Welcome.
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I'm coming to a nice and comfortable seated position somewhere where you can allow your spine to be tall.
Feeling the space between each of your vertebrae.
And laying your hands in your lap or at your side.
If sitting upright is uncomfortable then then please make yourself comfortable on the floor,
Lying down or in a chair.
The point is not the position,
The point is the ability to not be distracted.
And then let your shoulders soften away from your ears.
And you might choose to gently drop your eyelids or you might prefer to drop your gaze and keeping the eyes open.
Your tongue resting gently up on the roof of your mouth.
Starting to breathe in through the nose and out through the nose.
And very slowly,
Very gently starting to circle your head.
Allowing you the time and space to feel how your neck is doing this morning.
We're not pushing into any places of discomfort,
You might avoid dropping the head back,
Come up and over instead.
You're staying curious about how the land lies inside our body this morning.
And then changing directions.
Coming back to centre,
Space to circle your shoulders,
Inhaling as they come up,
Exhaling as they come down,
Back and down.
So for me the slower I move the more able I am to stay with that movement,
To stay present.
Perhaps that's true for you too.
You might take your elbows and circle.
And if you have space perhaps you take full arm extensions and circle.
Allowing ourselves to slowly start to wake,
We practice early in the mornings.
You never see a cat or a dog wake up and just throw themselves into the day.
Always it begins with a stretch.
And then circling the heart very slow and big circles like you're painting a circle around your hips.
This morning we're curious about our breath so as you circle notice what's happening with your breath.
Changing direction.
And then settling back to centre,
Finding the midline of you.
And continuing to let the breath move in and out through the nostrils.
Let's see if we can drop the breath a little lower so the breath is an inhale right the way down deep,
As deep as we can get that breath to go without forcing.
And an exhale coming right up from the deepest parts and out.
So this breath isn't forced but it is deliberate.
We're very conscious in our choice to deepen the breath.
We're letting that breath drop down as we drop down our awareness deeper within the body.
And we're going to start our practice today with a circular breath.
So as you inhale you're going to imagine a great big circle of light and your inhale carries that light from the base of the circle round to the side and all the way up to the top.
And then as you exhale it switches moving round to the side and down.
The visualisation of a circle of light supporting our practice as we deepen and regulate our breath.
And you might find that as you practice the mind wanders off down particular rabbit holes.
It's really normal,
Really human and so you just notice it and smile and see if you can come back fully to the practice.
The circle of light.
So perhaps that circle of light can broaden,
Can expand.
So if you were to be counting the length of your inhale and the length of your exhale we're trying to get to somewhere around the length of the count of six or maybe beyond,
Maybe eight.
Trying but not forcing.
So and bringing your hands to your heart centre in a prayer position,
Thumbs pointing towards sternum.
You're going to draw your in-breath into the place where your thumbs are and let your out-breath emanate from that space out in all directions.
So we're releasing the practice of the circular breath and moving to a heart breath.
And as you inhale you're going to raise those prayer hands up depending on how easy your movement is.
Maybe the hands come all the way up overhead.
And then as you exhale it's almost as if you're doing breaststroke swimming through the air,
Your arms come out wide to the side and down.
The exhale is going to become longer than the inhale and then returning your hands to your heart as you inhale and your fingertips reach up high overhead.
And then exhaling as you swim through the air.
So now the breath ratio is roughly that the exhale is double the length of the inhale so perhaps if you were breathing in for six you might be breathing out for 12.
If you're breathing in for eight perhaps you're breathing out for 16.
So and let there be a gentleness around your practice so if the count feels too long adjust it.
We're curious but we're also compassionate kind to ourselves.
Able to allow what is as we practice.
So and one more time.
Bringing your hands to rest in your lap or placing your hands on your heart.
Returning to the breath of the heart allowing the inhale to come right into the center of the heart and the exhale to expand outwards in all directions filling up the space around you.
And soon it starts to feel almost as if the heart is being breathed.
You can allow whatever natural ratio of inhale and outhale.
Exhale feels good to you.
You might start to naturally imagine a light within the deepest part of the heart and as you inhale you're drawing your breath into that light.
And as you exhale you're sending that light out in all directions.
So so we can start to bring threads of our tonglen practice in.
Inhaling to the light in your heart.
And exhaling choosing to send that light from your heart to someone for whom you care deeply.
Someone who it's easy to love.
So so so and starting to move the practice experimenting with sending that light to someone to whom we feel very neutral.
Not good,
Not bad.
Perhaps someone who you see most days they're part of your routine perhaps in a shop or on the commute.
Your paths cross and you maybe smile at each other.
You don't necessarily know their their name or their personal details.
As you inhale bring that breath into the very deepest part of your heart the light that is to be found there and as you exhale send that light generously to that person.
So you you And then moving the practice towards someone who we find a challenge And just experimenting As you breathe in bringing your breath and your awareness to the light deep within the heart And as you breathe out sending that light generously Toward that person as a gift you you And then releasing the practice Taking our time to notice how it feels Allowing the breath to do its thing no agenda you you And bringing your hands to your heart you offering the fruits of our practice to all beings is
