Hi,
Welcome to this practice that offers you a moment to pause,
Regather and reset.
So either to start your day or to end your day or even just to take a moment during it.
So just find a comfortable seat,
Close your eyes and let's begin.
So sit up tall,
Steady seat,
Relax your face,
Your jaw,
Your belly and your mind.
And right here,
Right now,
Just give yourself full permission to take this time.
So life and all of its happenings will be there for you when you return afterwards.
So now this is just an opportunity for you to uncover your own inner resources of balance,
Stability,
Ease,
Presence.
And as well to set the tone for how you choose to go back into your life.
So let's just take a moment or two first to settle and brighten your mind and your nervous system.
So in a moment,
I'm going to offer you a count to apply to your breath and your one job is just to keep each breath smooth,
Deep,
Complete and yet relaxed.
So we'll be inhaling for a count of five,
Pausing for five with the breath held in and then exhale it for five.
So just finish that exhale that you're on now,
Let the breath go completely draw the navel towards your spine at the end of that breath.
So belly pulls in and then together.
Let's inhale for a count of five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale five,
Four,
Three,
Two and one.
Inhale five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale five,
Four,
Three,
Two and one.
Continue like that.
So five in,
Five pause,
Five out.
Each cycle of breath,
Each breath itself is smooth as silk.
Complete full inhale and complete full exhale.
And as you pause with the breath held in,
See if you can relax completely into that moment.
So even though you're holding the breath in,
Let everything go.
If you like,
You can stretch this practice out a little and increase the count to six.
So six in,
Six pause and six out.
But only if that feels comfortable to do so.
A few more rounds like this.
Three more cycles.
Last cycle right here.
And at the end of that one,
We'll drop the count back to two,
Two,
Two,
So into pause two and out two.
So you might notice straight away a shift in the mind and in the body.
Brighter yet steadier.
A few cycles like that.
And then relax the counting altogether.
Now just begin to watch your body breathe itself.
So no longer counting.
Natural rhythm of breath.
Just bring your attention to rest in the space of your heart.
So right in the middle of the chest,
The mind rests right there.
With every natural breath that you take from here.
Notice that any sense of urgency or pressure dissolves into spaciousness.
Any sense of dullness,
Fatigue,
Or confusion transforms into lightness and clarity.
Any sense of doubt or fear becomes a knowing of your purpose and a trust that life is holding you.
So keeping your attention resting in the space of the heart.
Begin to expand your awareness outwardly in every direction around you.
So that you get a sense that spaciousness pervades this moment.
So awareness rests in the heart and yet expands as well ahead of you into the horizon,
Spaciousness and openness.
Awareness extends to the left of you.
Open,
Spacious and free.
Awareness to the right and behind you.
Vast spaciousness extends beneath you and above you.
So in every direction,
Openness,
Openness,
Vastness,
Spaciousness,
Every direction.
And now into this spacious area around you,
Within you,
Offer yourself this question.
What feeling or inequality do I want to take out into my day from here?
Is it a sense of joy or playfulness or sincerity?
Or patience,
Courage,
Calmness?
So choose one mood,
One flavour of yourself that you'd like to brighten or enhance or more deeply embody when you return into your day.
What is it that you'd like to offer others or your work or the world or even just yourself?
So own whatever that is in this moment,
Name it.
And then now see a blank screen in front of your mind's eye.
So blank movie screen.
And recall here a moment in your life where you did feel or embody that quality.
Whatever it was,
When have you already experienced this or become this or exposed this from within yourself?
So the first example that comes to your mind is perfect.
Don't overthink it.
Play onto that movie screen a movie of that experience.
What did it feel like?
Where in your body did you feel it?
That emotion,
That quality?
Re-experience that feeling.
As though it was happening again right now.
Allow it to soak into you.
Feel yourself re-embodying.
And re-experiencing it.
Uncovering a quality that quality that was and always has actually been waiting inside of you.
So feel it grow.
See yourself taking it back out into your life from here.
Be here with this feeling.
Soak in it for one more moment.
And then relax all techniques here.
So release the screen of the mind.
And just take a moment to be here with yourself.
A few breaths.
Start to deepen your breath now.
And soak into this moment here knowing that you have all the resources and the answers that you need to live your life already inside of you.
So practices of quietness and stillness like this one bring you home to a remembrance of this.
Hear this from within you.
I have everything I need.
The light of my life supports me.
And with this breath,
I am home.
Start to bring yourself back now into your day,
Feeling the effects of your practice in your body,
In your mind and your nervous system.
And of course your heart.
Thank you so much for practicing.
Come back to yourself whenever you can.
Namaste.
