Hello and welcome.
Today's practice will be on the theme of goodbyes.
Some goodbyes we see coming,
While others arrive when we weren't even paying attention.
In today's practice,
We will sit with the transition.
We'll be asked to pause and breathe and honor what was there before rushing to what's next.
You can think of it as a ceremony,
As a beautiful goodbye wrapped in breath,
All with the intention to close with awareness.
My name is Lillian and let's begin.
We can begin by taking one deep breath in together,
Inhaling and let it out with a sigh,
Finding a comfortable position and letting your body settle to the ground beneath you.
Feel the weight of your body being held.
There's nothing to perform,
Nothing to fix,
Just you and your breath.
Take a moment to notice the temperature of the air on your skin and let your breath move in its natural rhythm.
As you inhale,
Drawing in presence and as you exhale,
Just releasing any effort,
Taking a moment here to contemplate something that's ending.
This ending can be a relationship,
It could be a role that you've played,
Maybe it's the ending of a season.
You don't have to think too hard.
Just let whatever arises come forward and as you let it come,
Just notice what begins to happen in your body.
Notice if there's any tension or warmth,
Is there a feeling of heaviness or even lightness?
Just notice.
This is your body's language before your mind comes in.
Breathe into that space.
As the image or the message comes into your body,
I invite you to just name it,
Just feel it.
There's no need to push anything away.
I invite you to place one hand on your heart and the other one in your belly and as you feel the gentle movement of your breath beneath your palms,
Notice that these two are tiny endings.
As we say hello to the new breath and goodbye with every exhale.
Let the breath carry the message and as you bring this relationship,
This role,
This season to a close,
Let's use our breath and as we inhale,
We can say thank you and as we exhale,
We begin to say goodbye.
Each breath is an act of trust.
With every exhale,
We release.
With every inhale,
We integrate a little deeper.
A moment of space to feel the gratitude of what this meant for you and if there's grief,
Let it be here too.
You see grief and gratitude are not opposites.
We can often find them in the same breath where grief says this mattered,
Gratitude can say it still can.
You can feel both the ache and the beauty because this is the tenderness of being human.
Breathe and be here in the fullness of what it means to love something enough to let it end.
Maybe this is your ceremony.
Maybe this is a way to honor what has been.
To allow the trust of what is coming and to celebrate what has been completed.
As we begin to close slowly,
I will remind you once again of your breath.
Inhaling softly,
Exhaling with each one reminding us to release and to integrate.
Because the love doesn't disappear when something ends.
Sometimes that's when you integrate it.
When it becomes part of the way you breathe,
The way you listen,
The way you love.
We can be thankful that it was once here.
We can honor what once was and we can say goodbye with grace.
Taking one final deep breath together,
Inhaling and exhaling.
I want to thank you for joining me today in this practice.
Take a moment and feel once again the surface beneath you,
The temperature of your skin,
Of the air.
My name is Lillian and I will see you next time.
Thank you.
