Golden Breath, Movement, Dreaming For Calm And Connection

The title of this has to do with breath and movement and visioning.

As we're looking around and we're noticing our feet and seat and we're maybe holding our own hands and we're getting in touch with ourselves here,

How are we breathing?

One of the things about the breath,

Of course,

Is that we have a lot of associations in the nervous system with our breath.

Working with the breath,

One of the things that happens is that it might feel a little uncomfortable or it might be so welcome.

It's like,

Oh my gosh,

I was holding my breath and now I can breathe.

Let yourself really settle into what your experience is with your breath in this moment.

We might bring our awareness into this moment through our hands or touch,

Holding our hands or giving ourselves a hug or lightly touching our body.

Noticing I have legs that I can feel,

My neck and back,

I've got my face.

And we also have this touch of the breath in our nostrils.

As we're breathing,

We're also noticing that there is movement in my body and there's also this flow of air that I can feel inside my body.

I can feel it inside my nose.

On the inhale,

It's cooler so we can often feel it down into our throat.

On the exhale,

It's already been warmed up so we might not feel it again until it gets back to the nostrils.

Let yourself sense into that and then come into stillness.

You might have your hand or hands resting on your heart.

Bring in golden warmth.

You might imagine that that gold light is coming in through your nostrils to your eyebrow center,

Down through your throat center and your heart center through the energy body,

The chakras.

You might just have a visual or a sense of golden light in your heart center.

Feel the warmth of your hands and then breathe in and through that golden light,

The warmth of our own touch,

Our own breath.

Notice your experience as you breathe.

You might have more of the visual of the golden light,

Perhaps streaming up and down your spine from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back,

And then the eyebrow center,

Throat center,

Heart center.

Coordinate your awareness with the flow of breath,

The rhythm of breath.

And with that golden warm light in the heart center,

Breathe into that.

Let your mind be still.

And as that golden light permeates out from your heart center into the rest of your energy body,

Let your muscles soften.

Let that golden warmth permeate the whole of your body.

Let your shoulders release any tension you're holding.

Let yourself be present,

Sending warm,

Healing energy through your body,

Through the whole of your field of energy.

Notice the warmth and the calm and the peace that can settle into us as we breathe with that golden light.

And if I say,

I feel safe enough here,

I can breathe,

What's your experience with that?

I can breathe.

And there might be thoughts in your mind,

There might be a hypervigilance in your body.

Those things could be here too.

And bring your attention back into that golden light.

Take a few more deep breaths,

Letting that golden light radiate to the whole of your body.

Let yourself feel the ease and the peace in your breath.

Look around the room a bit.

We're about to shift into another practice.

We look around in our space and we notice what's here.

What are the cues that I'm safe here,

That I'm nurtured,

That I'm protected in the space that I'm in?

So the space that our body is occupying is more of an internal energy field.

But what about the space all around our body,

The space of the room,

Or if you're outdoors,

What's your sense of that?

And what is it that you're seeing that brings up that warm glow in your heart?

On a very basic level,

We might be protected from the elements.

If we're in a building or if we have access to a warm home,

As you look around there might be photos.

Other people might be in the room or other beings.

Maybe you have a cat or a dog or another being in the room or another person in the room who helps you feel connected and nurtured and safe.

That might be in real life,

It might be in photographs or pictures.

And notice your breath as you're looking around and really absorbing all of these things that feel kind of wonderful to pay attention to.

They help us feel safer,

Calmer.

Could be you have a lot of plants or you see things outside your window that you really love.

And if you were to say,

I feel safe here,

Notice your response to that.

Does that feel true?

Or more likely there's somewhere on a continuum.

If you're in a very familiar place where you have a very high predictability of safety,

That's likely to feel more true.

I feel safe here.

And then what happens in our body as we feel safer?

Might move or stretch or take some deeper breaths.

Let yourself absorb that.

I feel safe enough here to relax and to appreciate where I am.

And any time that we start to check in with ourselves and maybe we notice,

Clenching my teeth,

I've got my shoulders up around my ears a bit,

Or I'm not breathing very full,

We can always just check back in.

Is there anything alarming?

Are there cues of safety?

What can I bring in through my eyes that will help me to feel safer?

Nurtured,

Protected.

And take a few deep breaths.

We're about to transition again.

Now we're going to work with movement.

So I am going to play a song called,

Today I'm Going to Try and Change the World by Johnny Reed.

Please put this on pause while you play the song and then return for the rest of the practice.

And now we come back to the stillness,

The silence.

What do you feel like now in your body?

Let's take some time here.

What happened for you during the movement?

Did you feel free enough to move as you wished?

Was it pleasurable?

Feel a little awkward?

There's all kinds of things that might happen.

And those lyrics,

Today I'm going to try and change the world.

And then when the bagpipes come in,

Strong sound.

Let yourself move still if you're interested in doing that.

Notice your breath again.

I feel safe enough here to experience the joy of music,

Of inspiration,

Of music and movement.

Let yourself really be present.

And now let's take another breath and move to the next part.

Let's vision into our future.

Not the one that our catastrophic mind likes to present.

A bright possibility.

I know from my experience that I have reduced the amount of fear,

Increased the amount of connection.

I'm very regulated most of the time.

And it's when we're regulated that we access our compassion for ourselves and each other,

Our curiosity,

Our joy.

What would your future look like?

What would it feel like?

What would you be curious about?

We're not pretending in a visualization that everything is fine.

We're just focusing for a moment on the strength,

On the resilience,

On the joy.

Sometimes in our life right now,

We have many moments of joy that can get lost because we're also very worried.

Set the worry aside for a few minutes and let ourselves feel into,

If I wasn't so worried and afraid,

What would my life be like every day?

What kind of plans would I make short-term,

Long-term?

I feel connected with nature.

I trust.

I have people in my life who feel safe enough that I can relax and have fun with.

Where would you be?

Who would you be with?

You might use your hands or your touch to bring yourself back into that feeling of warmth,

That golden glow of warmth.

And if you're bringing forward a specific experience,

Maybe walking on the beach with friends,

What would that be for you?

Playing music,

Dancing,

Having a good meal together,

Sitting alongside a creek.

What are the sights and what are the aromas?

What can you smell?

Use all of your senses to let this develop.

And what are you hearing?

I can still feel and hear the resonance of the bagpipes from that song.

If you were to make a sound right now,

What would that be?

A low hum in the throat and in the chest can feel very calming.

You might try that,

Or maybe you like to sing.

What sound could you make right now?

That helps express how you feel.

Notice your body.

Is your body relaxed?

Or is there anything more that you could do to help your body be more comfortable?

Maybe a deeper breath,

Relaxing your shoulders on the exhale.

If you're clenching your jaw,

You could let that loosen,

Or maybe bring your hands back to your heart.

What is your response to that right now?

And maybe that's not as true right now as it would be in this future that we're envisioning together.

I honor and trust myself.

How could you ease into that more?

That's a complex weaving of practice and awareness.

You notice your breath,

Let your body soften.

I can envision a future in which at least at times I feel safe enough to be here,

Be present,

Be joyous,

Connected,

Curious.

Let that really settle in.

Feel it in your whole body from head to toes.

For so many of us,

Our place of safety is in nature.

In the Northern Hemisphere,

It's spring,

The birds are coming back,

The plants are starting to come back to life after winter.

If you're in a place with seasons,

You don't have to bundle up when you go outside.

It feels safer to be in spring and summer.

We have so many memories already of connection and safety and trust.

Big,

Smooth breaths,

Long,

Soft exhales.

We don't have to be planning in this moment how we're going to change the world.

We just have to have that in our heart as an inspiration.

Today,

I'm going to try and change the world,

Starting with me.

Starting with my breath,

With my body,

Recognizing my own goodness and good-heartedness.

I can breathe that in.

Let yourself come back into the present moment.

But carry with you the memory,

The experience of the last five minutes or so,

As well as the memory of the movement,

The curiosity,

The inspiration of dance,

The song,

The golden warmth of the breath,

The safety and protection in our environment.

There's some really good science behind this.

Part of that is that our mind believes what we think.

When we feel uncertain or afraid,

We have a lot of catastrophic worst-case scenarios because we're trying to consider everything that might go wrong so that we could protect ourselves.

And our mind gets very convinced that it's dire.

There's a lot of danger here.

We're not trying to pretend there's no danger,

But we're also trying to come into this moment in time.

Could I let myself have a break from that?

And could I also open to the possibility that our mind have the experience of some positive neural activity of joy and hope and calm and peace and being alive?