Brother Richard

If you wish, you can imagine a little thread or string coming from the very crown of your head.

Feel it slowly pulled or wound up so that your head moves back over your shoulders.

Your spine lengthens.

Your breath opens.

Work always without tension, without stress, without strain.

knowing that you can adjust your posture at any time.

If something like a cough or the need to move appears, we just allow it to happen and return to the meditation.

This is not a struggle with the self, but a coming into deeper awareness of the self.

Our hands rest comfortably on our lap.

And once we have arrived at a stable sitting position, we gently inquire of the body.

How am I today?

How am I in this moment today?

And checking in with the body, we might notice areas of stress or tension.

And gently then becoming aware of the cycle of our breath, the in breath and the out breath.

Without changing the rhythm in any way, we simply begin to breathe, not just with mouth or nose, but with every pore of our skin.

Breathing out all tension, all stress, all anxiety.

perhaps picturing our out-breath in the same way that we see our breath on a cold winter's morning.

Seeing the out-breath as a vapor or smoke that is breathed out into the air, dissolves and disappears, taking with it all stress, all tension.

Breathing now from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head,

And as we breathe in, we breathe in clear golden light, imagining our whole being filling with light, filling with calm, peace, relaxation, stillness, grace.