Welcome.
We know that everything in nature ebbs and flows,
Expands and contracts,
Waxes and wanes.
It's only human beings who struggle to stay static and to keep things the same.
We cling to some things,
We push others away.
We seek to control when our bodies tell us to release.
Our practice today invites us to learn from the ocean,
From the ebb and flow of the waves,
And even from the rhythms of our own breath.
Both are great teachers of receiving and giving with grace.
Let's start just by settling in.
Let your eyes fall shut.
Shift a bit wherever you're sitting or standing until you can find a posture where you can be both relaxed and alert.
And let's notice where we begin.
Feel the connection your feet make with the floor and your body makes with the chair or its cushion.
Feel the solidity of that connection.
Here now.
So good.
And we'll give our full attention to the breath now,
Breathing a little more slowly and deeply than normally.
This doesn't need to be a struggle.
We're just slowing the breath so we can pay deeper attention.
We're following its path into the body as it moves through the nose,
The throat,
The chest and into the belly,
And then following it all the way out again,
Noticing.
Let's follow three or four cycles of breath and let the breath take us into deeper awareness of the body and deeper awareness of the present moment.
Now,
Let your breath find its own comfortable rhythm.
Nothing to do.
The breath breathes itself.
And for the remainder of this practice,
We're going to let the breath teach us the art of ebb and flow,
Of expansion and contraction,
Of receiving and releasing.
So let's begin with the physical experience of breathing.
And as we follow the breath,
Really notice how it expands the body on the inhale and notice how natural and easy that is.
And also know and experience the release,
The letting go and the emptying out of the exhale.
Let's follow a few more cycles of breathing,
Paying attention to this natural expansion and contraction,
This receiving and releasing.
I like to imagine the breath like a great wave that's coming in and filling me up,
Just like a wave arriving on the shore,
And then gently flowing back out to rejoin the sea.
The ocean is also a wonderful teacher of ebb and flow.
It gives itself so fully as it throws itself onto the shore and then returns so gracefully to the ocean.
So again,
We're following each cycle,
Each wave of breath,
Fully experiencing this filling up and this releasing.
Great oceanic expansions and contractions.
And will you pause here and notice a place in your body where you're holding some tension,
Back,
Neck and shoulders,
Maybe in the head.
And as you inhale now,
Offer yourself some compassion.
Really send a sense of warmth and light to that stuck contracted place.
And then on the exhale,
Relax and release,
Relax and release.
So let's follow this cycle a few more times,
Offering warmth and light to that sore contracted place on the inhale and relaxing and releasing on the exhale.
And now call to mind a place in your life that you may be feeling stuck.
Maybe it's something you're obsessing over or trying to push or pull into a particular form.
It could be a worry about something or someone.
It could be a memory you keep replaying in your mind.
Any place where you suspect that energy is stuck.
Again,
We're keeping primary attention on the cycle of the breath.
Simply receive and acknowledge this stuck place on the inhale without judgment.
And on the exhale,
As best you can,
Release it,
Let it go.
Repeating this again,
Receiving and acknowledge on the inhale,
Relaxing and releasing on the exhale.
Relying and acknowledging on the inhale,
Letting go on the exhale.
We'll finish our practice today with a short visualization.
Will you imagine yourself now standing on a beach barefoot,
The water lapping around your ankles?
Experience that incoming wave as it moves around your legs and pulls at the sand beneath your feet.
And experience that same wave as it returns to the ocean.
Releasing in time with the tide,
Receiving on the incoming wave,
Releasing on the outgoing wave,
Receiving and releasing.
Remembering that our bodies know how to do this and that the breath,
Our constant companion,
Means us again and again that everything has its cycles.
And pause here to set an intention to practice the art of ebb and flow as you continue into your day.
Following one more oceanic breath in and out of the body.
Enjoy.
