Good morning.
Welcome to another day.
A lot of times when we wake up in the morning we're still groggy from the sleep or rushing into the day thinking about what needs to be done,
Reliving things that happened yesterday.
And we don't really give ourselves a chance to be present,
Grateful for just being.
So if you'd like,
If you're really sleepy,
Maybe you sit up or even stand up.
If you know you're not going to fall asleep then you can stay laying in bed if you'd like to.
You might see if you can lengthen your next inhale and then do a really short forceful exhale.
And again maybe a big long inhale taking in fresh morning air and a short quick exhale out the mouth.
Maybe one more in through the nose and let it go.
And just let the breathing relax,
Breathing in and out your nose.
And as if you could start to wake up the different areas of the body we'll start to bring attention to the feet and the toes.
Like you could greet them.
Wake them up.
Like a mother going to wake up her child in the morning for school.
Good morning sweetie.
And the ankles,
Calves.
Good morning knees.
Waking up the thighs.
The hips and the pelvis.
Waking up the belly and low back.
Whatever's here is fine.
Good morning.
The chest and the upper back.
Down the arms to the hands.
Maybe wiggling fingers.
Back up to the shoulders and the neck.
Good morning to whatever is here.
And then the jaw,
The face muscles.
Maybe a big stretch of the face.
Maybe opening the mouth wide like a yawn.
Maybe blinking the eyes a few times.
And bringing,
If you're able or want to,
You might bring the fingers of the right hand to the right collarbone and the fingers the left hand to the left collarbone and just tap the collarbone.
Tap,
Tap,
Tap,
Tap,
Tap,
Tap.
Like a good morning,
Wake up,
Tapping.
Taking in this feeling of touching a body,
The reverberations of the tapping.
And then you might tap the forehead.
Tap all around.
The third eye.
The temples.
Good morning.
Head,
Good morning brain.
See if you can just feel the sensations of the tapping.
And let that tapping go.
Come back to feeling the breath in and out.
You might imagine on the inhale so you could take in fresh,
Bright energy of a new day.
And exhaling,
Just letting out anything stale,
Stagnant.
Just this breath.
Just letting go.
Just this moment of being alive again another day.
Just staying with this moment,
With this breath.
We often forget how precious life is.
And so Buddha came up with the five remembrances.
I've sort of come up with my own interpretation of them.
So I will go through them one by one.
If you'd like to,
You might repeat after me.
Or after I say them,
You might just take a pause to feel what comes up for you with each of these.
These are kind of like the ground rules for life.
This is just the hand we're dealt.
It's not a negative thing.
Although some people might interpret them that way.
It's just a stating of facts of what every human will experience.
So the first one.
It is human nature to age,
So I will age.
And the second one.
It is human nature to experience illness,
Injury,
Or disease,
So I will experience injury,
Illness,
Or disease.
The third one.
It is human nature to die,
So someday I will die.
The fourth one.
Everything and everyone I love will change or go away.
And the last one.
Whatever good or bad I do,
The consequences of my actions are really the only thing I leave behind.
So know that this is just the given.
If you're a human,
Those things are just given.
That can be a comfort.
Not to say you won't have feelings about them,
And that you shouldn't allow yourself to feel sad,
Frustrated,
Disappointed.
But these are things that link you to all of humanity.
You're not alone in your suffering.
And any day we're not experiencing,
Actively experiencing one of these,
Might seem like an extra wonderful day.
To close this off,
You might take a big stride.
A big stretch,
Maybe a big breath in,
A big breath out.
And if their eyes were closed,
Blink them back open to take in a new day.
A day that's a blessing.
Thank you for taking this time for yourself this morning.
Try it again tomorrow.
Why not?
It could only make good things happen,
Right?
All right,
Have a great day.
