Please find a upright,
Sustainable posture for your body.
I'll offer some suggestions here,
But please take them as such.
It might be good to let your pelvis and the entire lower half of your body be super heavy,
To really rely on and trust the earth,
Which is supporting you,
In a sense holding you in your seat.
You can allow the spine to grow long,
Sense of energy moving upwards,
The crown of the head lifts,
We can stretch out the neck a little bit,
Undo some of the effects of being hunched over all day.
And then we can allow the neck to find alignment with the rest of the spine by letting the forehead tilt forward a little bit and the chin to move in just a little bit.
When I do that I feel the trapezius muscles settle in the upper torso and the upper back.
You might find that the collarbones want to be a little bit wider than they presently are,
So that the heart is available.
It might be a good idea to place your hands facing down on the thighs so that you're grounded and less tempted to fidget.
And you don't have to close your eyes,
But if you do,
Please do so gently and let your eyes be so soft,
Either way,
So soft.
And if at any point in this meditation you need to take a break,
I want you to know that that's okay.
Please don't give in to impulse,
But if it gets to be too much or you just tire out,
At any point you can take like a 10-second break and you'll find you can go further.
So eyes soft,
Cheeks soft,
Tongue relaxed,
Mouth relaxed,
Jaw hangs loose a little bit.
And we can really come home to our inner worlds here.
We can let the energy trapped in the head sort of drip down like a candle into the cosmos beneath the shoulders and in the limbs.
And please start taking deep breaths.
I think it's good if we start with belly breathing,
Breathing deep down beneath the navel,
So deep that the lower back puffs out.
In fact,
It's better if the low back puffs out rather than the belly puffing out in front of you.
When we breathe into the belly,
We're communicating basic safety,
Basic okayness to the body,
To the nervous system.
We're communicating that we're home.
Right,
Home,
The place where it doesn't matter whether you're wearing real pants or not,
Or what anybody thinks about the art on the walls or the food in the fridge because it's yours.
This practice is your space to be exactly you.
So keep breathing.
So for one more minute,
I'll ask that you deepen the breath further,
That you fill up the belly and then let the breath continue upwards into the upper torso,
The shoulders,
Shoulder blades,
Back body,
Ribs expanding out to the sides,
So that you're taking a maybe a fuller breath than you think you need to.
Please don't strain,
However.
And as you continue to take this very full breath,
Please allow me to inform you that we'll move on to a different pattern of breathing that is literally everything,
I think.
Tells the whole story of the Dharma,
Really.
But is also a quick way to settle the thoughts and to open up to some space.
So a few more deep breaths,
And then every exhale now will shift into just letting your exhale sort of drop,
And don't breathe in right away.
Let there be space between breaths,
Just a couple seconds maybe,
And then it's a very gentle inhale from this point forward.
Exhales dropping,
Letting there be a moment of space,
Of softening.
Inhales very naturally,
Gently flowing in.
And there's something there for you,
Something special in the space between breaths.
What is it?
And as you breathe in this gentle,
Open,
Sort of surrendered way,
I'll ask you to imagine you're walking out to your favorite spot in nature.
I mean,
It might be Central Park,
That counts.
It might be the desert,
Or anywhere else real or imagined,
Where you sense you could land.
Lay it all down.
And so you're walking to that place,
You're feeling your legs moving under you.
You're noticing all the sights of this place,
The shapes and colors all around.
Taking it in,
Enjoying the sounds of this place,
Smelling the smells that are here for you,
Feeling the quality of the air on your skin,
Temperature,
Humidity.
And you arrive at your spot,
The best seat in the house.
And you sit down,
And you take your left hand and you place it just underneath the earth's surface,
Whether that's water or dirt or snow or sand or grass.
You place your hand in the earth,
Feeling the texture and the temperature,
And beginning to feel earth energy,
Connecting with the earth's energy.
When we talk about the earth,
We're not talking about a dead rock.
We're talking about the force,
The living force that has provided the raw materials of everything you enjoy,
From food to clothing to shelter,
The digital device that you are taking this in on now.
The earth is springing up at all times in countless ways,
Countless manner of flora and fauna,
Providing that for you,
Recycling your carbon dioxide into oxygen for you to breathe.
If that's not love,
I don't know what is.
We're also talking about the grand creatrix,
The most amazing artist ever,
Unmatchable.
And you're feeling that earth in your left hand,
The essence.
It's beginning to infiltrate and permeate your fingers and your palm and your wrists.
That love of the earth.
As you breathe,
You draw it even further up the arm.
Every inhale,
It's like you're pulling it into the forearm and the elbow,
And then the upper arm and the shoulder.
You breathe it into the head and the face and the brain,
And it's flowing into your right arm now,
Down the right shoulder,
All the way down,
Into the right hand.
And then it continues down the torso and the back body,
Down the spine,
Into the belly,
Permeating each of the organs.
And you can really feel it descending into the pelvis,
The glutes,
The hips,
The front of the pelvis.
There's so much tension held here.
And so take a moment to breathe with the pelvis and let anything that wants to soften,
Simply melt into the earth you sit on.
This is the self-energy of the earth in your body,
Healing force flowing into the thighs and the knees and the lower legs,
The feet,
The toes,
Bottoms of the feet,
And then back down to its source.
And for the last couple minutes here,
That you're in this place of calm,
Of serenity,
Maybe where love and compassion are a little bit more available,
You can invite any parts of you that are exhausted and caught up in the struggle to simply sit on your lap here and feel this good healing energy,
Love of the earth,
And feel nourished.
It's safe to feel good here.
It's safe to smile if that feels right for you.
You're allowed to be joyful or anything else.
But these are your final breaths in this space,
So go slow,
Make them last.
