This is your quick reset practice for the times when the days feel too short,
The calendar feels too full,
And you feel like head is busy with thoughts and body is not really anchored anywhere.
So just take a moment here,
Wherever you might be,
Finding a comfortable seat,
Doesn't need to be anything specific,
But just find a way to connect to the earth somehow,
Maybe in crossing the legs,
And then start by taking a deeper breath through the nose,
Feel up the belly,
The chest,
And then exhale through the mouth,
Let it go.
Do this one more time,
Long,
Fully inhale through the nose,
Feel up the belly,
The chest,
And as you exhale,
Let the shoulders drop a little more.
Let's do this one more time,
Fuller breath in,
And then let something go.
From here,
Just let the breath settle back to its natural pace,
And just appreciating this moment where you just turn your attention inwards,
Just for a few moments,
Giving yourself a moment to tune in,
To slow down,
To check in,
And to start by noticing the parts of your body that are in touch with the ground,
Could also be just in touch with your seat,
A chair,
A wall behind you,
Doesn't matter,
And then wherever there is contact,
And allow yourself to surrender a little bit more weight into the earth,
Into the surface that you're sitting on,
Allow the body to surrender just a little more to that natural force of gravity,
Allowing yourself to be held,
To soften.
And then from there,
Just getting curious about the sensations that arise in the body,
Without needing to make sense of anything,
Without needing to fix anything,
Simply observing,
Getting curious about what's going on,
Observing what intuitively comes to mind,
Maybe parts of the body that are holding tension,
Maybe parts of the body that feel warm,
To see where your attention gets naturally drawn.
And then come to observe the mind,
Simply noticing what's going on there,
Maybe the mind is busy with thoughts,
Easily distracted,
Jumping from one thing to the next,
Maybe the mind is more quiet,
Steady in attention,
Maybe it feels easy to follow my voice,
Either way,
Just observe.
And then come to observe the breath,
If available,
Breathing in and out of the nose,
And there as well,
Just starting with that neutral observation,
Putting simple words to describe the quality of the breath right now.
And the quality of the breath is never good or bad,
Maybe it's long,
Short,
Deep or shallow.
Notice if your inhale is longer than the exhale,
Or the other way around.
Does the breath feel easy,
Naturally expanding?
Does it feel a bit strained,
Maybe?
Just see what's there.
And then slowly start to bring in a simple count in your head,
Inhaling on a count of four,
Exhaling also on the count of four.
Now,
It really doesn't matter how fast or slow you count,
This is just about bringing a sense of balance for the breath.
It might also take a few rounds for the breath to even out,
It's all good,
Take your time.
Inhale on a count of four,
Exhale on a count of four.
Now,
If you're comfortable where you are,
Keep inhaling on a count of four,
But expand your exhale to a count of six.
Again,
No forcing,
No trying hard,
Might take a couple of rounds to get there.
Just progressively lengthening the exhale breath.
Inhale to a count of four,
Exhale to a count of six.
And then let the count go,
Let the breath return to your more natural pace.
And then once again,
Just tune into the sensation of the body sitting on the ground or on your chair.
And from there,
Start to become aware of the space around you.
Become aware of where you are,
Where you are in the space,
How your body is on the ground or sitting somewhere.
Become aware of the sounds around you.
The touch of the air on your skin.
And once again,
Draw a deeper breath in through the nose,
Fill up the belly,
Fill up your chest,
Hold lightly on top,
And then let it out.
You can start to move your fingers,
Your wrists,
Maybe your head a little.
And when you're ready,
You can start to peel your eyes open and bring yourself back to the space.
Acknowledging that sometimes it just takes a few minutes to pause,
Drop down,
Check in.
The practice is always available.
Feel free to come back to this reset any time you need.
