Let's find a comfy spot.
Arms and legs somewhere they can rest.
As we inhale,
Let's lengthen our spine a little bit and exhale,
Soften our shoulders a bit.
Our body at ease but still alert,
At balance between relaxed and alert.
A bit of both.
Bringing our attention inwards.
So we're going to start by energising ourselves with the Vyana Vayu.
So we place our hands in our heart centre.
As we inhale,
We're going to open our hands,
Open our arms and fill our lungs and our chest with air,
Prana,
Energy.
And as we exhale,
All that energy concentrates into our heart centre.
Imagine that any way you like.
Hands come back into the heart centre.
And we'll do that a couple more times.
Move with a comfortable breath.
Inhale,
Open the hands and the arms,
Fill the lungs,
Fill the chest with prana.
Exhale,
Hands come back into the heart centre and all that energy focusing in the heart.
A couple more times with your breath.
Inhale,
Open.
Exhale,
Close.
Make this one the last one.
Once again,
Finding a comfortable place for our body,
Feeling how that feels.
Maybe we can feel slightly more energised.
So allowing our arms to rest,
Spine tall,
Shoulders soft.
Let's find a natural,
Comfortable breath.
We're going to allow our whole body to soften.
Starting at the crown of the head,
Let's imagine that wave of relaxation.
Flowing slowly over our body,
The scalp and the forehead becoming softer,
Temples,
The muscles around the eyes,
Even our ears becoming a little softer.
Our cheeks and our jaw releasing,
Softening.
Our neck,
Long and yet comfortable.
Shoulders are soft and arms are resting somewhere they can be comfortable.
Nice tall spine,
Plenty of room for our breath.
And yet still relaxed,
We're not holding ourselves rigid.
Still flowing down,
Pelvis,
Pelvic floor,
Comfortable.
Our legs,
Somewhere they can be still and comfortable.
Soft and relaxed.
Ankles,
Feet,
And each toe still,
Quiet,
Comfortable.
Whole body at ease,
Soft,
Relaxed.
Let's take our attention to the sounds of the world around us.
Let the sounds just come to us.
Let whatever is out there pour into our ears as we take our awareness to that sound vibration.
Let's notice the raw qualities of the sound.
Patchwork,
Different sounds coming,
Going.
Maybe there's silence.
What does that sound like?
Giving it as much attention as you can.
The soundscape.
Now I invite you to change the focus slightly.
We're still listening to the external sounds,
But let's also notice how our brain tells us what those sounds are.
So a sound happens and your brain interprets the raw data,
The noises,
And says,
Ah,
I think that's that.
Ah,
Someone's in the bathroom.
Ah,
There's a bird on the roof.
So we may notice that the tapestry,
The patchwork is getting more intricate.
There is the sounds and we make an interpretation of those sounds.
Of course,
That's how our brain works.
It interprets the external world for us.
So we make sense of it.
We know what's going on,
Or at least we can function.
So let's change the focus of our awareness now.
We're going to listen to our thoughts.
So as if our ears were inside our own head now.
So of course,
Thoughts are allowed in this practice.
We want to hear what they are.
What's going on inside our head?
The soundscape of our mind,
The thought-scape.
So allowing whatever we find in our head,
Maybe we're still listening to sounds.
Let's just notice that's what our mind is doing.
It can be hard to observe our thoughts.
So let's try,
Imagine ourselves in our cinema seat and our mind is on the screen or on the stage.
We can relax into our observer seat,
Watch whatever there is going on in the mind,
Good,
Bad,
Or indifferent.
Even if that's just imagining us sitting there in our cinema seat.
And for these few moments,
I invite you to release any judgments,
Notice any judgments and release them.
So we can't possibly do right or wrong.
We just do for a few moments.
Many of us have a tendency to judge our thoughts.
To judge our performance as inadequate.
We're not doing it right.
And I invite you to observe that now.
If we have any thoughts that suggest,
Well,
I'm clearly not doing this properly.
Can we notice those thoughts?
Maybe the opposite is true.
Maybe we're sitting here going,
No,
No,
I'm just,
This is just in the zone.
And we're maybe congratulating ourselves.
Just perfect.
Can we notice that as well?
So as we observed the interpretation of the sound,
Now we observe our interpretation of our thoughts,
Our judgment of our thoughts.
And it can get a bit like a hall of mirrors if we focus on it too much.
We can get caught up in confusion.
So we just sit back and notice whatever's in our head.
And the reason we might choose to do this is because some of those judgments do not support us,
Are not healthful,
Are self-critical.
Some of us even deeply judgmental of ourselves.
And maybe those we might choose to overturn.
So we're now going to notice the judgments and even judge them.
Yes,
We're going to judge the judgments.
We might choose to keep those that support us.
We might choose if we hear one that sounds like,
You're doing this wrong again.
What are you doing?
Or some other judgment where we judge ourselves less than.
Could be doing better.
You might choose to reframe that from your cinema seat as,
Hmm,
I'm doing okay.
In fact,
I'm doing just fine.
I'm doing just fine.
I'm doing my best.
And that is good enough.
How does it feel to know that right here,
Right now,
Your performance is good enough.
You are good enough.
Don't take my word for it.
Tell yourself and feel how it feels.
Which brings us to the last external quality we're going to listen to,
Our intuition,
Which often appears as a feeling.
So maybe we felt a judgment.
We can test it out now.
Let's try judging ourselves harshly and see if we can get a sense of how it feels to do that.
How our energy responds.
You might find yourself frowning,
Sinking,
Contracting,
Slumping.
And we'll try now the inverse.
I'm good enough.
I am adequate.
I can meet this challenge.
I'm good enough.
And feel the energy.
Feel the feeling of those thoughts.
And you might have found yourself straightening up,
Expanding,
Feeling lighter or some other quality that feels more comfortable.
So resting in silence with that feeling aspect of us,
Our awareness on our feelings,
Feelings that are a result of our thoughts,
Seeing if we can observe the thought and the feeling that it generates.
And we may decide to be very careful about which thoughts we allow into our head,
To be very aware and discerning about which thoughts we allow to spend time in our head.
And we don't need anyone else to tell us,
Because our feelings will tell us if we are aware of them.
We can become our own teacher,
Our own guide,
By listening,
Having our awareness tuned to our own self.
Resting for a few more breaths.
Before we leave,
Let's thank ourselves for taking the time to do this practice and see how it feels.
So taking a few deeper in breaths as we start to energize ourselves once again.
Wiggling our toes and our fingers as we begin our transition to our external state of consciousness.
Wrists and ankles,
Arms and legs having a little stretch.
But let's make sure as we attend to the external world,
We also have one eye on our thoughts and our feelings as we continue our day.
Thank you for practicing with me.
