So take a moment and grow tall.
Keep your eyes wide open but gaze down and forward.
Breathe in fully.
Let the breath descend as you do that.
Exhale fully all the way out.
At the very end of that exhale,
Invitation to close your eyes.
And take this moment as you land here to notice everything that touches the ground or your seat or your cushion.
Seeing the points of contact even where your hands meet your legs or each other.
If your back is resting up to something,
Notice that.
And let the breath wash over you,
Breathing in and feeling it,
The delight of it.
Breathing out,
Letting go,
That letting go again and again,
Inherent with each exhale.
You can do a little self-guided scan through your body.
I like to start at the soles of my feet but you could start at the crown of your head either way and just go through your body and just notice not the story of your body,
Not necessarily your aches and pains,
But just the somatic experience of your body here and now.
And as you scan through,
Noticing those areas that might be a little contracted and rigid that you didn't even notice before and inviting it to relax a little bit more.
And once you've gone in one direction,
Soles of your feet to the crown of your head or crown of your head to the soles of your feet,
Go in the opposite direction and sense in like your whole body,
Full body,
Front,
Back,
Inside,
Outside,
Edges,
All of it.
And inviting all of you here right now,
Including your thoughts and feelings and emotions.
Everyone's welcome.
Really appreciating your breath,
Really appreciating the miracle of your body.
And I include your mind in your body,
Body-mind one thing,
Connected,
Joined together.
And in just the lightest way,
Orient back towards your breath in your body.
However,
It is happening,
Maybe shallow,
Maybe deep and wide.
Like with the lightest sort of orientation,
Come back here and now,
Breath and body,
Mind and heart,
Fully present.
Inner space,
Direct level.
And be pulled away to a million different places,
A million different things,
But you are right here right now,
So anchor your attention,
Your presence here.
Breath is so helpful because it's fluid,
So that can cut through that rigidity.
Some of the breath can help soothe the mind and the body.
Breath is so helpful because it's fluid,
So that can cut through that rigidity.
Remind yourself that's just what it does.
No problem,
No judgment.
You could even linger for a moment in that place that you arrive,
You like sort of wake up to being not here.
So when you wake up to that and whatever sort of flavor it's showing up for you,
No need to rush back to the breath,
Just for a moment linger there.
And then as light as you can,
Like you're dropping a feather,
Drop that whatever that is and orient back to the breath.
Full body breathing.
Begin to blink your eyes open and we're still in the meditation,
Just eyes open,
Gaze down and forward.
Eyes open can be a bridge to bringing this into our life.
It can also be a remedy for the obstacle of sleepiness.
Just eyes wide open.
Releasing out of this formal meditation and bringing this into the very next moment.
