We can begin our practice by bringing ease,
Inviting ease into the body.
Starting with the forehead.
Just relaxing any tension in the forehead.
Letting it widen toward the temples.
As you relax the muscles of the forehead,
Just letting go of any thoughts that you are clinging onto right now.
Stories that have you entangled.
Letting them also widen and release.
Softening the muscles around the eyes and across the bridge of the nose.
And behind closed eyes,
Just allowing your gaze to be soft.
Not holding too tightly to any particular view or perspective.
And then softening the jaw and the cheeks.
Letting the tongue rest away from the roof of the mouth.
As you feel the jaw soften,
Tongue relax.
Just beginning to notice this flow of breathing in the body.
Right at the tip of your nose,
Just looking for this sensation of air moving in and moving out.
As you feel the breath moving in and out through the nose,
Just feeling a softening in the pathway of the breath all the way down the throat.
All the way down the neck.
With every breath that passes through the nose and down the neck,
Just feeling the shoulders softening and settling into place in the body.
Tracing that sensation of breathing into the chest.
Without needing to contrive the breathing in any way.
Just looking for the subtle sensations of breathing in the chest rising and falling just a little with each breath.
As you notice breathing in the chest,
You may also feel or look for the feeling of breathing across the shoulders.
Subtle movements.
Just even feeling into that space right between the shoulder blades and the back of your heart.
Allowing every subtle breath to just massage these spaces.
Inviting ease into the body.
Feeling that ease pour down through the arms,
Relaxing the elbows and the wrists and even the fingers.
Just noticing the sensations in the hands,
Aware of temperature,
Touch,
Of tingling,
Pulsing.
Feeling your hands from the inside out.
Perhaps even feeling the pulse of your breathing in your hands.
Subtle expansions and releases in the body.
The body becomes a little bit more relaxed,
Just following this sensation awareness into the abdomen.
Feeling the subtle moving of your rib cage,
Breath by breath.
If the breathing feels really pleasant,
Let it be.
If the breathing feels really unpleasant,
Let it be.
Letting yourself ease into whatever is present in your body right now.
You might follow this ebb and flow of your breathing all the way down into your belly,
Feeling the belly soften and relaxed so that it might move a little bit more freely,
Like the ripple effect of each breath.
With every breath that softens your belly,
Just feeling the whole weight of your pelvis settling,
Easing into the support underneath.
Belly breathing,
Body easing.
As the body breathes and settles,
You might feel that ease invited down into the hips,
And even into the pelvic floor,
Letting the roots of your body soften and sink into the ground underneath you.
Focusing sensations in the legs,
The knees,
And the ankles.
Even becoming aware of the soles of your feet.
Noticing the temperature of your feet,
Where the skin meets the air.
The way the feet make contact with the ground or with each other.
Even noticing buzzing,
Tingling,
Pulsing in the feet.
As you make your way throughout the body,
Noticing sensations,
Just taking note of which sensations feel most vivid to you right now.
Maybe the feet,
Or the hands,
Or the feeling of breathing somewhere in the body.
It might be a positive sensation,
Or it might be a really difficult sensation in the body.
You might place your attention there,
And just stay with it.
Feeling the sensations ebb and flow.
The feelings when you begin to tell stories about the sensations,
Or you begin to wander away from them entirely.
Just invite yourself back.
Back to the feeling of what is happening in the body right now.
The feeling of what is happening in the body right now.
The feeling of what is happening in the body right now.
The feeling of what is happening in the body right now.
The feeling of what is happening in the body right now.
Just seeing where the attention is right now.
Wasting zero of your moments on self-criticism.
Just inviting yourself back.
Noticing the breathing,
Or the sensations in the body.
Investing yourself in the gentle attending to what is happening right here,
Right now.
This is your life right now.
This is your life right now.
This is your life right now.
This is your life right now.
This is your life right now.
This is your life right now.
