
Whatever is best for you.
But it's going to be a practice in stillness.
And allowing your eyes to close if that feels comfortable.
Or just resting them softly on a point a few feet in front of you.
Be resisting the urge to look at the screen and just looking at your desk.
And we'll start this practice now by dropping into noticing our breath.
However your breath is right now.
Perhaps noticing the breath wherever it's most vividly experienced in the body.
That might be at the nostrils,
Might be in the throat,
In the chest,
In the belly.
Noticing if you can stay with the sensations,
Physical feelings of the breath.
Just noting how those change as we breathe in.
And as we breathe out.
Wherever the breathing in is a sense of taking in,
Of replenishing.
Wherever the breathing out is a sense of sighing,
Releasing.
Wherever we're breathing more so with our nostrils or our mouth.
Wherever the breath seems steady or ragged.
Maybe it has a steady rhythm or staggered rhythm.
As best you can following along with the full duration of each in-breath and the full duration of each out-breath.
Noticing the point at which it reverses and the coming in becomes going out,
The going out becomes coming in.
If you have a sense of the breath being two halves or one whole.
Maybe there's a sense that there's some form of relationship between the in-breath and the out-breath.
Some sense of joining.
The one flowing into the other.
Returning back to the one.
Maybe even a sense that each in-breath is communicating something to the out-breath and the out-breath communicating something to the in-breath.
Noticing any resistance that you experience to your breath.
Maybe any sense of not wanting it to be how it is,
Wanting it to be different in some way.
Or just finding your breath difficult,
Difficult to follow,
Difficult to notice,
Difficult to be with.
Seeing if you can hold that gently and kindly.
And if it's too much,
Bringing your attention to some other anchor in your body when you experience.
Just seeing if you can gently touch on the breath again from time to time.
Without forcing it.
Even if your attention is drawn completely away to some other thought or feelings and sensation.
Just seeing if you can bring your focus back to your breath just for a moment.
Maybe a moment of breathing,
Then a moment of distraction.
Another moment of breathing,
Another moment of distraction.
This way recognizing that the distraction isn't a problem,
Isn't something to be avoided.
It's just another part of the process.
Just as the out-breath is part of the in-breath.
So they're getting distracted,
It's part of the bringing the attention back.
Maybe focusing your attention on your body as well.
Parts of the body that are breathing,
Movement in the abdomen,
Movement in the throat or the mouth.
Using a sense of how these parts of your body may also be used in communication.
How necessary breath is to speaking,
That maybe when we speak,
We speak with our belly,
We speak with our lungs and chest.
We speak with our throats and with our mouth.
Seeing if you can get a sense of these parts of your body.
Maybe there's words there that are unspoken,
Things that you wanted to say but didn't.
Things that are still vibrating around in your body.
Maybe there's a kind of an after effect of having spoken recently.
Some sense of the vibration or movement of the words having traveled through your body.
What it's like to experience that.
Maybe feeling into your face and your facial expression,
How they feel from the inside.
How expressive your face can be.
How it feels to express how you feel with your face.
Maybe as you're resting here right now,
Having a sense of a lack of expression.
Maybe just a sense of a relaxed face.
Or maybe not.
Maybe some other feelings or emotions are expressing themselves on your face.
Maybe it feels as if they are.
Just checking in with any other way you're expressing yourself right now.
Even just sitting here in stillness.
What that says,
What it says to yourself,
What it says to others.
Having a sense of how that might change.
So as you come out of the practice in a moment and bring your attention back to a screen with faces,
With other people experiencing us just as we're experiencing them.
Seeing if you can get a sense of maybe that transition from stillness to movement,
From relationship with yourself and your breath and your body to relationship with others.
Just beginning to open your eyes.
Checking in what you can see in front of you.
Bringing this practice to a close.
