Hello and welcome.
This practice is an invitation to step out of the doing,
The planning,
The constant forward motion and to come back to something that is much more essential.
We spend so much of our lives building towards something,
Working towards the next goal,
The next milestone,
The next version of success.
And this drive is beautiful and it's part of who we are as human beings,
But sometimes even without noticing,
The life that we are building starts to feel less like freedom and more like a weight,
Like a prison that we build around us,
With the business,
The career,
The responsibilities.
Things we once chose begin to feel like things that own us.
You might wake up one day and realize that you've been so focused on the destination that you forgot to ask whether the road you are on is actually taking you there.
So this practice is about creating a little bit more space inside of yourself,
A clearing so that you can answer with more clarity to the question,
Where do you actually want to go?
This is what we're here for today.
So let yourself arrive fully and whatever you're carrying right now,
You can set it down for the next 10 minutes or so.
Make yourself comfortable,
You can sit up or lie down and close down your eyes when you're ready.
And let's begin with three deep clearing breaths,
Inhale through the nose,
And a long open exhale through the mouth.
Again,
Deep inhale,
And exhale.
And one more,
Full breath in,
Pause it for a moment,
Come back to your natural breath for a moment and bring your attention to your body.
Notice the weight of it,
The ground or the chair beneath you that is supporting you completely.
Feel your hands,
Your shoulders,
Is there any tension you're still holding?
You don't need to change anything,
Just notice.
And keep scanning slowly from the top of the head down through the face,
The jaw,
The throat,
The chest,
The belly,
All the way down to your hips,
Your legs,
Your glutes,
Your feet.
And wherever there is tightness,
Breathe into it gently and let your body soften up.
And taking this moment to simply be here,
Inside of yourself.
And now we move into the breath,
This is a connected breath,
In and out through the nose,
No pauses between the inhale and the exhale,
Just drawing one continuous circle.
So when you're ready,
Let's begin.
Stay with this breath,
Stay with this pattern.
Inhale,
Expand,
Exhale,
Let it go.
Stay here,
Breathing and trusting the process.
Slowly and gently you can begin to let the breath return to its natural pace,
Maybe allowing it to pause after the next exhalation.
Let yourself be in this moment of stillness and centerness.
Take a deeper breath in,
And a heavy sight out.
And in this moment,
And in this space of inner listening,
I'll invite you to bring an inner smile that comes from the center of your heart.
And before coming back into the space and into your life,
I want to leave you with one question.
And do not answer it with your mind.
Let it travel lower into your chest,
Into your heart,
Into that part of you that already knows.
I want you to imagine the version of you 10 years from now.
The one who made the choices that truly matters,
Who built a life around balance,
Presence,
And freedom.
And now that version of you is looking back at this moment,
Right now.
And the question is simply this.
What will he or she tell you to stop doing?
And let the answer rise quietly.
And trust what comes.
And whenever you're ready,
Take a final breath in,
Exhale out.
Start to wiggle your toes,
Your fingers,
Roll your neck,
Your shoulders,
And start to come back into your body.
I suggest you take a moment to reflect,
Maybe to write down what came up.
What he or she told you to stop doing?
What did you realize that is costing you more than it's giving you?
Thank you for taking this time for yourself.
