Letting Go

Come to a comfortable seated position.

Either with crossed legs or maybe drawing hips back to heels in a kneeling position.

Or maybe you find a chair or something to sit on,

Placing the soles of both feet evenly into the earth underneath you.

When you reach this comfortable seated space,

Allow your eyelids to fall heavy.

And bring your palms to rest gently on your knees,

On your thighs,

Wherever they fall comfortably.

Take a moment to check in with your spine,

Your back body.

And on your next in-breath,

Take a full deep breath in,

Drawing shoulders up towards the ears and lengthening up through the crown of the head.

As you exhale,

You roll the shoulders down and away back behind you.

And feel more openness,

More space through the front of your chest.

Tucking your chin slightly.

And a little bit more length through the back of your neck.

Humble chin.

And bring all of your awareness,

All of your attention to your breath.

See if you can follow the air as it enters in through your nostrils.

Watch it travel down into your lungs and then turn around,

Coming back up and out.

Maybe you feel some warmth on your upper lip as you exhale.

Just following that ebb and flow.

The coming and going of air in and outside of you.

And then bringing all of your awareness to the center of your throat.

And although you will continue to take these breaths in and out through your nostrils,

Visualize or imagine that there is a little hole at the center of your throat.

And every time you breathe in,

You draw air in right through the center of your neck,

The center of your throat,

Right where your atoms,

Your Eve's apple would be.

And every time you breathe out,

You send the air out and away from you from this exact same hole,

This same opening right in the front of your neck.

And as you begin to settle into that visualization,

To really feel it and allow it to be your experience,

You might notice that when you breathe this way,

It creates this constriction,

This gentle tightening in the throat.

And as a result,

It produces a sound.

This ocean,

This sea sounding breath.

This is yogic breathing.

This is ujjayi breath.

And this is a breath that begins to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system within your body.

Telling your brain to release hormones that fill you and flood you with tranquility,

With groundedness,

With peacefulness.

See if you can feel that peace entering and exiting your body with this ocean sounding breath.

And using this ujjayi breath,

The sound,

The feeling to be your anchor.

So that any time you find yourself,

You catch yourself creating stories about something from the past,

Reliving,

Fantasizing from the future about something that has not yet happened.

You can bring yourself back.

You can anchor yourself here.

You can find and discover presence with this slow,

Steady,

Smooth breath in and out through the center of your throat.

The sound of this breath alone is enough to quiet mental chatter.

And on a physical level,

The muscles within your body begin to relax,

To settle,

To release.

Bring your awareness from the center of your throat and draw it up right to the crown of your head.

Feel the very top of your head.

And begin to embark on a mental scan of your physical body moving from the top,

Slowly,

Slowly,

Allowing your awareness to move downwards in the direction of the earth.

And maybe you visualize a light,

Maybe you visualize a halo,

Whatever it is when this light or halo or aura begins to move downward to scan your body behind your closed eyelids.

It releases.

It relaxes.

It encourages softness.

Slowly feel your awareness gently moving down the axis of your body.

And every time you become aware of a particular point,

Whether it's through the visualization of a light or just a feeling,

Sensation,

Immediately this area releases and relaxes.

You let go.

You surrender.

Continuing to allow your awareness to guide lower still,

Moving in the direction of the earth underneath you.

And slowly,

Slowly allowing every muscle,

Every tendon,

Every cell within your body to be as passive as it can possibly be.

There's nothing that requires your energy,

Your force in this moment.

Give yourself permission to simply be here.

Without thoughts,

Without judgment,

Without any expectation.

Simply allow that awareness to come all the way down,

Releasing and relaxing through the legs,

The feet and the toes if you haven't already.

And then begin to become aware of your energetic body with your physical body,

Your outermost layer relaxed and soft.

You can begin to feel the energy moving within the container of your skin.

Bring your awareness to your heart.

And maybe for the first time today,

You begin to feel your heart beating.

Your big,

Bright,

Beautiful heart.

This wellspring of love,

Of joy,

Of compassion and forgiveness.

Feel your heart beating.

Begin to draw your awareness to your lungs,

The rise and fall of your rib cage.

As you take air into your body,

You fill up,

You inspire.

And the fall of your rib cage,

As you exhale,

You contract.

Every in-breath is the opportunity to create space.

And with every out-breath,

You move into that space.

Feel the aliveness that is you from within.

Really feel that.

And from the rib cage,

Move and draw your awareness up to the warm and friendly darkness behind your closed eyelids.

Begin to visualize or imagine that you are sitting on a beach at sunset.

Smell the salty sea air.

Hear the symphony of waves around you.

And see the beautiful water color of orange,

Gold and yellow that the sun's rays are creating as it begins to set below the horizon.

Bathe your body in these last few moments of sun rays.

Begin to feel the warmth on your skin.

As you continue to watch the beauty of this sunset,

You notice a boat in the distance,

A sailboat.

Visualize,

See this boat.

And you begin to offload,

To give anything that is stealing your peace in this moment,

You load it onto this boat.

Any thoughts,

Any emotions,

Any expectations,

The could-haves,

The should-haves,

Any judgments,

Resentments towards yourself,

Towards another person,

Anything that you are holding onto gets gently placed within this boat.

See it leaving you and see this boat effortlessly taking this weight.

When you have offloaded and let go of anything and everything that is no longer contributing to your highest good in this moment.

You see this boat effortlessly sail away into the horizon.

And you watch it sail further and further away from you,

Seeing it get smaller and smaller against the backdrop of a water color sunset.

Until this boat is so far in the distance that you can't even see it anymore.

Feel new lightness.

Feel the space that you have created for more opportunities,

Relationships,

Experiences to enter your life when you let go of all that is no longer serving.

Surrender.

Open.

Let go.

From this place of stillness,

Of silence,

Of softness,

Begin to bring your awareness back to your physical body.

And begin to deepen your breath,

Taking in as much air as your body needs to nourish every muscle,

Every tendon,

Every cell that is you.

And exhale to release.

Take one more deep,

Full breath in,

Really fill up,

Inspire as much air as you can into your lungs,

Filling up all the way to the top.

And slowly with control,

Allow that wave of breath to recede.

And maybe allowing both corners of your lips to gently curl up slightly,

Creating a smile on your face.

Basking in this new lightness.

And then slowly,

Slowly bringing your palms together into a prayer position in front of your chest,

Allowing your thumbs to rest gently on your heartbeat.

Feel your beating heart.

And then bowing your forehead just slightly in the direction of your fingertips.

The light in me honors the radiant light that is you.

Namaste.