Let this first bell invite you into stillness,
Finding your posture.
And perhaps particularly tonight,
Settling into a posture of safety.
Not necessarily protection or defensiveness,
But one that has a sense of balance,
Groundedness,
Relaxation and openness.
The second bell inviting us into silence.
Just quiet in what's within us and starting to tune in to sound around us.
And with the third bell,
Allowing your attention just to drop into your breath,
Wherever it is in the body.
Breathing in,
Opening the chest.
Breathing out,
Sinking into your posture a little more deeply.
Breathing in,
Opening up.
Breathing out,
Softening,
Relaxing.
Breathing in,
Safety,
Confidence.
Breathing out,
Sense of being home in the place and time.
Safety and allowing time for your attention to just settle with the breath.
Noticing how it is for your mind this evening.
Whether it's relieved to relax onto the breath or whether it's racing,
Ticking through lists,
Working hard.
However it is for your mind right now.
Just acknowledging that,
Validating that.
Our mind has many seasons in a day,
In an hour.
Perhaps naming the season of your mind at the moment.
Or its character or quality.
And allowing that to be as it is.
Also inviting your attention to just let go and settle on this breath.
Breathing in with this sense of safety within your skin.
And breathing out,
Just feeling all the muscles and sinews within the skin.
Just relax a little more.
Letting the cushion take the weight of the body.
Trusting gravity to hold you in place.
Breathing in,
Safe and calm within your skin.
Breathing out,
Trust in this body,
In this place that you're resting in.
Safety and trust.
And if you care to,
You might like to just start scanning slowly through the body,
Starting at the top of the head.
Just reading,
If you like,
The emotional map of the body,
Just as you find it.
Is your head calm,
Peaceful,
Happy,
Sad,
Scared,
Angry,
Disgusted?
Whether subtly or strongly,
Just trying those words on,
As you are with the sensation and experience in your head right now.
Just noticing and trying a name.
Might be a little bit of this emotion,
A little bit of that emotion.
And you might like to experiment with mapping the emotions on your face right now.
Perhaps changing expression if you like to and just noticing the emotional tone,
Subtle or strong.
Turning the corners of your mouth up or down.
Just noticing changes in emotional tone.
Say the muscles on our face are connected with the ventral vagal nerve that goes down into our heart.
Reading the pulse and reflecting the heart on the face.
Just following down now toward the chest area.
Tuning in to the heartbeat.
Just observing,
Noticing any emotional tones,
Whether they're subtle or strong.
Not needing to interpret or analyze them at all.
Just being with whatever kind of shade of emotion might be present in the chest at the moment.
You might notice whether there's any particular muscle sensation or posture.
And again you might like to experiment.
Whether you expand your chest or roll your shoulders back or whether you practice letting your shoulders come forward.
Just noticing any changes in emotional tone.
Trying on different names of emotions just to see what fits.
Sadness,
Wistfulness,
Loneliness,
Nervousness,
Anxiousness,
Worry,
Frustration,
Irritability,
Annoyance.
Perhaps joy.
Perhaps just feeling cool and calm.
Perhaps revulsion or dismay.
Just trying on names,
Seeing what fits.
Reading the emotional landscape of the chest.
Just traveling down the body again to the central region,
Just the sternum,
The base of the ribs,
Stomach area.
And again just reading the emotional tone in that part.
You might experiment with the softening or tightening the muscles here around the stomach.
And just observing the emotional tone.
Does it change?
Does it not?
What might you call it?
You might even like to invite your breath to breathe itself slowly into this part of the body.
The centre of the torso.
Inviting a softening and a letting go.
Allowing gravity and weight to do the body's work of just holding itself in place.
Not needing the core muscles involved particularly.
Letting them be at rest.
And moving your attention down a little lower to the gut area.
Feeling into sensations of the intestines.
Perhaps even into the bladder or the bowel.
Use your hand to guide your attention there or help anchor it.
And feel,
If you do,
Feeling the warmth of the hand and that sense of comfort,
A gentle pressure on the skin of this lower abdomen area.
Again this part that's in contact with the dorsal vagal nerve,
The old myelinated part of the nervous system.
That's very good at reacting to any signs of danger.
So just feeling into this gut area.
Noticing the emotional tone.
Is it feeling safe and secure?
Or perhaps a little nervous or on edge?
Or do you feel a fire in your belly?
Either excitement or anger or fear?
Or is there a softening in the belly?
The kind that comes with laughter?
Easy breathing?
And then if you care to,
Allowing your attention to sink just a little lower to the genital area.
And just feeling into sensations in this area.
Perhaps allowing a relaxation of the sphincters or a tightening and noticing the changing emotional states.
That might be present.
Experimenting a little with the pelvic floor.
Relaxed and spacious.
Standing strong.
Noticing the different emotional tones as you soften and relax.
Or tighten and tense in this part of the body.
Dropping,
If you can,
Any narratives and just being interested to observe kind of emotional palette in this part.
Passion,
Pleasure.
Fear,
Confusion.
Excitement,
Anger.
And just trying on words,
Seeing what fits.
And if it feels right for you,
Just inviting the breath to travel long into the body from the nostrils,
The throat,
The chest,
Stomach,
The belly.
Groin area.
And then all the way out again.
Just inviting some imaginative flow through the body.
Breathing in from the top of the head.
All the way down to the pelvic floor.
And out again.
You might like to even invite the body to be part of this movement of making space,
Softening,
Being spacious.
Inviting the breath in.
And then tightening,
Lifting and pushing the breath out again.
And letting go of attention,
Of emotion in the body.
And widening your awareness now to allow your mind to simply be at rest like a still,
Calm lake.
Inviting this metaphor of clear,
Still water.
To find an image and an experience in the body,
Just in whatever way it might resonate for you.
Maybe a body of water you know,
Whether it's large or small.
Or maybe one that imaginatively,
You can engage.
Allowing yourself to notice the details of this image or metaphor.
Still,
Clear lake.
Fully inhabiting the shape of the earth that holds it,
That contains it.
Resting with gravity in just the shape it is.
It may be a piece of water that experiences currents,
Large or small.
From springs entering or rivers or even the movement of creatures that live in it.
Maybe movements deep within this still,
Calm water.
You might like to think of these movements or currents or eddies within the transparent,
Still water.
As some of the deeper emotions that might come and go,
Seen or unseen in us.
Coming and going for longer or shorter periods of time.
But not undoing the shape of this body of water itself.
Just moving gently within it.
And I'd also like to imagine the changing influences of weather or wind on the surface of this still water.
Where the winds ripple the surface a little.
Or even whip it up into waves.
Whether there's lapping at the shore.
And just allowing this awareness of emotion as the changing movements and shapes and forms on the surface.
And yet not changing the fact of this body of water.
That's from time to time making it less and still or less and transparent.
But in time every weather pattern passes and stillness might return.
Or again emotions might be like the changing reflections in the surface of still water.
Reflecting different times of day,
Sparkling on the water,
To other times the hues of sunset or sunrise.
At night time,
Black surface.
Again like emotions that change,
Come,
Go,
Are reflected in our mind,
Perhaps in our body,
On our face,
In our actions.
But they come and go and don't actually change the fact of the body of water lying in its container of earth.
If it's right for you,
You might like to imagine your skin as the container of this still clear water of emotional life.
Containing all that is you.
That bears the eddies and currents and sometimes changing surface or changing reflections of emotion.
But is still held and bounded and contained within the matter of your skin.
And perhaps breathing,
Feeling the breath moving within this container of skin,
Gently.
Itself a small eddy in this calm still water.
Held within the skin.
You might like to reflect on the image that perhaps caught your attention earlier.
And the emotional tone that you're aware of as you think of that image.
You might even find a place for it within the still water of your emotional landscape.
Safe within your skin.
And in a moment when you hear the sound of the bell inviting you out of stillness,
You can just begin to sort of slosh this internal lake of yours around as you move your body.
But still holding it within your skin.
And then with the second bell,
You might like to feel invited out of silence and you might share some movement and some reflection.
