So let's take our comfortable seat.
We're planting our feet on the floor,
Making our legs comfortable.
Allowing our hands to be comfortable in our lap and our arms relaxed.
Next time we inhale,
Let's make our spine a little bit taller.
And when we exhale,
We can soften into our seat a little,
Relax a little.
Relax our forehead and our jaw.
Muscles of our face,
Our neck and our shoulders.
And if we're able to balance our head on the top of our spine,
We need very little energy to hold it up.
And we'll take a few deeper breaths.
As we become settled.
Take our attention inwards.
And notice how it feels.
As we allow the external world to be without us for a little while.
How do I feel in this moment?
Physically.
Mentally.
And emotionally.
So we'll check back in at the end to see if our practice has changed how we feel.
So returning our focus to our body,
Let's make sure it's comfortable.
We need any little adjustments.
Starting at the crown and allowing a wave of relaxation.
To travel down the body over our forehead and our temples.
Over our cheeks.
Our scalp.
Our jaw and our neck.
We're becoming more relaxed.
Allowing that wave of softness and ease to pass into our shoulders.
Down our back.
Over our chest,
Our ribs.
Our arms are soft and relaxed.
We'll use a little bit of effort to keep ourselves up at just a minimum.
Allowing our seat and our legs to be at ease and comfortable.
Our knees in a neutral position and our lower legs and our feet comfortable,
Relaxed,
Still.
See if we can get a sense of our whole body,
Quiet and still.
However that feels.
Can we be okay with it?
So now we're feeling a little more physically relaxed.
Let's aim for some mental relaxation.
And I'm going to invite you to remember or to imagine a place,
A time and experience when you are completely at ease.
And to put yourself there in as much detail as you can.
Feeling how it feels as best you can.
And if your mind wanders,
That's okay.
They do that.
Just return.
If judgments come up,
Can we observe them?
So feeling more mentally and physically relaxed.
We can take our attention to our heart centre.
The space in the centre of our chest.
And as we breathe,
I invite you to imagine the breath flowing through this space.
Excuse me.
And we can do this any way that suits us.
The breath is still comfortable but we're using our focus and the breath to activate,
Energise this part of us.
In yoga philosophy,
The heart chakra is our connection to others,
To the earth,
To the greater world around us.
But we often close it for fear of being hurt.
We put up barriers for fear of being hurt and that's okay.
We might choose to dismantle the barriers a little bit to access those deeper compassionate connection and warmth for our fellow humans,
Fellow beings.
That's why we're here,
For ourselves.
Compassion for ourselves starts here.
So let's imagine placing our seat,
Our cinema seat in this space,
Making ourselves comfortable.
We can use our heart mudra now if we would like to,
Tucking the first finger against the thumb,
Next two fingers resting on the thumb,
Little finger relaxed,
Hands resting on our lap.
Sitting back,
Taking our observer role.
And as we keep our attention on this space as best we can,
We notice all comers,
Everything that flows into the awareness of our heart.
Opening ourselves for this moment to this moment.
And what I mean by that,
Whatever distractions,
External distractions,
Internal distractions,
Physical sensations,
Mental commentary,
Chatter.
It all pours into us and we notice it all.
We watch our experience as if it were a film.
If your mind wanders we just return.
I ask you to pay particular attention to judgments.
Can we observe a judgement?
These are what separates us from our peace.
And when we can catch these we can say ah,
Maybe my tendency to judge myself in this way.
I'll keep an eye on that and we continue with our observation.
We can keep the breath gently flowing through the eyes.
I'll see this area if it helps with your focus.
Observing whatever happens in our present moment.
Seeing if we can allow what happens in our present moment,
Even the judgments,
Even the fact we're not sure if it should be like this.
It is like this.
Just be there.
Allowing our focus to be released.
Resting for a few moments with our breath and body.
Still we can be noticing.
Remembering Rumi,
The Sufi poet,
How he allowed and welcomed the experiences for a moment.
How does that feel?
So just for the last few moments noticing how we feel now in our body.
In our mind.
And emotionally.
And we get one more opportunity to embrace our experience.
So very slowly,
Gently we can leave this space.
We can take a couple of deeper breaths and imagine energy flowing into our body.
And we can move our toes and our fingers,
Our feet and our hands,
Our arms and our legs.
Having a stretch if that's for us.
And slowly,
No hurry,
Coming back to our regular waking state.
Thank you for practicing with me.
