As I was sitting with this practice today,
The topic of welcoming presence,
I have also been sitting with the experience of uncertainty.
How do we meet uncertainty when we don't know what will happen or where we're headed or how things might unfold?
And so I wanted this practice today to support a sense of allowing,
Of creating space for all that's here,
All that arises as we are intending towards a particular goal or outcome or experience,
Something that we love to be feeling,
A new relationship we'd like to have with ourselves or others,
New experiences or directions in life.
How do we hold both simultaneously?
That there are things that we love to have happen and that we don't know how we'll get there or if it will.
If you're anything like me,
It can be a little unsettling to do that and so when we can hone our skill and practice of sitting with the unknown,
Sitting in uncertainty,
Welcoming any discomfort that arises with it,
We are welcoming presence.
We're welcoming what's here and now and so we might even just set an intention together right now that we might be able to sit with anything that's here that feels unknown,
That feels uncertain or unclear and we might just know that it's not clear yet and sit with that.
So let's take a few breaths and wrap our hearts and minds around the uncertainty and unknowns that are here in our lives and any intentions that we might have around that right now.
And you might notice right away that an experience comes along with that,
A sensation,
An emotion,
A story,
A thought,
A memory.
We can welcome all that arises around it with compassion and care as best we can.
And so one thing that I have found immensely helpful and supportive to being able to sit with uncertainty because that is the only true constant in this human life is bringing more regulation on board into our nervous systems.
When we're more regulated in our nervous systems,
We have the ability to have the capacity and spaciousness to sit with all that's here,
Unpleasant,
Pleasant,
Neither,
And everything in between.
When we're regulated,
We can stay steady amidst the ebbs and flows,
The knowns,
The unknowns,
And everything that comes up in relationship to that.
We're wider,
We can sit more deeply,
We can feel more secure in ourselves as life unfolds,
As each moment and each breath unfolds.
And so the work that we will move into here in a minute is regulation work.
It helps our nervous system settle so that we can be with all that is here,
Every single part,
Every bit of it.
We can respond instead of react and hopefully in time respond with a level of curiosity,
Kindness,
Gentleness,
Compassion,
Care towards ourselves and towards what's going on outside of ourselves.
In a moment we'll move into the nervous system regulation work.
It can be a bit like a mindfulness practice if you are used to that,
I sure am,
But we're resting our attention and intention on different places than you might be used to.
These places are connected directly to the parts of our nervous systems,
Bodies,
Hearts,
And minds that go into experiences of fight,
Flight,
Freeze,
Collapse,
Fawn,
When we are in stressful,
Overwhelming moments.
It helps us teach our bodies,
Our very primal bodies that jump into those reactive states,
That actually right here and right now in this moment I might be okay.
I might be able to have space for this and to be able to meet whatever's here with some steadiness.
We'll support your kidneys and adrenals by resting our intention there.
I'm going to tell you about it and then we'll do it.
We'll support your brainstem,
Which is right there at the top of your spinal cord,
And we'll support your ankles and then we'll rest together in a healing silence.
If this is new to you and sounds strained,
Great,
You're not alone.
Maybe give it a try and see how your system responds.
We're just looking for little by little shifts and changes in our inner and outer world and you might be surprised.
So as we move into the practice,
Let's take some breaths together.
I'm just allowing the breath to be natural.
You might hear my black lab border collie squishing around,
Finding her posture on the floor here with us.
And we'll first begin in the chest and heart area.
I actually skipped that as I was orienting you to the practice.
We'll start by bringing our intention and when I say intention I mean just a gentle presence,
Just a warmth.
We'll bring it from the top of your right shoulder to the outside of your left hip as though there was a ribbon draped across the front diagonal of your body as we welcome your whole chest area for a couple of minutes here together.
Right shoulder and left hip.
Your mind will wander,
Life will happen,
Body might want to move as we're here in this together.
That is all normal and welcome.
Every part is welcome.
Right shoulder and left hip.
Sometimes this work can be quite energetic,
Sometimes it can be sleepy,
Can be everything in between.
We can welcome it all.
And then we can bring our intention across now to the top of your left shoulder and the outside of your right hip.
I'm following that ribbon across the diagonal on the front of your body there.
I'm welcoming your whole heart,
Your lungs,
Your rib cage and chest.
There's plenty of space here.
I'm just supporting your whole chest area here together with care.
And if you find that you have a very normal mind that's trying to make sense of all sorts of things,
That's fine.
I'm just allowing those thoughts to go into the background whenever possible and coming back to that intention.
Left shoulder and right hip.
And then we can bring our intention gently now to your right adrenal.
Just a warm soft intention as your right adrenal rests on top of your kidney and your mid to lower back.
I'm just beneath that bottom rib.
And as we support your right adrenal,
We can welcome everything that comes along with it.
Open to all the possibilities of healing.
Right adrenal resting in to support.
And now we can gently float away from your right adrenal and bring our intention to your left adrenal as it rests on top of your kidney.
It's right there next to your spleen and diaphragm in the mid to lower back on the left side.
We don't even need to get the location perfectly.
The intention is more than enough.
Creating plenty of space here together for your left adrenal and welcoming everything that comes along with it.
All the parts are welcome.
Allowing your left adrenal to rest in to support.
And then we can float away from your left adrenal and take the elevator all the way to the top of your spinal cord.
Just as your spinal cord comes up through the hole in the base of your skull.
We can bring our intention to your brain stem.
Welcoming your brain stem and all those little parts of your brain.
Whatever comes up,
Comes up.
Just inviting softness here and resting in to support.
And now we can bring our intention to your ankles.
And as we support your ankles in this way,
We are knowing that ankles are like hinges.
Like how a door opens and closes.
So we can support your ankles to be open.
So any energy that's not serving you today can flow down and out of your body through the soles of your feet and back to the earth.
You can even sweep down from the top of your head through your whole body gently.
Allowing any unhealed energy to just drain out through the soles of your feet back to the earth as we support your ankles.
Plenty of space here.
And then we can rest in a healing silence for a couple of minutes here together.
Just allowing the body,
Heart,
Mind,
Plenty of space to integrate this work.
And as you feel ready,
You can shift and take your time.
