Welcome.
Find your way to lying down or sitting comfortably.
And let your eyes close Take one slow breath in through the nose.
And a long soft sigh out through the mouth One more like that,
Breathing in.
And letting everything fall.
Let the breath return to its own rhythm now.
You don't have to do anything with it.
Just let it move you Notice how it's moving in through your nose.
How it's creating space in your belly or your ribs or your chest.
A constant rising and falling,
A flow ever present See if you can bring some extra curiosity to this flow.
Noticing the breath staying with it.
If you're getting distracted,
That's fine.
Once you notice it,
Just gently bring your awareness back to your breath.
I'm going to share a poem with you,
It's called Beneath the Name.
Let the words land however they land,
You don't have to remember them,
You don't have to understand them You only have to keep breathing before they called you anything.
Before the first voice told you who you were.
You were here.
Before the school.
The mirror.
The long list of who to be before you learned which feelings to keep and which to fold away You were here.
Not the daughter,
Not the son.
Not a partner.
Not the worker.
Not the strong one,
Not the kind one.
Not the one who holds it all together.
Not even the seeker who came tonight to find him or herself underneath all of it.
Something simpler.
Something that has been waiting,
Patient as soil.
To be breathed back into.
You don't have to name it.
You don't have to earn it.
You only have to stop pretending you were ever anyone else.
So breathe.
Breathe.
There you are.
Stay here with the breath as long as you'd like when you're ready to come back,
Let your breath grow just a little fuller wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes remember whatever you're returning to today you're returning as the one who was here all along Thank you for breathing with me.
