I will invite you to find a comfortable position and begin to check in with your body to see if it's balanced.
And we're going to start by just being aware of our immediate environment,
Checking in with our senses.
What do we hear?
And for a moment with your eyes open,
Just look around.
What do you see?
How about sensations?
Do you feel the pressure of your seat on the cushion or the chair?
Do you feel your feet in your shoes or slippers?
Wiggle your toes.
How about your facial muscles?
Are there any temperature changes?
Cold hands?
Warm feet?
If you're sitting upright,
You might be subtly aware of muscles in your core helping to maintain your balance.
Any odors drifting through?
Any taste in your mouth?
We're just looking at what is right now.
No stories.
The past is gone.
The future is unknown.
This moment is the only thing that's happening.
Now we'll begin to circle around,
Scanning our body,
And we're going to locate that one place where we can feel our breath coming and going.
Maybe the abdomen,
Maybe the upper lip.
You might feel air as it comes out your nose.
Or maybe just the tip of your nose.
Maybe the back of your throat.
Wherever you feel like you can settle in with it for a few minutes.
We're going to build our awareness like we're building a little raft on the ocean,
And we're just going to ride it gently with our breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
We don't need to control anything.
The body does it all by itself.
We're just watching.
In the beginning,
Many times our thoughts are still very active,
Pulling on us,
Carrying us away.
We just see it,
Recognize it,
Release them like balloons,
And come back to the breath.
It may help to have an anchor phrase,
Such as breathing in,
Breathing out,
As we begin to relax into this.
We might find muscle groups relaxing.
Maybe our shoulders drop a little bit.
Maybe our hands relax.
Facial muscles soften,
Just riding our breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Right here,
Right now.
As we focus,
We can still hear thoughts coming and going in the background,
But they're just passing.
If one grabs us and carries us away,
We just notice it and very gently release it,
Come back to the breath.
Like floating on the water,
Rising and falling.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
As we breathe,
We might become aware that this is what we're sharing with the world around us.
We take in the energy from the world and we give the world a little bit of us.
The energy we hold is what we're sharing.
So as we breathe in,
Let's cultivate a sense of friendliness,
So that as we breathe out,
We share it.
And now,
For the next couple of minutes,
Let's cultivate a wish,
A wish for all beings to be happy,
A wish that all beings feel peace in their hearts.
May all beings be free.
