Shared Connection Through The Nurturance Of Breath

Just noticing whatever is simple,

Letting your eyes calibrate to that simple walls and maybe simple ceiling,

Eventually making your way to simple floor.

I'm on the floor today so I have a lot of eye surface area to connect to floor but depending on your context,

You might not have very much floor to see.

Whatever is here,

Just bringing attention to that and whatever you're sitting upon or laying upon or like anyone standing but if you were what you're standing upon and just noticing that actual factual as well,

The simplicity under your body that you can see with your eyes open,

You can see that your body is being supported in some kind of real way.

You can see that your body is not floating,

You can see that your body is literally grounded and we know that's because of gravity so we can see how gravity is influencing our life in this moment.

You can even see how breath is here right now with our eyes open.

We might notice it kind of peripherally.

I can kind of just see my body rise and fall peripherally but I can also look right down at it and see it rise and fall or fill and empty.

So we're taking this like an observational lens to see this form that we have home in.

Just observe it.

Observe how breath breathes this form,

That gravity supports this form,

Just all practically.

We can see that we're not orchestrating gravity.

We can see that gravity is orchestrating our relationship with it.

We're not orchestrating breath either,

Breath is a mechanism that just is a part of the form.

It happens on its own whether we're awake or sleeping so we might just notice continue to observe that or maybe just be really curious of what we don't need to manage in this moment.

There's nothing wrong with that managing part of ourselves.

We all have it.

We all want to be in control and manage and all that.

That's not bad.

We don't always need to be in that state.

We're not actually always in that state but we might pretend that we are.

So in this moment we might just notice and observe what we don't need to manage in relation particularly in relation to gravity and breath perhaps.

You need to manage the way the hands are situated for example.

You have to manage the breath that just happened or the feet.

Maybe yes,

Maybe no,

Just let your attention be curious of what doesn't need managing.

Maybe it's sound or smells that are happening.

There might be things you do need to manage and that's fine but in this moment we're really inviting ourselves to notice what we don't need to manage.

We can have the eyes closed or open whatever helps you to really discern that what you need to manage and what you don't.

For me I like to let the eyes start to close and I can put more attention on what's here now that I can feel in my sitting breathing body.

So we had been observing our body in gravity,

We had been observing our body in breath and now we can feel our body in gravity,

We can feel our body in breath and we might continue just to notice what of that do we not need to manage.

Can you bring attention below the chin so to speak to the form,

To the being,

To the sitting breathing you?

It's got support under you,

Maybe behind you.

Really letting your attention connect with the experiences that you're having of sitting,

Simple sitting and or simple breathing that are just happening.

The heaviness of the legs maybe,

Maybe the heaviness of the arms,

Maybe there's other areas of your body that get to soften,

Be heavy in this moment.

Just being here in this moment,

In this chair or this bed or with this floor,

We literally have the next bit of time assigned for right now to be here so there's nowhere to go,

Nothing to do,

No chores to do,

No problems to solve,

Just to really be here.

Let those problems or worries or whatever's of the future or the past,

Just be on a little shelf to the side,

You can come back to them later,

You don't have to forget about them forever.

But just for now,

More attention to the experiences that are not concepts or thoughts but are literal happenings,

Experiences in the body.

Maybe just for a little bit,

Trying on the perspective of how nice it is that the body is held by gravity,

Like how cool is it that we just get to be real heavy and we don't have to worry if we're going to fall to the floor or,

Well,

More the opposite,

If we're going to float to the ceiling.

Really letting our nervous systems consciously experience the support under us,

We get to be nourished by leaning into the chair or feeling the chair under us or the floor under us or maybe both.

This is just going to depend on context.

There's nothing supporting my head so my head's not going to be leaning back but my back is leaning back and maybe if you're in that position,

Your head can lean back and be heavy too.

Maybe not,

Right?

So there's not a right or a wrong,

Just really letting ourselves experience what it's like to be really held in the way that we are being held in an actual factual,

To let ourselves feel how nice that is in this moment.

And then just turn that kind of that appreciation or that acknowledgement to how breath is also just breathing through us.

Maybe we can get a sense of what it's like to not have to be managing and be in charge of breath and instead really feel how breath is nourishing us with every inhalation and every exhalation.

It's what is allowing us to be alive,

Literally.

And our lung mechanism and other mechanisms are a part of that wisdom that keeps us alive in this moment.

We don't have to manage or track any of it.

We can track a little of it but we don't need to track most of it.

In fact,

We probably can't but we can feel the aliveness of breath.

Sometimes it can be really hard to give up control of even what we don't need to have control over and that can include breath.

So if you are having a challenging time letting go of managing breath,

That's okay.

That can be here too.

And if you would like to experiment a way to maybe remember or experience that you don't have to manage breath with your next exhalation,

Just on purpose,

Don't inhale.

Don't hold your breath but also don't actively inhale.

And eventually the body will breathe in because that's what it's designed to do.

It's as if the managing small self could say,

Okay,

I'm not going to breathe in.

I'm not going to hold breath but I'm not going to breathe in and then the wisdom that's bigger than our small self just takes right care of us,

Does what it's designed to do.

That wisdom just shows up,

Breathing us alive.

And you can connect to breath however is simple for you.

Maybe it's through the nostrils.

Maybe it's through the lungs.

Maybe it's through the chest,

Noticing the ribs.

Maybe it's in the belly.

Might be the whole breathing mechanism,

Nostrils to pelvic floor that you notice but there's no rules here.

Just notice what you notice that's simple.

And as you do that,

Just trying on this perspective of reality that you're breathing in life.

I'm breathing in life.

The body is breathing in life.

Life is being breathed into this moment.

There's 8 billion people breathing right now.

We're all breathing together while we're apart,

Seemingly apart,

But we're all breathing.

And we're all breathing air that shares spaces in ways that we don't know.

It's pretty mysterious.

Breath is pretty mysterious.

We're breathing in a sharedness and we're experiencing a sharedness of 8 billion people right now.

Just letting that be very simple,

As simple as can be.

The mind might want to jump on that one.

Bring your attention right back to now.

Breathing in together.

We breathe out together,

Maybe not at exactly the same pace,

But still with a sharedness.

We're sharing space.

And it's a both and.

We're sharing space with all the micro bits within our beings.

And we're sharing space with all the micro bits outside of us,

But as the macro.

And it's occurring,

Co-occurring.

Shared spaceness is within and without.

The breath comes from without and it comes in and it goes back without to the out.

This sharedness,

This collective occurrence.

No alive human is not breathing.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of sharing.

So we might just slow down to really say hello to how that breath comes into our form,

The hello inside of body,

Hello heart,

Hello lungs,

Hello belly,

Hello to the limbs that I can also feel that I know are getting nurtured by breath.

You might even want to put a hand on the body somewhere just to come real close to close to the micro of this moment that breath is kissing,

Breath is kissing us alive and our attention connected to that kiss,

To that experience.

And we might also maybe imagine as we exhale that air going out and kissing other.

Hello,

8 billion people.

Hello,

Other,

Into the hearts of others,

All the way across the globe into all human creatures,

Breathing,

Hello,

Acknowledging your heart,

My breath,

Acknowledging your breath.

Again,

The mind might jump at this,

We're just keeping it as simple as simple in this moment,

Feeling that breath come in and out,

Gravity here,

Hello to our sharedness,

A few more moments.

For the sake of recording this for insight timer,

Yeah,

I can go ahead and pause the recording here and might just take some notes of what's landed for you during this recording.

But for the rest of you here,

We just might continue this experiment,

This mutuality,

This sharedness that we've been sharing or connecting with.

Just let the eyes gently open while you're still staying connected to what you had been connecting to with the eyes closed and then let yourself turn your camera on and come to screen because now we get to experience sharedness.

So now we're seeing the sharedness that I've been referencing,

May have been a concept before because our eyes were closed,

But now we can see each other and we can have proof for that part of the brain that needs that,

We can see that we're in sharedness.

And then just for experimental sake,

We can let the eyes close again,

We're still trying on that sharedness.

Can we be willing to try on that we're here with each other even though we can't see each other?

Can we be willing to try on the perspective that we're here with many,

Many hearts,

Our own heart,

Our own being and others' hearts and others' beings even when our eyes are closed?

Maybe yes,

Maybe no.

And then letting the eyes open again,

Just continuing back into sharedness.

Can we be willing to notice our own inner heart,

Our own inner being as we acknowledge others,

Others' beings,

Others' hearts?

We're not trying to fix anything with anyone,

We're just breathing,

We're just trusting that breath is wise and that there's wisdom in acknowledging each other and acknowledging what is the sharedness that is.

Maybe we'll just go into a little bit of a five-minute fast straight,

Just letting ourselves connect to what's come up with this,

Whatever it's been.

So,

Yeah,

Just take your time,

Move in a little bit to get your pen and paper or your typing fingers ready.

And just staying with yourself,

Staying with breath,

Staying,

Turn toward simplicity as you want to be right a little bit.

Another minute here.