To start our time,
I invite you to wiggle your toes,
Noticing any sensations that you wouldn't normally notice in your toes while sitting,
Standing,
Or laying down wherever you are right now.
Then slowly start to roll your ankles,
Maybe flexing and pointing your toes,
Again noticing all the little ligaments,
Muscles,
Sensations as you move,
Really anchoring into your embodied being.
And then placing your feet on the ground,
I invite you to place one hand over your heart,
One hand over your gut,
And lengthen your spine,
Noticing the sensation of movement there.
And next,
Lifting your shoulders up,
Back,
And down,
Starting to incorporate some breath here,
Inhaling as your shoulders go up to your ears,
Exhaling as they roll back and down.
And this might feel a little odd as you continue this with one hand over your heart and one over your gut,
And this is actually intentional,
To really notice the sensations,
Really notice our body space,
Increasing that mindfulness and awareness with the entirety of our embodied being.
After one more breath and shoulder roll,
You can switch the hands,
So switch which hand is over your heart and over your gut,
And then actually switch the direction of your shoulder rolls.
So as you inhale,
Your shoulders are still going to go up to your ears,
And as you exhale,
They're actually going to roll forward and down,
And then back and up as you inhale,
Forward and down.
Breathing here for a couple of breaths,
And then stretching your hands out to either side of you,
Lifting them up over your head,
Reaching for the sky,
Inviting any yawns or heavy sighs,
Deep breaths,
Can stretch around a little bit,
And then releasing your hands down in whatever way feels most comfortable.
And I invite you to take a deep breath that will have an audible sigh with your exhale,
So making your exhale as loud as you can,
And doing this for three breaths.
So inhaling again,
Nice big heavy loud sigh of an exhale.
One more time.
As you continue,
Some nice deep breaths.
You can sit,
Stand,
Lay down,
Or move however feels most comfortable during this track.
I'm going to read the first part of a verse from Psalm 55,
And I invite you to breathe with this,
Inhaling and exhaling alongside these words.
This is the first part of verse 22 in Psalm 55 from the ESV that says,
Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.
Inhale,
Cast your burden on the Lord.
Exhale,
And he will sustain you.
Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.
And as you continue those nice deep breaths,
I invite you to simply notice with curiosity how these words are sitting with you,
Creating space for any parts of you that are finding relief or hope in these words,
Any parts of you that find these words unburdening,
Along with space for any parts of you that aren't comforted by these words or that don't feel unburdened by these words.
I invite you to pause and offer empathy,
Comfort,
Compassion to any parts of you that have a hard time with words like this,
That are not experiencing being sustained,
That don't feel like God is someone they can throw their burdens to.
And if any part of you is wanting to be judgmental about that or critical about that or pour on some self-shame for,
You know,
Possibly having bad theology,
I invite you to ask that part of you to take a step back,
Just asking that part to give you a little bit of space to engage here for just a couple minutes and continuing nice deep breaths,
Just being curious and being with different parts of you that might feel differently about these words.
To close our time I'm going to read these words a couple more times and I invite you to let your mind be curious about imagery that might come up.
This might be some mental imagery around casting your burdens to God,
It might be imagery around what it looks like to be sustained by God,
Or maybe it's simply imagery around being with these different parts of you,
God being with these different parts of you that you're noticing in this time.
Whatever might pop up in your mind I invite you to simply be curious about it,
To ask any judgmental thoughts or parts of you to take a step back and simply receive any comfort that you sense from these words or from the imagery itself.
Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.
Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.
Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.
God I ask that you would give us hope,
Hope that you are able to take the burdens from us that we feel are just too big or are too stuck to be moved.
I pray that you would give us eyes to see what it might look like to cast burdens on you,
Maybe even burdens that we don't realize are burdens,
That we don't realize we can throw to you,
That you can take from us.
Would you open new pathways of peace and relief for the tired and weary and wounded parts of us that have been carrying too many burdens for too long.
Would you fill our lungs,
The entirety of our embodied beings with your breath and help us to exhale and release anything that is not ours to carry.
Amen.
