It's time to prepare for practice.
Let's get comfortable.
If you feel you need to take a few stretches to prepare yourself,
Then now's the perfect time.
Either sit for meditation or lie down for relaxation.
Once you've stretched out,
Close down the eyes.
Begin to sense into the space that surrounds you.
The space between you and the wall on your left side.
Right side.
Front side.
Back side.
The whole of the space that surrounds you.
Safe and secure in your space so you can relax into practice.
Today I'm going to take you on a journey into harmony.
The gateway to harmony is to learn first how to relax the body,
Yet allow the mind to stay alert and attentive to the present moment.
For the next few moments,
Rest the mind and feel into the body.
The body as a whole.
Give yourself permission to soften,
Relax and let go of any obvious areas of tension.
In those precious moments where you notice your mind has wandered,
Remind yourself that's naturally okay.
Simply return to the body and settle the mind back down.
Nothing need be fixed,
Changed or improved in this moment.
Allow it just to be as it is.
Letting go of control and allowing freedom and flow to be your guide.
Let my voice gently guide you through the body like a kind friend.
Simply feel and let go as we move together.
Feel into the space in between the eyebrows.
The centre of the brain.
Move the awareness to the whole of the forehead,
Top of the head,
Back of the head.
Draw the awareness around the ears,
Into the ear canals,
Right and left.
Feel the temples,
Eyes,
Feel into the muscles of the eyes supporting the eyes and the eyelids.
Can you feel where the low eyelid meets upper eyelid?
You may like to relax the body as you go.
Down through the nose,
Cheeks,
Lips,
Teeth,
Tongue and jaw.
The jaw on the right side and the left.
Take the awareness down through the shoulders,
Back,
Back of the hips and pelvis,
Back of the legs,
Soles of the feet,
The toes,
Tops of the feet,
Fronts of the legs,
Back into the pelvis,
Belly,
Fingers,
Hands and arms.
All the way up and over into the collarbones.
Begin to rest the awareness now in the chest.
Feel the lungs,
The heart,
The whole of the heart space.
Feel into the inner rhythm,
The lungs breathing and the heart beating in harmony and union with each other.
Relax into yourself even deeper.
The more you bring together mind,
Body and breath,
The easier it is for your body to find its harmonious balance,
Giving it space and time to heal whatever needs to be healed right here,
Right now,
In this very moment.
Now,
Let's deepen the connection by giving the mind a purpose.
On the inhale,
Saying to yourself in the mind's eye the word in and on the exhale in the mind's eye,
Gently saying the word out.
Just keep repeating this from now until the end of practice.
Feel for the union of the mind,
Body and breath.
Let it be your full experience.
Allow it to feel harmonious.
As you continue the practice in this way,
Connecting mind,
Body,
Breath with the in and out,
Let this poem also be a guide.
Light and dark of day and night work in perfect harmony.
One never seeks to cut off the other,
No need to steal each other's glory.
They blend together perfectly,
Droplets of black paint mixed slowly with the white.
In a universal paint palette,
Starlit brushes turn day into night.
Nothing is ever truly lost.
Where there's light,
There is dark.
The sun goes down and flicks a switch to turn on all the stars.
I've learned many lessons from watching this exchange.
My mind often caught up in controlling the world.
Once it's fixed something,
It will begin again to rearrange.
It's taught me to let go,
To breathe slow,
To relax and go with the flow.
But most of all,
It showed me how not to be a controlling army,
But a soft-centered human being with a deeper desire to live in harmony.
Taking a minute to yourself,
Before yourself,
Simply repeating in and out with the breath and the body.
Now,
It's time to close the practice.
Begin reconnecting to the body through mindfulness.
Facing the body's presence,
Feeling into the space that surrounds you.
From you and whatever is on the right side,
Left side,
Front,
Back,
The whole of the space that surrounds you.
Take a deep breath in.
And on the exhale,
Allow the eyes to flutter open.
Thank you for joining me.
Namaste.
