So go ahead and find a comfortable seat.
Take a few moments to move the fleshy part of the seat behind you so you can tilt your pelvis forward.
Move your shoulders back over your hips,
Let the collarbones widen as the shoulder blades slide together and down the back.
Palms softly facing up or down on the thighs,
Eyes can gently close.
And just take a few breaths to start to soften any places that feel like they're unnecessarily gripping.
So all of you just starts to arrive where you are,
Feeling your seat beneath you,
Your thigh bones rooted and your breath moving.
Just starting to take it one breath at a time,
One moment at a time.
Each breath gently nudging the mind into this moment,
Slowing down the movement of the mind to match the movement of the body,
Which in this moment is just the gentle rise and fall of your breath.
As you notice the mind just releasing any attachment to any one thought.
Notice if particular thoughts feel especially sticky or hard to let go of.
And just being witness to your thoughts and witnessing your response to your thoughts without judging right,
Wrong,
Good,
Bad.
Almost like each breath you're just saying,
Oh,
This is me watching my mind thinking,
Watching the nature of the mind do what it habitually does thinking.
As you become the observer of your thoughts,
You give yourself space from them.
And in that space is choice,
Is room.
In that space is the potential to respond instead of react.
So for about a minute here,
Just practicing giving yourself space,
Noticing the nature of the mind thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking.
And without latching on to that,
Just coming back to the breath.
Easy inhale,
Easy exhale.
Take a few moments to visualize on the screen of the mind.
A very bright sun in a huge open sky.
Noticing the vastness and expansiveness of the sky itself.
And the sun shining down,
Bringing warmth,
Light.
As you visualize this,
Also seeing clouds dispersed throughout the sky.
Seeing that those clouds are indeed just like our thoughts.
Observing the clouds,
Thoughts shifting,
Changing each moment.
And the nature of the mind and of the clouds of weather to just shift and change moment to moment.
And still being aware of this presence of sky,
This expansive nature that you are indeed a part of.
And the warmth and clarity of the sun.
It's beautiful,
Bright sun.
So in this metaphor,
Clouds are similar to the thoughts.
The sky is in essence soul.
And the sun,
The warmth is the energy of the heart.
So just feeling the heat of the heart,
The vastness of your own soul and being that sometimes gets clouded over with thoughts,
Thinking.
So anytime you get unnecessarily attached around one thought,
Just remembering,
I am the sky.
I am the sky,
I am that vastness.
And feeling the warmth and the fire and the light of the heart simultaneously.
Knowing and trusting that any time there's clouds,
There's always still that underlying vastness of sky and the warmth of the sun.
Anytime there's thoughts that feel especially dense,
There's always the soul which is infinitely vast and the heart which is so welcoming and warm underneath it.
So with each breath,
Just start to identify with that vastness.
Feel your heart beating,
That gentle warmth and beat of the heart,
A reminder that you're alive,
Still here.
And perceiving the thoughts just like clouds passing moment to moment.
Realizing that you are still the sky underneath all of that.
Take a deep breath in,
Fill the belly,
The low back,
The front of the chest,
Behind the heart.
Open the mouth and exhale,
Release the breath out.
One more like that,
Deep breath in all the way to full.
And open the mouth and exhale.
Gently wiggling through the fingers,
The toes,
Opening up the eyes and coming back into your space.
Really taking a few moments for this to land so that throughout your day you can note and pause when you're caught up in the cloudiness of mind.
And instead choose in that space to come back to the vastness of soul and the warmth of heart.
Have a beautiful rest of your day.
