Finding yourself right here in this moment.
Connecting your feet to the ground,
Your sit bones in the chair.
Lengthen the spine.
Soft jaw and shoulders.
Releasing any tension in the face,
In the neck,
The fingers,
The stomach.
Feeling yourself in this moment by sensing into the temperature of the air on your skin.
The sounds in your space.
Gently just feel the breath flowing into the body and flowing out of the body.
As you settle into this moment fully arriving,
Just notice your state of being.
Is there agitation,
Tension,
Rumination,
Grasping for something in the future.
Just gently labeling this overall experience in this moment without judgment.
We'll bring this practice of letting go in.
A lot of times as we live life we love to grasp,
We love to hold on,
We love to white-knuckle time,
Plans,
Control of what other people are doing.
In this practice we get to cultivate this place of letting go.
Coming back to the present moment where we can be unattached,
Where we can find some more freedom and choice and spaciousness in the moment.
Begin by just tensing your feet.
See if you can curl your toes and your feet and just squeezing everything together,
Holding that tension and just breathing into that tension.
Notice what that feels like to be curling and gripping in your feet.
Keep holding there,
Breathing into the tension,
Maybe noticing the shaking of the muscles,
Maybe the sensations feeling unpleasant.
As you release the feet,
Release that sense of gripping and relax.
Letting the toes wiggle free,
The ball of the foot uncurl.
Just notice that sensation of letting go in the soles of your feet.
Taking your breath there.
Bringing now awareness to your thighs,
Your quads,
And your glutes.
Start to really engage your legs,
Clenching your glutes,
Clenching your quads,
Squeezing everything really tight,
Tight,
Tight,
Tight,
Tight.
Just notice and breathe into this tension that you're feeling in the body.
Again,
Try to stay with it,
Feeling it build,
Maybe feeling heat build or the tremble of muscles.
See if you can curl and clench just a little bit more,
Feeling that tensing around,
Gripping around,
The holding onto,
Breathing into it.
See if you can go even a little tighter,
Holding just a little longer.
And gently release,
Letting the muscles soften,
Letting the bones of the body relax,
Letting your breath be right there as you let go of anything that you're holding onto.
Just notice and let that work settle,
Whether it feels really subtle to you or palpable.
Maybe seeing if you can let go of anything else that you're holding in that area.
Now bringing your awareness to your shoulders.
Allow your shoulders to slide all the way up your ears,
Holding that tension,
Clenching the shoulders to the ears,
Hold,
Hold,
Hold,
Just noticing what that sensation feels like.
Clenching,
Maybe notice if the jaw starts to get even tighter,
Breathing into this tightness,
This grip in your shoulders and your ears and your neck,
Hold,
Hold,
Hold,
Breathing into it.
And gently release,
Letting those shoulders just slide down the back,
Feeling and sensing into the muscles,
Just releasing,
Softening,
Letting go.
And see if you can connect to that release into gravity,
Breathing into that spaciousness you just created.
And taking your attention now to the hands and maybe even the arms and start to curl the fingers,
Making really tight fists,
Maybe even clenching your biceps and hugging your elbows into your torso and just clench,
Clench,
Clench,
Holding this tight,
Tight,
Tight ball.
Maybe even feeling your fingernails digging into the palms of the hands.
So again,
Notice that heat building,
The tension,
Breathing into it.
Notice if tension arises in any other place in the body,
Maybe the jaw,
The forehead,
The stomach.
Keep squeezing those fists and arms,
Breathing in,
Gripping a little bit tighter,
Holding on even a little bit more.
And noticing if the mind is talking to you,
Can you squeeze and grip just a little bit more,
Breathing into it.
And gently release,
Letting those fingers just slowly uncurl,
Allowing the breath to go to that place of unwinding,
Untangling.
Again,
Being with the sensation of letting go.
It's not a fast practice,
But just noticing moment to moment,
Maybe just a little bit more gets released,
A little bit more relaxes.
Breathing into the palms of the hands,
To the arms,
And just connecting to the sensation of letting go.
The freedom,
The space,
The possibility,
The ease that it can create.
And just letting all of this work of letting go settle into the cells of the body,
Letting all of this work settle into the muscle memory of the mind.
And as you continue to just find and feel your breath,
Feel the whole body release and let go.
Maybe just gently asking yourself,
Where in your life can you bring this practice?
Where in your life is calling for this practice of letting go?
Knowing it doesn't need to be abrupt,
But just maybe offering a place of softening,
Of releasing,
An invitation.
Staying with this practice for a few more minutes.
Breathing in in silence and just being with whatever you notice.
Breathing in and out.
Breathing out.
And just staying with this practice as long as it serves and supports you.
And if you're ready to transition out,
Gently opening your eyes when you hear the sound of the bell.
Otherwise,
Just allow the bell to become background noise as you continue to stay in this practice.
