Hello,
My name is Dana and I'm a teacher here on Insight Timer.
Welcome to today's practice.
We'll be focusing on balance.
In order to find balance,
We have to start with ourselves.
We have to go inwards so that we can then go outwards.
As Mark Nippo shares,
Much of our isolation and sense of difference comes from our inability to slow down and let in what is before us.
Regardless of the medium,
This is the beginning of art.
The honest listening without pretense or judgment to life as it meets us.
Listening is not reacting or responding,
But meeting experience openly,
The way a lake is filled by streams.
I invite you to find a comfortable seat,
One in which you're both alert but comfortable.
And if it's comfortable for you to close your eyes,
I invite you to do so now.
And as you are seated here in this moment,
I invite you to begin to notice the sit bones,
Those touch points to a chair or the floor or the ground beneath you.
And then I invite you to notice the placement of the hands.
Maybe they're in your lap,
Maybe they're on legs or knees.
And next I invite you to notice the shoulders.
Where in the space are your shoulders?
Are they up by your ears?
Maybe rolling them up and back to give you a little more space.
And as you're seated here,
Just getting in touch with the breath as you notice your space that you are here in,
The space that you are occupying,
Getting reacquainted with the present moment.
And now I invite you to get curious with noticing the breath,
The inhale and the exhale,
Bringing your attention to this natural rhythm,
Your rhythm.
Breath moving in the body,
Breath moving out of the body.
On the next few breaths,
Just inviting yourself to get curious with the length and depth of each inhale and exhale.
Maybe seeing if you can lengthen and deepen each to match one another.
And if the mind wanders at any point,
Just coming back to breath,
The inhale,
The exhale,
That constant rhythm of movement of air in and throughout the body.
There's no right way,
There's no wrong way for just being here right now.
And on your next breath,
I invite you to bring your hands to that space just below the neck and just bring your breath here.
Note that sensation and this place in the body.
Noticing what the rhythm of breathing feels like here with the hands placed below the neck.
And now I invite you to move the hands to the lower ribs,
That area just above the belly button and I invite you to just notice breath here.
What does breath feel like here in the body?
And on your next breath,
I invite you to move the hands to the lower abdomen right below the belly button and just breathe here.
Notice what it feels like breath in the body here.
And I invite you to bring your hands back to a comfortable position and just take a deep inhale in through the nose and an exhale out through the mouth.
And now I invite you to bring your hands to your heart.
I notice that sensation in the body of hands to heart.
You feel the rhythm of the heartbeat here.
And once you get acquainted with that sensation and that rhythm,
Your rhythm,
Just seeing the self.
I am present here.
And on the next breath,
I invite you to bring the hands back to the belly,
Noticing the breath here.
Just feel your breathing.
And once you've gotten acquainted with that sensation and in that rhythm,
Your rhythm of breath,
Just saying to self,
I am present here.
And on your next breath,
I invite you to move the hands to either the knees or the feet if those are accessible to you in your seated posture today.
These are your grounding points.
I invite you to note the sensation of the hands on these grounding points.
This is how we touch the earth.
And I invite you to say to self,
I am present here.
And on your next breath,
I invite you just to bring the hands back to a comfortable position.
And let's come back to breath and just imagine filling the whole body from each of those touch points,
From the feet,
The knees,
To the midsection,
To the chest,
To the top of the head.
Just filling the whole body with breath here.
Let each breath wash over the entirety of your being seated here.
And on your next breath,
Just following that pathway of breath through the body one more time,
Noting each of those spaces in the body where you are present.
You are present here.
And when you're ready,
I invite you to take another deep breath in through the nose and an exhale out through the mouth.
And as you're ready,
Slowly opening the eyes,
Becoming aware of the space that you're in now.
And before moving on with your day,
I invite you just to take one more moment for yourself here and share a note of gratitude for showing up to get curious,
To go inward and sit with self.
I thank you so much for practicing with me today and I hope that you are well until next time.
