Morning everyone.
My name is Larissa and we're going to practice together for about 15 minutes.
It's an opportunity to slow down a little bit,
Spend a little time with yourself,
And we get to do it together in community.
We get to have that little bit of support knowing that we get to practice together.
I invite you,
As we often do,
Just to take these first few moments to settle into your body,
Make any adjustments that you might need.
You're welcome to close your eyes or set your gaze downward.
These first few moments,
Just notice how your breath moves through you.
And you might even imagine that every time your breath expands your body,
It's an invitation to appreciate being in your body.
How often we'll look in the mirror and we make these small judgments,
But here we have an opportunity to not look but feel.
And it's not that our eyes are naturally filled with judgment,
It's just things that we've learned.
When we settle in here and we just witness breath moving,
It's an opportunity to soften any judgment.
Not needing to push them away,
Not needing to be afraid of judging,
Just noticing that it's happening.
And as you witness it,
Sometimes it just dissolves.
It's like the space that your body creates for the breath to come rushing in.
There's also space for any judgment to just soften and dissolve.
And that is such a part of our meditation practice,
To just witness thoughts coming and going,
To witness breath moving in and out.
To strengthen your ability to simply observe,
Because it's so easy to become the subject of every thought that shows up in our mind.
But when we take this meditation posture,
It's almost as if we're sitting back,
Perhaps literally and figuratively,
In our favorite chair whether that's your physical body,
Or even imagining that little voice in your mind is just sitting back into a really lovely chair and resting for a moment.
And just watching your thoughts passing,
Just like you might watch clouds roll through the sky,
Just like you might watch wind moving leaves on a tree.
And just as we know that clouds form and dissipate,
Leaves will be created,
And then through different seasons will change form.
Even as we think of a leaf dying,
What it's actually doing is shifting its composition to become soil,
To create brand new growth.
And that's exactly what our meditation is like.
We're just witnessing changes happening.
Sometimes those changes are fertile soil for new growth.
And just witnessing,
Watching as your thoughts move.
It might change the landscape of feeling in your body as your thoughts shift.
But we have an opportunity to just stay with our body.
It's,
Oh yeah,
There's a thought.
What does it feel like in my body?
This ability to just watch your breath move actually helps us strengthen our emotional intellect.
There's such a strong relationship,
And the good news is it's already happening.
We're building our emotional resilience,
Our emotional intelligence,
Just by feeling breath.
So just notice this for a few moments.
How do I feel my breath in my body?
Where do I feel my breath in my body?
There's this idea that simply witnessing something is a way to appreciate it.
And it's not that everything we see we automatically appreciate.
And appreciation doesn't even mean that we have to like it.
Sometimes someone tells us a difficult truth,
And we might say,
Oh yeah,
I appreciate you saying that,
Even though it feels hard to listen to.
It's appreciation doesn't have to come with the feeling,
That warm,
Lovely feeling when you really enjoy being grateful for something.
So when we pause and we witness our breath,
We're offering our appreciation to our breath.
Very often that can feel like gratitude,
A feeling of warmth and acceptance and welcome.
There's an opening in that feeling.
And we often practice with our breath,
Not only because our breath is always here.
Sometimes we might practice just noticing our hands.
Again,
Hands always with you.
So it's somewhere in your body that can contact the present moment.
Your body is always present.
And it doesn't mean that we appreciate every breath we take.
It doesn't even mean that we always appreciate our body.
Judgments come,
But judgments also go.
The judgments of the mind are not who we are,
They're just a mechanism.
Very often a mechanism for keeping us safe.
Consider any judgment you've ever had about your body,
What you look like,
Is simply because your brilliant brain is trying to keep you safe.
We need to look a certain way to have belonging.
But in truth,
You already belong.
It's the fitting in that becomes a little sticky,
A little tricky.
You're already a being created of nature.
You're already connected.
And you can trust this because breath is happening.
The earth cares for you because gravity is holding you.
Simply witnessing a breath is a form of appreciating this breath.
Just notice again,
Where do I feel my breath in my body?
Anytime we concentrate on a breath,
Even if it's just a half a second on a breath,
We honor that breath.
Anything that we witness,
Anything that we choose to observe consciously,
We honor it.
And to consider that appreciating your breath or honoring your breath by witnessing it gives us the strength to honor anything that we witness.
And this is where we build this emotional intelligence.
That when I witness a joyful emotion,
It's easy to receive the welcome,
The warmth of it.
But when I witness a difficult emotion,
Very often the tension will want to come into my body and close off to it.
Not because that's my body's nature,
But because we've been trained.
Oh,
Difficult emotions mean something is wrong.
But instead,
It's just another part of us asking to be witnessed.
And with practice,
Every time you practice honoring a breath by just feeling it,
By observing it,
You're also practicing opening your heart to the trickier things in life.
A difficult emotion,
A rough season,
Even witnessing something like a terrible video.
And you wish that whatever you had seen wasn't happening in the world.
But the moment we wish that it wasn't happening,
We miss honoring the feeling.
The feeling of sorrow or grief or anything that tugs at our heartstrings.
So just notice again here a breath.
Recognize it as an opportunity to grow your heart space.
Sure,
It's simple concentration,
A big part of our meditation.
But through that concentration,
We start to become a little more open,
A little more willing to see all the parts of us,
And a little more tender to be able to hold all the parts of us.
With that,
I'll invite you to place your hands into any of your closing habit practices.
Just appreciating again the movement,
The sensation,
The ability even to move your arms.
I'll end with a few loving kindness phrases,
Just repeating them back as they make sense.
May I be healthy and supported today.
May I seek and find contentment today.
When action is needed,
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
And may the merits of our practice ripple out to benefit all beings.
And then just whenever you feel complete,
Going slow if you can,
Find a little movement,
Take a moment to thank yourself just for showing up.
And as always,
Thank you for being here,
Supporting each other.
