We notice the energy in our body,
The energy in our heart center.
As we acknowledge that we're human,
That we have ups and downs,
Sometimes we feel really strong and steady.
Other times we're in a bit more of a trough.
Cultivate that acceptance,
That truth.
And notice the physical sensations in your heart center as you're sitting with that.
I wish I didn't hit a trough.
I wish I always felt well and happy and steady.
There's nothing unreasonable about that.
Of course we do.
And I'm not giving up on myself.
Even when I feel not as good as sometimes,
I come and I do a practice.
I bring awareness back into my body.
I work with the thoughts as much as I can.
I minimize the unhealthy thoughts and patterns and behaviors and I cultivate the healthier ones.
Notice what that feels like in your heart.
Notice if there's a willingness to be clear and kind.
If there's any kind of pushiness or you should be different,
You should be better.
See if you could let that be seen for what it is.
It's just a trauma response.
It's very natural,
Very common,
And it's not true.
We could hold ourselves with some kindness when that's what's going on in our mind.
And notice what's in your whole body from head to toes.
Sometimes the body feels very light,
Joyous,
And sometimes it feels very heavy and sluggish.
Almost like we're numb.
We don't even have awareness in the body.
And almost always there's some level of tension.
Notice your whole body from head to toes.
And as you breathe out,
Let your whole body soften.
There's a lot of different ways that we can do that.
One of them is to let a wave of relaxation flow from head to toes.
And as you breathe out,
Imagining that your face is softening down through the front of your arms,
Your chest,
Your belly,
Your legs,
Your feet,
Your toes.
And doing that several times.
Each time you breathe out,
Start from the top of your head and let a wave of softness flow down through your face,
Your neck,
Your chest and belly,
Arms and legs.
On your next exhalation,
Bring your awareness to the back of your body and do the same.
Soften through your neck and shoulders,
Large muscles of the upper back,
Back and legs,
Back of your arms and hands.
And if you're lying back or lying down,
Let yourself be supported.
Let yourself settle into that support.
And let your breath get longer,
Smoother.
See if it feels okay to take in more breath.
And not in an exaggerated way,
Just in a way that brings in enough breath to really nourish the body.
And a longer,
Slower exhale.
Let your belly really soften as you come to the end of the breath.
And then relax and soften your scalp,
Your forehead and your eyebrows.
Let go of any worries,
Any thoughts that might still be in the mind.
It's very natural to have thoughts in the mind.
And right now we're moving our focus away from thoughts and into softening the forehead and the eyebrows,
The eyes.
And then bringing that awareness to your mouth and jaw,
To our center of speech.
Make sure there's enough softness in the hinges of your jaw and enough space between your upper and lower teeth that you're not clenching your teeth.
Soften the tongue,
The throat,
The vocal cords.
And then bring your attention to the sides of your neck,
To the large muscles that come down over the shoulders,
The front of your chest,
The back of your chest,
Your upper back.
And for several breaths,
Let your attention rest in the neck and shoulders.
And notice if there's any heaviness or tightness through the neck and shoulders.
And as you breathe out,
Let that soften.
And bring your awareness through the neck and shoulders into your arms.
Let your arms and hands be at rest.
Through our attention,
We're letting our body know that it's okay.
We can go off duty.
We don't need to be prepared.
We don't need to be in action either.
Let go of the tension in our neck,
Our shoulders,
Upper back,
Chest,
Down through the arms,
Hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips.
And then bring your attention down through your upper,
Mid,
And lower back,
In the area behind your heart center.
Have a bit more of a bit more softness.
Bring your attention to all of those muscles that cover the rib cage,
From the back of the shoulders,
Behind the heart center,
The lower ribs,
The diaphragm area.
Notice if there's a movement with the breath that you can feel in your lower back.
And then bring your awareness down through the back of your legs,
Letting your legs know it's okay to rest and be supported.
Notice your heels,
Your toes,
Bottoms of your feet,
Tops of your feet,
And coming up through the front of your legs,
Through your knees,
The thighs.
Let the whole of your legs be resting.
And then bring your attention up to your stomach area,
From the lower belly,
The navel center,
Stomach area,
Just under the ribs.
And let's focus for a while on the breath.
Without doing anything to change the breath,
Notice how you're breathing.
And then we just kind of smooth it out.
If there's any holding or jerkiness in the breath,
It just means that there's some tension in the muscles of the stomach area.
We could soften that.
We have these unconscious habits as well of holding the breath.
And those are related to our feelings of safety or threat.
And not just in this moment,
But throughout our whole life.
And then we come into this moment with our breathing patterns,
Our habits in the body.
Now very deliberately lengthen and soften your breath.
As you come to the end of the exhalation,
Letting the belly get very soft.
There's hardly any air leaving the lungs at this point.
We're not squeezing.
We're just letting the exhalation continue for a bit.
And then when it's time,
Moving right into the inhale.
Welcoming that new oxygen into the body.
And then when we have sufficient oxygen or maybe even an abundance of oxygen,
Then we let the exhalation happen.
We release the CO2 out of the body.
And our bodies are built for this.
We just come into agreement with our natural breathing pattern.
Softening on the exhale,
Expanding and releasing this pattern that repeats many,
Many thousands of times a day.
And maintain some awareness of the whole of your body as well.
And notice the movement that's happening in your body.
Notice the whole back of your body,
Your front.
Be aware of yourself from head to toes.
And then come back into your heart center.
What's your felt sense in your heart center right now?
And just for a moment,
Imagine that you are 100% welcoming of whatever it is that's here.
Whether that's grief or sadness or anger or gray or happy,
Whatever it is.
Not to need to change anything.
And notice it on a sensation level.
There's nothing I need to change.
I'm okay just as I am.
Take some deep breaths.
Relax.
Let yourself soften into the out breath.
There's nothing I need to change.
I'm okay just as I am right now.
