Touching Our Inner Life With Compassion & Spaciouness (With The Guest House – A Poem By Rumi)

Settling in,

Making yourself comfortable.

If you wish to lie down,

Lie down.

If you're comfortable sitting,

Please sit as you feel.

No right or wrong.

Let's start off by clearing some space.

Let's take a big full belly breath in to the belly and then exhale opening the mouth.

Let the breath fall out with a sigh.

Breathing in as if the lungs are in the belly.

Big full belly breath in and exhaling,

Softening,

Letting go.

Breathing in the belly swelling and breathing out the sense that you can give the weight of your body to gravity.

Staying with these extra deep inhales and exhales for a few more breaths and feeling that with every exhale the energy of the body can settle,

The momentum of the mind can settle,

The weight of the body can settle.

Feeling free to really sound the out breath,

Having the sense that you can breathe out anything that you need to let go of.

And you might,

As we come into a more natural breath,

Still be able to feel into the possibility that with the exhale you can drop whatever you need to drop.

You might find yourself needing to drop the thoughts.

You might find yourself with these very subtle physical tensions that you can let go of with the exhale.

And we'll go through the body relaxing different parts of the body so we can get nice and grounded,

Settled.

Let's breathe in,

Take a big breath in as if you could breathe into the toes and breathe out let go,

Let the toes relax.

Breathing in as if you could breathe into the feet and breathing out letting go.

Breathing into the ankles and breathe out feel if the ankles can relax and become a little more floppy.

Breathing into the legs and breathing out let the legs relax.

See if you can give the weight of the legs to gravity.

Breathing in let's swirl the breath down into the lowest part of the belly,

Maybe feeling the softness of the belly breath come up against the bowl of the pelvis.

And then exhale let go.

Breathing in let's send the next in breath into the back body so into the lower back swelling the lower back.

And exhale let go let the lower back relax and release.

Breathing again into the belly let the belly rise the belly button swells and exhale softening relaxing.

Breathing into the chest the chest could rise and swell and breathe out let go.

Let's breathe in now to the side ribs and see if you can expand the ribs sideways and exhale let it go.

Breathing into the upper back and the shoulder blades and exhale let the upper back and the shoulder blades soften and relax.

Breathing into the shoulders and breathe out let the shoulders relax.

Breathing in as if you could breathe into the arms perhaps feeling the arms expand and relax.

Breathing in as if you could bring breathe into the hands and the fingers and then exhale let go.

Maybe the fingers can soften a little more.

Breathing into the neck and the throat and with the exhale allow the neck to relax.

Breathing into the jaw and breathe out let the bottom jaw fall away from the top jaw.

Breathing into the inside of the mouth and breathe out let the inside of the mouth soften and relax.

Breathing into the lips breathe out let the bottom lip fall away from the top lip.

Breathing into the skin and the muscles of the lower half of the face and breathe out let the skin and the muscles of the lower half of the face soften and relax.

The chin can soften the cheeks can relax.

Breathing into the eyes and breathing out let the eyes relax.

Breathing into the forehead and breathe out let the forehead relax.

Breathing into the temples and breathe out let the temples relax.

Feeling sensing imagining that you could breathe into the brain and breathe out let the brain relax.

Feeling that you could breathe into the mind and breathe out let the mind relax.

Breathing into the spine and breathe out let the spine relax.

And let's open up our awareness now opening the lens to take in the whole of our body resting or sitting and feel as you breathe in there's a sense of expansion through the whole of the body that begins at the belly and exhale let go as if the belly is the epicenter of the breath and from there it radiates out through the whole body expanding and softening and relaxing.

Breathing in to expand and breathing out to let go.

Breathing in to expand and breathing out to soften and let go.

Let's draw our awareness now into the heart and let's feel sense imagine that we could breathe in through the heart as if you could breathe in through the flesh and the bone and breathe into the cells of the heart and breathe out let go.

Feeling that you can breathe into the heart and breathe out let go.

Breathing in to the heart through the chest and breathing out to let go.

There could be this sense that the breath is gently cascading down onto the chest as if it were a waterfall.

This waterfall cascading through the pores of the skin at the chest through the flesh through the bone and into the heart and the heart center and then we're coming to rest as if in a little pool in the belly as the belly swells.

Breathing out letting go as if you could breathe in through the chest to fill the belly and breathe out let go.

As if you could breathe in through the chest to fill the belly and then let go and you may find that it's helpful for you to place your hand on your heart and feel that warmth of your hand on your heart.

Feel that comfort from your own self.

Feel your own loving presence through this hand on the heart and let's come into this sense now that our in-breath as we draw it in is supporting us and enabling us to draw in whatever we find in the heart to draw it in to our bones into ourselves as if our in-breath was our way of accepting and letting be whatever it is that we find in the heart and then maybe that some thoughts arise as well and maybe you can also breathe those thoughts in as if this in-breath were your way of accepting and saying yes.

Bringing your smile to the mouth can help as well as if you're breathing in smiling in welcome to whatever you find in the heart in the mind.

Breathing in taking this experience of being you in this present moment into your being into your heart and breathing out letting go and there may be some sense that as you smile you can also bring this smile into your heart into your being into your bones and then with the exhale let go and we're not letting go to try to get rid of anything.

This sense of letting go is simply to create space.

We might find that we can feel this flow of the in and out breath reflecting this wider flow of the life with the in-breath experience rolling in being received and with the exhale experience flowing out making space for whatever is gonna roll in with the next in-breath.

This feeling that you can breathe in and smile at whatever you find in the heart and this feeling that you can let go as if you could breathe in everything that this present moment is within you and without you and breathe out in the flow of life.

Can this heart mind body be an open channel that receives this flow of life the flow of thoughts the rising and falling of the emotional life and the life of the body can we breathe it all in and can we allow it all to fall out breathing in and breathing out.

When we're caught in the mind caught in the flow of thoughts there's very often this sense that we're projecting into the future and that's where the anxiety comes in because we can't manage and hold all of the things that might possibly unfold in the future but we might find little by little that we can hold whatever is arising in the present moment.

I invite you to have a sense that you can rest your awareness in the back of the body and from this back of the body perspective it's as if we could take in everything that's happening perhaps within and without us.

I like to feel into this back of the body perspective as if I'm a satellite as if my back body is this huge satellite dish in which I'm held and this huge satellite dish can take in all of the signals all of the information can take it in hold it and breathe it out let go make space for the next signal the next bit of information feeling how wide can the lens be with this sense of a smile that can receive everything and with the sense of the in-breath that supports everything to be drawn in taken in accepted and then breathed out let go of this breathing in is our way of connecting touching into how we are what's arising and this out breath is our way of letting go with our in-breath we say yes and with our out breath we let it go feeling ourselves this open receptive channel or vessel where there's space for everything and nothing is excluded even that which we don't like we can with our hand on our heart smile at it let it in and knowing that with that next exhale we can let it go we can let it in and let it go breathe it in and let it go I read a poem now by Jalal Uddin Rumi translated by Coleman Barks called The Guest House which I think speaks to this capacity that we have to breathe in let in and breathe out let go this being human is a guest house every morning a new arrival a joy a depression a meanness some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor welcome and entertain them all even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture still treat each guest honorably this guest may be clearing you out for some new delight the dark thought the shame the malice meet them at the door laughing and invite them in be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond feeling that your smile and your in-breath is your way of welcoming in whatever guest is currently arriving whatever is carried in by the in-breath we can smile at and receive and we can exhale let it go feeling into our vastness perhaps feeling in to the sense that we are bigger than whatever rolls in and rolls out and you may stay here and continue to sit or rest with this sense of your capacity to breathe in and hold what is and breathe out let it go let it go