You may start with your eyes closed,
Standing seated or lying down,
Taking stock of where you find yourself at this moment in this day in this year.
The present moment is all we truly have.
Just sit with that.
Tired,
Hungry,
Irritable,
Or happy.
Take note of your mind,
Your body,
And your spirit where you are right now.
Slowing down,
Getting still.
Settle your focus on your lungs and your heart,
Playing in a counterpoint rhythm to each other.
Notice the pulsing of your heart.
Your circulatory system follows a rhythm all its own.
You can't stop it,
Slow it,
Or speed it up.
Steady pulse,
A steady beat.
Just follow it,
Identify it.
Turn your attention to your lungs and your vascular system that you do have a measure of control over.
You could hold your breath,
You can breathe faster,
Shallower.
For now,
Slow down your breath and pull it in deeper than it had been.
A little bit more with each breath.
Slowing it down,
Pulling it in deeper.
Maybe you want to transition your focus back and forth from breath to pulse.
Your pulse steady,
Mostly outside of your control.
Automatic.
And your breath that you can manipulate,
Alter,
Going slower.
Going deeper as a kind of self-soothing.
As you gently transition your focus from breath to pulse and from pulse to breath,
Back again.
One steady and apart,
And one profound and in your domain of control.
Shifting,
Slowing,
Steadying.
See if you can't,
For a moment or moments at a time,
Notice both.
The counterpoint between breath and pulse.
The interplay.
The slow,
The steady.
Use your breath and your pulse as a focus to return to,
To stay present.
As we reflect together.
Let the images and sensations of the past year come to mind.
Don't let them flood you.
Just let them drift across.
Highs and lows,
Traumas and joys.
Celebrations and griefs.
Wander through those experiences with no more attachment than you might have for the panels of a comic book.
Detached and bemused.
And if you get lost in a memory,
Please just return to your breath and your pulse.
The polyrhythm of the two.
When you think back on this ancient past,
Notice that like your pulse,
You can't control the flow of time.
Like your breath,
You can breathe in those experiences and send them out.
Let them go.
Returning to this moment,
The only moment you have.
Noting the preciousness of where you are right now.
Centering yourself in your pulse and your breathing.
You may feel anxiety or curiosity about the future.
The year to come.
We all can get filled with fantasies about what's ahead.
It's okay.
Let those fantasies drift across the view screen of your mind's eye,
Whooshing by.
Don't fixate.
Observe.
The things you're concerned about,
The things you're excited about in the year to come.
Look at them with a smiling detachment.
Hmm.
Like your pulse,
You don't control them.
And like your breath,
You can take the fantasies in and let them out.
Letting them go.
And returning to this moment,
The only moment of your life right now.
The only thing that's real.
Letting go.
Letting go of ancient history and the distant future.
Bye.
Returning to this precious moment where you are right now.
Following your breath or your pulse or both.
Neither.
Taking note of the interplay between the two.
Blessings.
