So what I invite you to do is to hold your hands like that.
So,
Palms together,
Fingers around the backs of your hands.
And to have your hands crossed,
Crossed.
You're clasping your hands and your hands are resting in your lap.
And starting off either eyes open or eyes closed.
And bringing attention to breathing.
And we're going to,
We've touched on it briefly tonight,
But we're going to invite what's called a soothing breathing rhythm.
And so that's about starting to gently and little bit by little bit,
Starting to slow down the inhalation and slowing down the exhalation.
And even having the exhalation be slightly longer than the inhalation.
Even bringing the breath a bit more down into the belly.
So that the diaphragm pushes down and your tummy kind of extends out a bit on an in-breath.
And then contracts on an out-breath.
And as you're breathing,
Starting to bring attention to the contact that your hands are making with each other.
Noticing the sensations of touch.
Noticing temperature.
And noticing if this contact between one hand and the next feels pleasant,
Unpleasant or neutral.
So if it feels a bit unpleasant,
You can maybe soften the holding.
Maybe hold just part of the hand,
Part of the fingers.
You can even choose to just let your hands rest in your lap.
But if the feeling tone,
So this is the raw sensory experience,
If it feels sort of neutral or feels pleasant.
And starting to sense into the pleasantness of the contact.
So noticing the warmth,
The touch.
So we've slowed our breathing down a bit and no problem if your breath doesn't slow down.
And we're bringing attention to the pleasantness of this contact if it's pleasant for you.
Perhaps noticing if this holding of your own hands feels supportive.
So it's like we're just asking that question,
Does this feel supportive?
And we sense into what the situation is.
So we can be noticing the breath and noticing the contact at the same time.
I don't even ask ourselves if there is a feeling of safety in my hands.
Again,
No right or wrong,
Which is getting curious.
And if we get a little window of this kind of back drafty thing opening up,
We can always stop at any point or open our eyes and look around.
And then I invite you to sense into where you might like to place a supportive hand on your body.
So it could be that you want to place a hand on your heart.
Or it might be on your tummy,
One or both hands.
You might even place your hands on the opposite shoulders or the upper arms as if you were giving yourself a hug.
Or you can just continue to have your hands in your lap.
And if your hand is on another part of the body,
And starting to sense into the contact in that part,
The temperature,
The sensations.
Checking in to see if this feels supportive.
Does this feel like you're taking care of yourself?
Even checking in to see,
Does this feel safe?
So we're less interested in our thoughts about this and more interested in the direct experiencing.
And then returning your hands just to rest in your lap if they're not there already.
Taking a few deeper breaths,
Feeling the contact with the ground or the chair.
And then when you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes.
