So,
Let us begin.
Find a place for your body.
Of that little fidget.
Lengthen the spine,
Soften the shoulders and breathe.
Letting the breath be deeper.
And slower.
Let's see if we can be with the breath,
So making those breaths conscious.
Often when we're just going about our ordinary life.
The breath is unconscious and it can be quite restricted.
When we make the breath conscious,
Provided we are not forcing it to do anything it doesn't want to do,
We can let the breath be freer.
They are setting aside the demands of the external world.
Resting with our breath.
And if your mind wanders,
Bring it back.
And if it wanders a lot,
You get an opportunity to bring it back.
Often.
And see if you can do that with kindness and compassion to yourself.
That is the job.
I invite you to check in with yourself.
That's to assess where you are and how you feel.
Your physical body.
And if we find our experience.
Somewhat less than we might hope for.
Let's do that assessment without judgment.
And with compassion.
We find pain.
Looking towards that pain as we might do for our best friend.
Our mind.
Our feeling emotional self.
You and our energy.
And her motivation.
Holding ourselves in compassion for whatever we find.
Becoming our own.
Best friend,
Our own beloved.
And if we can offer this to ourselves,
We don't need it from another person.
Nice to receive it.
But it's not necessary,
We don't have to go looking and wheedling it from another.
Our intention for the practice.
I will do that out loud and I invite you to do that silently as well.
By the grace of God,
I am guided.
Let this be the highest outcome for all concerned.
May I be a clear channel.
Let's use our hands.
Connect to the earth.
Grow those energetic connections,
Those roots.
And feel yourself be held.
Be supported.
As a loving mother does.
All the while those breaths a little deeper and slower.
And our ordinary unconscious breath.
Nature is our cure-all.
The air.
The earth,
The grass beneath your body.
Trees.
Let those natural places See you there.
The waters.
Go out and bless the water,
But also let the water bless you.
Take the time.
Just sit still.
In the garden,
In the wild places.
Just you.
And Mother Nature and let us soothe you.
There's another mother here Welcome to Harry.
The Christian version of Mother Mary was.
.
.
Week.
Ignorant or innocent.
And passive.
The Mother Mary I recognise now.
It's not those things.
I'm out I guess.
What a leader.
And servant leadership.
That goes first.
Leads the way by walking there first.
With courage if that's needed.
A compassionate leader.
And educated.
Later.
I was interested.
And the well-being of everyone around.
Is that not what we need?
A new role model for leadership.
Home.
And that is our job in some ways.
If you choose to accept it.
To walk the talk.
Demonstrate.
That compassionate leadership.
Because the world needs that now.
We are safe.
To demonstrate.
This new way of doing things because it's absolutely what's needed.
The old way.
The dinosaurs are failing and falling.
Breathe in.
People in this community in this world demonstrating a healthy fashion of leadership.
Even if it's just for your household.
Absolutely needed and it is supported.
Huh.
And she is here to guide us.
Hold her hand and lead the way for.
.
.
Us.
Long smooth breaths.
Conscious.
Peaceful.
Bruh We underestimate the breath.
Or unconscious restricted breath.
Keeps us in fight and flight.
Fight and flight keeps us in restricted breath.
Now we are in conscious mode.
Let's allow the breath to be even slower.
Even deeper.
Without slumping.
The chest needs to be open for the diaphragm and those lower ribs to have the space to move.
So let's allow the breath.
The prana,
The air.
To soothe us.
I invite you to count your in-breath and your out-breath.
Maybe that's in heartbeats,
Maybe it's just whatever pace feels appropriate.
And can we do that without the breath going all weird?
Or anxious because we're metering it and monitoring it.
Light touch keep counting but almost as if you're doing it quietly.
So we've got a.
.
.
An understanding of where our breath is now.
And you might find You've already lengthened that out breath a little bit.
In that attempt.
Become calmer around counting the breaths If you haven't done that already,
Let's try that now.
So if your in-breath is four,
Let's try five or six on the out-breath.
If your in-breath is stray.
And for 4 or 5.
It's got to be kind and gentle.
So let the in-breath be natural,
Whatever length it wants to be.
Extend that out breath just a little bit.
We'll be with the breath for a few minutes more.
Just checking once again that there's space for our ribs and our diaphragm to move.
We haven't rounded and crushed that part of our body.
Just see what the breath wants to do.
And if one breath is different from the next,
That's absolutely fine.
We don't have to press our breath into a specific mould,
We're just inviting.
And so releasing.
Breathing practice.
Check in with your physical body.
Choke in with your mind What's going on in the mind now?
Our emotional self.
Our energy our motivation.
Thanking the Earth,
Mother Mary and one another.
Or sharing our practice.
And slowly let us begin our journey back.
Slowly beginning to mobilize the body.
And when you're ready,
Having a look at the external world.
Thank you for practicing with me.
