This is Janine Tandy,
And welcome into the practice.
Today I'll be offering you a meditation that allows you to pause,
Soften,
And connect.
And these three elements of the practice are a really beautiful way to be able to take a break,
A rest,
And really take refuge in the present moment so that we can be with all the material that might be in our system right now,
And to even notice what we're hosting in any given moment.
So let's begin.
I like to start often with the physical body,
Just allowing for an opportunity to settle into your seat and to slow down from any larger movements that we were making.
And sometimes that involves a little bit of stretching,
Or moving the head and neck,
Or even moving the jaw around a little bit.
So if there was any noticeable tension or contracting,
We can meet that with a softening.
So this first part of the practice,
Which is to pause,
Allows us to take in anything that needs to happen for us to be able to do that with a sense of ease.
Even moving the shoulders a little bit can be helpful,
And then finding a restful place for our sit bones so that the body can feel more gathered here.
And as we're taking this time to pause the body from any hurriedness or busyness,
Or also softening away from any contraction or restlessness,
It can be interesting to notice maybe the body starts to still,
But are there other areas or aspects of ourselves that maybe are less present or busy?
Might be interesting to notice if the pace of thoughts feels a little bit higher,
Or if the heart rate feels a little bit busy.
And that can happen if we're noticing overwhelm or overstimulation.
And I find often just attending to that,
The act of noticing and recognizing that maybe our thoughts are busy,
In itself can start to invite in an opportunity to rest from that pace.
So the mind then has an opportunity to feel like it can arrive here,
Where the body is.
The breath pace can slow,
Assisting in that as well.
Start to drop your awareness into the Hara,
Which is the area that's located in the belly,
That's behind the navel,
Which is known as our center,
This place of internal ground.
When we can rest here,
It invites in a sense of stability and stillness.
It takes us energetically and physically further away from the mind,
Which often can invite in that sense of busyness or higher pace or overwhelm.
So we drop in here,
Resting the attention or even the hands over the belly center,
If that's helpful.
And we soften this area too.
Sometimes we're not realizing how much we hold on in the day.
We hold on to the roles that we play,
Ideas,
Thoughts,
Or perspectives,
And that can impact the fluidity of breath and the softness in the body.
So can you soften here a little bit more?
That allows us to tap into the second part of this practice.
So we pause from movements,
We pause from our day,
And we soften.
And the more we soften,
The easier it becomes for us to really connect into the content,
The material that we're hosting right now.
So what's been circulating around in our system?
Is there a particularly difficult circumstance we're noticing or in?
Discomfort in some way in the body,
Heart,
Or mind?
It could be one or more than one thing that just feels so here.
Let's connect into what that is,
Which is sometimes known as befriending.
When we get to turn towards what we notice,
And we just hold it gently in the belly center.
The more we still the movements of the body,
Heart,
And mind,
We soften.
We widen our capacity to be able to not just notice,
But to hold with care what's here,
Especially if what's here is uncomfortable,
Difficult,
Or something that's even feeling harder than that.
And we don't need to fix anything right now,
Or do anything grander other than pausing,
Softening,
And connecting into what we notice.
We hold it in this beautiful well of support that is the hara,
Our belly center.
And we'll take a minute more.
I'll give you a little bit of quiet here in this minute to be able to be with.
You can visualize the hara as this vast lake where the water is calm.
And there's depth to it like it is in your own system.
We'll rest here a few more moments.
Allow yourself a few more deep breaths connecting and softening with what is here.
And then gently allowing for a deeper inhalation.
And perhaps a nice long out-breath through the mouth.
Slowly lifting the gaze or opening the eyes,
Noticing how you're feeling.
I hope this practice of pausing,
Softening,
Connecting has been a benefit.
Thank you so much for practicing with me,
And take care.
Thank you.
