Sending over this practice to you for some time where your mind might be racing with thoughts.
There may be many to-dos,
Many notifications,
Many next things to figure out.
And the invitation is to sit with this recording playing and to just sit up tall with two feet on the ground and see if you can get your feet to be settled or a place where they're not dancing.
They're like a tree's stump with roots growing underneath them,
Steadying you,
Connecting your body and your nervous system with the steadiness of the material of the ground underneath your feet.
You're seeing a deep breath in through your nose,
Out through your mouth,
Noticing what that feels like,
The temperature of the air as you breathe in.
Fill up your lungs with air and as you slowly exhale from your mouth,
Really slowly,
Letting that air sort of fall out gently from your mouth.
And your mind may be running with thoughts and it's okay.
The mind does.
Just trying to figure stuff out.
That's okay.
Just let those trains of thought continue on running as you just bring your attention back to like the body right now.
And go ahead and whenever you're ready,
Take one of your hands and put it over your chest and see if you can just feel your heartbeat with your hands.
Taking a deep breath as you do that.
Bring your attention sort of like a flashlight.
Bring it right over to your heart.
Your hand is touching,
Noticing your heartbeat,
Not needing to judge it as good or bad,
A problem or good or something to fix.
Just here.
It's beating.
You're alive.
You're alive.
And if your heart is beating right now,
That means there's infinitely more right with you than there is that could possibly be wrong with you.
See if you can take a really slow breath as you just acknowledge that.
You can feel your heartbeat.
And so there is infinitely more right with you.
Your body is generally okay.
Just taking a slow,
Slow breath in,
A slow,
Long exhale out.
Maybe even saying thank you to your heart,
To your body for working in such a way where you're alive right now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Again,
Keeping your hand right there on your heart.
And if it feels okay to do so,
You can go ahead and close your eyes or just direct your gaze at some point,
Table or floor in front of you,
Noticing your heartbeat.
And whenever you're ready to acknowledge the difficulty of right now,
Repeat in your mind to yourself with your hand on your heart the following phrases.
This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is sometimes a part of life.
May I be kind to myself in this moment?
May I give myself the compassion I need?
And again,
This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is sometimes a part of life.
May I be kind to myself in this moment?
May I give myself the compassion I need?
And you might imagine that as an adult who's had a lot of life experience,
You're able to actually send compassion from your hands to your heart.
As if you're sending that compassion,
See if you can really visualize,
Like even just a little bit,
Maybe there's a color to it.
You're sending some compassion to your heart.
This is a moment of suffering.
May I be kind to myself in this moment?
May I give myself the compassion I need?
Breathing in that compassion,
There may be lots of racing thoughts and intense feelings,
And it's okay.
You are expensive.
You're able to experience all of that.
Those things can continue happening.
And you can return your attention back to sending compassion to your heart.
It deserves that.
You deserve that.
One more time.
This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is sometimes a part of life.
May I be kind to myself in this moment?
May I give myself the compassion I need?
Taking a deep breath,
And your nose,
On the exhale,
Imagine that you're sending one last wave of compassion from your hand to your heart.
And then you can allow your eyes to open,
Sit up,
Water,
Do whatever you want to do,
Talk,
Write things down,
And give yourself gratitude for going through that practice.
