Why don't we start off with just a little stretch.
It's been kind of a long day.
Reach your arms up overhead,
Close your eyes and deepen your breath.
Just notice if you can draw your navel in toward your spine and at the same time press up through the heels of the hands.
Press up through the right side and then the left side,
Just swaying back and forth.
You might want to open your jaw wide.
See if you can invoke the yawn reflex.
Open your jaw wide,
Breathe deep,
Let out any sounds.
You can try smiling like they do in the commercials when they wake up in the morning.
Then slowly let your hands begin to float down.
And to help us begin to gather our attention,
We'll begin with a few minutes of mindful breathing.
So with your eyes closed,
Taking a long,
Slow,
Deep inhalation and just hold the breath for a moment and then exhale and relax.
Soften on the out-breath.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in,
Hold the breath for a moment.
And as you exhale,
Relax and soften and feel.
Again,
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
Pause at the top of the in-breath.
And then relax on the out-breath.
Let the breath be long and slow and deep.
You might,
For these first minutes,
Match the length of the in-breath with the length of the out-breath.
You might breathe in slowly to the count of four,
Pause,
Exhale slowly to the count of four,
And pause.
And notice if you can smooth out the breath.
And notice if you can sense how as you smooth out the breath,
It's almost as if you're smoothing out the mind.
Feeling more and more absorbed in the sensation and the flow of the breath.
And for these next few minutes,
Could you slow down the breath even more?
Could you smooth out the breath even more?
And notice the effect on the mind.
And as you feel ready,
Release all control of the breath.
Let your breath be unrestricted,
Easy,
And free-flowing.
And notice where you feel the breath on the inside,
And you might just track wherever you feel the breath the most predominant.
And sensing as you move into your practice an anchor,
Which might be the breath,
Just riding the breath with your awareness.
You might prefer using the anchor of sound,
The direct immediate vibrations of sound as they're happening.
Others find the feeling in the palms of the soles of the feet to be a helpful anchor.
Letting your attention rest here,
The breath or sound or felt sense.
With this sense of the anchor in the foreground,
You might also inquire how much more intimately you could feel into the aliveness of the body,
Feeling the scalp and the crown of the head,
The forehead smooth.
Feeling the little muscles around the eyes.
As you relax the tongue,
Letting it fill the lower jaw.
As you relax the root of the tongue down into your throat,
Let all expression begin to melt away from your face.
And could you relax this space between your navel and your spine,
Down through the floor of the pelvis?
Could you relax or soften or open the palms of the hands?
Feeling relaxing,
Opening the soles of the feet.
And as you continue in your practice,
Exploring this paradox of deep relaxation,
The quality of alertness.
When you wake up with the mind far away,
Escorting your attention back to your anchor,
Back to the flow of breath,
To the aliveness of the sound vibrations,
Onto the feeling tone of here and now.
And as you continue in your practice,
Exploring this paradox of deep relaxation,
The quality of alertness.
And as you continue in your practice,
Exploring this paradox of deep relaxation,
The quality of alertness.
You may notice in particular the moment you wake up out of a story,
A moment of release,
Of letting go,
An invitation to re-relax,
To arrive again,
There's no hurry,
No rush,
To again feel the intimacy of the breath.
The particular sound vibrations in this moment and the aliveness of sensation,
Both the quality of letting go and the arising of non-judging awareness,
The capacity to observe,
To watch what changes and to allow your experience to flow.
And as you continue in your practice,
Exploring this paradox of deep relaxation,
The quality of alertness.
And as you continue in your practice,
Exploring this paradox of deep relaxation,
The quality of alertness.
What is happening right now?
Can you let this be?
Can you hold this without judgment?
And these remaining five minutes or so,
You might sense what might soften or relax or let go right now,
Relaxing through the muscles of the face,
The tongue,
The jaw,
Soften the belly and the palms of the hands,
The soles of the feet.
One quality of meditation is this sustaining of attention on an object,
Such as breath or sound.
Another is this quality of witnessing or open monitoring of what is happening.
And yet another quality is simply letting it be,
And you might,
If it feels right for you,
Draw up your anchor.
Explore what it means to simply rest in presence.
Know where to go,
Nothing to do,
Just to relax and notice the flow.
To sense what is arising in this space in which everything arises and falls away.
No effort,
No striving.
Fy Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And you might in these final moments,
Taking a slow,
Deep inhalation and hold the breath for a moment and relax on the out-breath.
Or a few rounds of breath,
Lengthen the inhale,
Hold for a moment and relax and feel.
Let all technique fall away.
And feel what is here.
Take room for this.
And you might in your own time,
With your eyes closed,
Let your head drift just a little to the left and to the right,
Sensing the movement from inside.
No rush,
No hurry.
We're going to take the next few minutes for your transition.
Feel free to relax or move or stretch,
Whatever feels good for you.
