Anchor & Count Breath

Anchor & Count Breaths

Sit or stand with the spine straight, but not rigidly held
and become still. In this posture, embody a feeling of dignity.

Feel your breath at each of these areas, then pick one and anchor your attention there while you count your breaths.

  • Bring your attention to your nostrils and feel your breath pass in and out.
  • Shift your attention to your navel and feel it rise and fall as you breathe.

 

Count your exhaled breaths in bouts of 10 with attention on each of the above areas.
1-10, 10-1, 1-10, repeat

 

 

Notice Your Breath

Notice Your Breath

Honor breath as it is the first and the last action taken in this life.

FEEL what moves as you breathe?

Belly? Waist?

Armpits? Chest? Shoulder blades?

Collar bones? Throat?

Base of Skull?

 

Hold your attention on the sensation of breath wherever your body moves the most as you breathe. No need to change, anything, just notice how breath moves your body for the next few minutes.

 

Refresh Your Senses

Refresh Your Senses

Take a comfortable, stable posture and become still.

Slowly visit each of your senses.

Begin with noticing the touch of clothing on your body.

Move your attention inside your mouth and notice its taste.

Now move your attention to your nostrils, notice anything you can smell.

Move your attention to your ears and detect the farthest sound you hear.

Now gaze at something close to you, and notice what you see.

Linger in appreciation for the gift of your senses.

Show Up: Put Your Mind & Body in the Same Place at the Same Time

Showing Up: Put Your Mind & Body In the Same Place, At the Same Time

 

Feet on the earth. Position of each toe¦

Floor of your pelvis, between your sits bones, in front of your tail bone¦

Position of your hands, including each finger¦

Position of your jaw, tongue and corners of your lips¦

Softness of the corners of your eyes and set of your brow¦

 

This homunculus represents the map your brain has of your body,
based on the density of sensory INPUTS.
You have been strategic in placing your attention on these body areas to become present.

Valuing Self Care

Self care is really an act of self -compassion. Compassion arises in response to witnessing suffering in ourselves or others. Suffering is a strong word, but feeling it for ourselves and others is what motivates us to act to change the experience. We can wrap our hearts around suffering if we understand it as what we experience whenever we want something to be happening differently than it is happening right now. Viewed in this way, we are likely in need of self compassion on a daily basis!
Any self-care practices we choose to adopt needs to regarded as valuable to us and be created by us in ways that we find pleasurable in order to be sustainable. Referring to value as described in this graphic by social scientist Dr. Brene Brown, do you value self-care? Determining value for self-care, that is rooted in self -compassion is essential; otherwise, we may adopt a mistaken view that our self-care is one more thing to add to our to do list, or a self-help tool we use to fix what we have come to believe is broken.

 

 

 

Rehearse your ABC’s to introduce yourself to the practicing self compassion:

A: Attitude
Adopt a curious attitude along with an intention to pay kind attention to yourself as you learn a novel skill of experiencing self-compassion. Consider this an introduction to loving-kindness.
B: Be here now.
Pay attention to whether your body and your mind are in the same place at the same time in each activity you engage in through the day. Locating your attention is the first step in training your attention. Consider this an introduction to mindfulness.
C: Connect
Once you have found your body, attempt to stay connected to feeling your body do whatever it is you are doing. Your attention will likely wander repeatedly. The trick of the training is noticing if and when you have disconnected and then kindly re-connect yourself. Consider this an introduction to non-judgement.

Most of us will be drawn to engage in that which we enjoy, so be playful with your foray into new territory.
Namaste,
Cheryl