Spend the next few moments getting yourself comfortable,
Uncrossing your legs,
Feeling your feet on the floor,
And make any additional movements to be 10 to 15% more comfortable as you settle in.
Give yourself permission to rest here.
And as you start to settle in,
Bring your awareness into the body.
Just noticing how your body is doing today,
What feelings and sensations are present,
Movement,
Non-movement,
What parts of the body that feel soft and open,
What parts of the body that might hold some tension or discomfort.
Just greeting it all,
Acknowledging that it all is here.
And how is the breath flowing in and out?
Is it a deep breath or a smaller one?
Does it feel hard or easy to breathe?
Just noticing the breath flowing in and out.
Aware of the body,
Aware of the breath.
And then noticing how you are feeling energetically in this moment.
Maybe you feel a little tired.
Maybe you feel a little restless.
Maybe you feel calm.
Maybe you're not sure,
And that's okay too.
How do you feel energetically?
Then how is your mind,
This awareness,
The body,
The breath,
And your energetic state?
What is the activity of the mind?
Is it wandering?
Is it distracted?
Is it feeling slow and dull?
Is it calm and alert?
What thoughts and feelings are present?
And then go ahead and bring your awareness back to your breath.
And feel the movement of your abdomen,
The belly expanding and contracting.
And then allow your breath to come up into your ribcage.
So you inhale,
Feeling the ribs expand.
And exhale,
Feeling the ribs narrowing or contracting.
Aware of the movement of the ribcage.
And then with an inhale,
Send the breath into the upper lobes of your lungs.
So behind the collarbones.
So you'll feel the collarbones lift a little bit as you inhale and drop a little bit as you exhale.
Inhale,
Collarbones lift.
And exhale,
They drop.
And then we'll blend these ways of breathing together.
And so when you're ready with your inhale,
Feel your abdomen expand first.
Then the ribcage expands.
And at the top of the inhale,
Feel your collarbones lift.
Then exhale,
Feel the collarbones drop first.
Your ribcage narrows.
And the abdomen finally relaxes.
Inhale,
Abdomen.
Inhale,
Abdomen.
Ribcage.
Collarbones lift.
Exhale,
Collarbones drop.
Ribcage narrows.
Abdomen relaxes.
Inhale,
Abdomen.
Ribs.
Collarbones.
Exhale,
Collarbones,
Ribcage,
Abdomen.
Inhaling in three parts.
And exhaling in three parts.
If you're having a hard time compartmentalizing the breath,
That's okay,
Just keep trying.
Do your best.
And you can imagine the body filling with breath from the base to the top and emptying of breath from the top back down to the base.
Three-part breathing,
Please continue.
Inhaling in three parts.
Exhaling in three parts.
If your mind wanders,
Just bring it back to the three-part breath.
And as you complete this next three-part exhalation,
Let go of the technique.
And as you let go of the technique,
Let go of all effort in your body and mind.
Just feeling that mental and physical energy just feeling that mental and physical energy grounding as if it were sediment falling to the bottom of a lake that's become suddenly still.
All the sand and silt just surrenders to gravity.
And as that energy grounds,
Keeping with this image of the lake,
Imagine your mind as the still surface of the lake.
And when thoughts come to mind or your mind wanders,
It's as if those are creating ripples or waves on the surface of the water,
Kicking up that sediment at the bottom.
And so relax again.
Feel that sediment,
That mental and physical energy grounding,
Surrendering to gravity,
And allow the surface of the lake,
Your mind to become still once again.
And when those thoughts come back and those waves form again,
Relax.
Sediment falls to the bottom,
The surface of the lake,
Your mind becomes still each and every time.
When you're able to hold the mind still,
The surface of the lake becomes as flat as a sheet of glass.
The surface is able to reflect and perceive clearly everything around it.
When the waves form,
When the ripples come,
It takes that clear perception and shatters it into thousands of partial or misperceptions.
And so you relax again,
Grounding that mental and physical effort and allowing the mind to become still.
To become still.
Holding the surface of the lake still.
I'd like you to imagine the full moon hanging in the sky above the lake.
And on the surface of the lake,
See the perfect mirror reflection of that moon.
And imagine that that pure reflection is allowing you to absorb the qualities of the full moon.
Calm and alert.
Soft.
Quiet.
Gentle.
Peaceful.
Effortless.
Imagine your brain being bathed in the qualities of the moon.
Allow the internal visual to fade.
And still feeling your mind still and imbued with the qualities of the moon.
You can even imagine those qualities spreading from the mind into your entire body,
Pouring through the nervous system,
To every cell.
And know that when you head back out into the world,
That you can move through the world from this place.
If you lose connection to it,
You can always remember the still lake of the mind.
So please be aware of your breath moving in your body.
And when you're ready,
Begin to take a deeper,
Fuller breath.
And bring the palms together and rub them together,
Creating heat.
And taking the warm palms over the eyes,
Brushing gently over the top of your head and down the neck,
Slowly bringing yourself back to the room around you.
