And begin just by taking a few long deep breaths in,
Oxygenating your body,
Feeling your lungs with the inhale and slowly with a long exhale,
Relaxing any tension or tightness you can feel.
You can allow your hands to find a comfortable place to rest and just a couple more long deep breaths,
Breathing in deep,
The deepest breath you've taken today and as you exhale,
Relaxing the muscles in your face and relaxing your jaw,
Letting go of any tension or tightness you have there.
Allowing your breath to find a natural flow now and then checking in with your shoulders,
Letting go of any tension,
Allowing them to sink towards the earth and allowing them to relax downwards and continuing to breathe and checking in to see how you feel in your stomach,
Just noticing what you feel there and again as you breathe,
Just relaxing,
Letting go of any tension or tightness there.
And now noticing your whole body,
Noticing how it feels to be in a body,
In your body,
In space,
Right now.
How does it feel to be inside your body right now in this moment and just being with that,
Calmly observing what it is that you notice in this moment.
And as always now and as we continue to move through the practice,
As your mind wanders away and you begin thinking,
Just noticing that without judgment but with a kindness to yourself,
You can take it as a chance to practice kindness and just gently bring your attention back to the practice and now to your breath,
The natural inflow and outflow,
Aware when you are breathing in and aware when you are breathing out.
Connecting to anywhere you can feel those sensations and if it's difficult you can place a hand on your stomach and feel the gentle rise and fall with each breath.
Noticing how it feels as the air comes in and staying present with the feeling as the air flows out without controlling the breath,
Just observing,
Giving your full attention,
Letting everything else fall away and completely and not entirely being in breath and the next out breath.
If your mind has wandered,
That's fine,
You can just notice that,
Maybe mentally saying thinking,
Thinking and bring your attention back to your breath and we will now move in to practice placing our awareness on feelings.
So as you are now present in this moment,
Turn your attention to notice any feelings,
Any feelings at all that might be present.
There could be for example calm or ease or there could be frustration or a touch of sadness,
There could be loneliness or grief,
Delight or sweetness.
Just see if there are any feelings at all that you can identify and notice and there may be more than one,
There may be several and as you notice whatever feelings are present,
Stay also connected with your body,
Allow your body to soften and allow the feelings to be known and received with awareness,
With a kindness,
A mindful kindness and it might be that in bringing your mindful awareness to feelings,
You might experience that there isn't much to feel or that it's hard to know the feelings and this is also important to receive with mindfulness.
Sometimes it's hard to know feelings so you can be aware of that.
Sometimes there's not much happening and it's quiet and you can notice that and you can become curious and interested and maybe in the quiet you'll notice there's a feeling of being disconnected or a sense of emptiness or a feeling of numbness and as you let yourself sit and open,
Feelings are present and gently invite them to come forward,
To be received with the gracious,
Kind attention.
And now for a minute or two,
Expand this capacity to be present for feelings and first let yourself remember a pleasant situation that you've been in in the last weeks or months,
Some situation or circumstance where you felt pleasure,
Happiness,
Ease and let that memory arise and feel the flood of feelings that may come with it in your body and mind,
Heart,
Heart,
Heart,
Heart.
There might be a smile or a sense of joy or appreciation,
Sweetness,
Well-being,
Delight and notice how much mindfulness can receive and acknowledge them the all,
The whole play of feeling life.
And now let's go the other direction.
With the same balance and kind attention,
Let yourself remember a difficult situation in the recent weeks or months,
Not the worst one but one that was at least a bit difficult and as you remember a picture of the situation,
Notice again the wash of feelings,
The feelings that fill your body,
Heart and mind,
Tension,
Frustration,
Anxiety,
Anger,
Sadness or whatever feelings there might be.
And notice as well how the space of mindful awareness and kindness or compassion can allow all these feelings as well to arise and move through the body,
Heart and mind and you remain seated,
Centered,
Balanced.
And finally,
Allow your attention,
Come back to the breathing,
The light breath,
The rhythm of the body breathing that's underneath all the waves of feelings and rest in the breathing as it calms and steadies your attention.
And now hopefully from this practice,
You know how feelings too can be included with the same gracious attention you've given to the breath and to the body.
You
