Thank you for being here.
It's always a pleasure and an honor to share this with you.
So just taking a minute now to let your eyes fall closed if they haven't already.
And just begin to tune into any and all sensations present in this moment.
Just sort of notice where your attention moves in relationship to sensations in your body.
And you might take a moment to notice your posture and to see if there are any adjustments you might make to let yourself be more comfortable.
And also alert.
So,
Really here,
But also relaxed.
And begin to feel the weight of your body.
Feeling the effects of gravity holding you firmly to the seat beneath you.
Feeling supported by the structure of your body.
Feeling a sense of ease and a general sense of softening from head to toe.
And then just feel the weight of your body from head to toe.
Taking your attention to the breath.
Not yet trying to change how you breathe,
Simply noticing the rhythm,
The depth,
Speed.
Now notice if there's anything you might do to soften around the spaces of breath.
Maybe softening the insides of the shoulders,
Maybe opening slightly at the chest and shoulders,
Maybe gently adjusting the way that you're sitting so that your spine is more straight.
And imagine softening through the ribs and through the belly.
Breathing through your nose.
And now gently deepening your breath,
Breathing into an expanding chest and belly.
Feeling the movement as you breathe at your chest and belly.
Feeling the movement of air through your nostrils.
And as you deepen your breath,
See if you can count to five or six seconds,
Breathing in.
And then match that count,
Breathing out,
Practicing coherence breathing.
Keeping the count and staying with the sensations of the body.
Staying with the sensations of breath as you count.
Continuing to count your breath five or six seconds,
Matching in and out for just a couple more breaths.
And now letting your breath resume a natural pace,
Letting go of counting,
Letting go of attempting to change the way you breathe,
Other than continuing to breathe through your nose and staying soft as much as you can through your chest and through your belly.
Taking a moment to notice any thinking without trying to control,
Direct,
Or stop thinking.
Just noticing if any thinking is present,
Any thoughts are moving.
You might recognize or even label the thoughts as virtual.
You might come to the sensation of the moving breath and label that reality.
Just taking note that any sensation that you physically feel is anchored in the present moment.
The mind is elsewhere.
All of these things are anchored in the present moment.
Almost always.
So taking a moment to,
Again,
Allow any movement in the mind,
But simply let it be like a current and imagine being more like the ocean that the current moves through,
Being much bigger,
Much vaster.
Imagine allowing any movements of the mind to happen as you deepen,
As you become aware of your vastness,
As you soften,
And you start softening physically as well,
Softening across the face,
Letting the expression on your face fall away,
Softening through the forehead,
Eyebrows dropping down,
Around the eyes,
Become soft.
The micro muscles of the eyes just become like tiny knots loosening,
Softening down the cheeks,
And becoming soft in the sinuses as well,
Opening from the inside.
Following your airway,
Imagining your windpipe,
Your throat,
Feel your neck,
Coming back to the jaw,
Letting the low jaw loosen and float below the head,
Letting the tongue soften down to its root,
And feeling a relaxation 365 degrees around the neck,
Starting from where the neck meets the head,
Meets the ears,
Meets the underside of the jaw,
Feeling all of that,
Any holding,
Any tension gently melting away as you move down slowly toward your torso,
And tracing with your attention down the shoulder,
Feeling all of that,
And tracing with your attention down the shoulders,
Letting your shoulders fall down,
Surrendering to gravity,
Becoming heavy,
Soft,
Falling away from the neck,
As if your arms were curtain rods for heavy drapes,
Letting the drapes weigh your arms and shoulders down in a very relaxing way,
Softening through the upper arms,
Relaxing through the forearms,
And letting your attention meet the space of your hands,
Relaxing and appreciating all that they do for you as you become aware of what you call your hands,
And any and all sensations moving in that space,
Softening and feeling for things you might be able to name easily,
Like temperature,
Moisture,
Or dryness,
Points of contact at the hands,
Maybe tingling,
Subtle pulsing,
Or vibrating,
And also sensations that aren't easily named or that I haven't named that you still feel,
Just leaning in with curiosity and interest,
And then letting the hands gently go,
Taking the attention to the top of the chest,
Feeling the movement of breath like waves in the ocean,
Rising and falling,
And softening below the neck,
Between the shoulders,
Down the chest,
Softer,
Through the rib cage,
Becoming more pliant,
More easy.
Breathing becomes even easier at the moving ribs,
Softening at the upper abdomen,
Over the navel,
The lower belly,
And feeling the rise and fall of breath at the belly,
And taking a moment to pause at the belly and see if you can soften even more,
Filling up as you breathe in and letting go,
Deflating as you breathe out,
And taking your attention to the top of the back,
Just below your neck,
Imagining a warmth spreading from the base of your neck out to your shoulders,
Through the upper back,
Softening,
Melting,
Relaxing,
Feeling a wave of warmth and relaxation moving slowly down from the upper back through the middle back,
And slowly down,
Warmth,
Ease,
Softness meets the space of the low back,
Becoming more and more relaxed and easy,
Soft,
Imagining anything holding to loosen,
Gentle loosening of knots,
Tightness making way for space,
Softening through the pelvis,
And moving through the buttocks,
Softening,
Softening and feeling a warmth through the thighs,
Feeling it move from your hips slowly to your knees,
And with that warmth comes relaxation and surrendering of the weight of your thighs to the seat beneath you,
Noticing subtle holding,
Giving way to relaxation,
Noticing softness around the knees and through,
Painting the shins below the knees,
Down through the ankles,
Feeling into the calves and softening there,
Moving slowly down,
Down through the ankles and into the feet,
Feeling points of contact at the feet and surrendering any holding,
Softening at the tops of the feet,
Across the tops of the toes,
Feeling and softening around the heels,
Across the soles and arches,
Balls of the feet,
The underside to the toes,
And taking a moment now to re-anchor at the breath,
Remembering that like every sensation,
This sensation only happens in the present moment.
Sensations can be thought about,
But they cannot be felt at any other time but now.
So deepening your attention,
Feeling the moving breath where it's most apparent to you.
And this could be at the nostrils,
Moving chest or belly,
It doesn't matter.
But wherever you'd like to stay,
Anchored in sensation,
Choose the place as we sit in silence for the next couple of minutes,
Just staying with the sensation of the moving breath.
If you notice your attention drifting into thoughts,
You might gently become aware of that and label that as virtual and gently bring your attention back to the sensation of the breath,
Labeling that as reality,
Here and now.
And now taking a moment to let go of your anchor and simply be like that vast ocean,
Allowing all movements to move,
But being bigger than all movements.
Imagine sensing the vast space of the ocean of awareness.
