Find a place and a way to be. You may find it helpful to be somewhere without distraction, if such a place exists for you. If not, let it be what it is.

In this practice you will be invited to pay close attention to your body and eventually, as you wish and are willing, to move — and so you may like to be somewhere private, or to be out in the world, depending on your own comfort level. You may wish to sit, stand, lie down, or you may want to keep moving. Remember you can always repeat this practice, listen or read again, in a new place and in a new way.

Begin by bringing your attention to the lowest part of your body, the part of your body that is your base. Notice the way this base is meeting the floor, or your chair, or having some other kind of contact with some other kind of surface. Notice the way this surface is meeting you just as you are meeting it. Notice the way you are in relationship with it.

If your attention is on your feet, bring your attention to the bottoms, to the pads, and allow them to soften. Spread your toes. If it makes sense to you and your body, feel your ankles softening, your shins softening, your knees releasing. Let your thighs become soft and fleshy, allow your tailbone to relax and drop, your hips to widen and breathe. Feel all the parts of your base softening, sinking, melting, breathing. Allow them to become wide, supportive, and grounding. Allow them to take up space, to be in relationship with the surfaces they are touching and the air that surrounds you.

Now bring your attention to your centre. To your guts, your stomach, to your ribs. Without changing it, notice your breath. Feel your lungs expanding and contracting and allow yourself to admire their rhythm, their effortless dance.

Dance is simply the breath made visible.

Feel the length of your spine holding you in whatever way it does. Let your shoulders hang with the weight of your arms.

Release your neck by releasing your jaw. Release your face by releasing your tongue from the top of your mouth. Allow your throat to soften. Let your eyeballs settle into the soft hammocks of your eye sockets. Allow the tension in the space between your eyebrows to dissolve. Feel the weight of your head settling. Feel a tingle in your ears. Feel the air on your neck. Remember your lungs are still dancing — remember to breathe.

Begin again at the base but this time allow yourself the possibility of movement. Allow yourself to shift or rock or bounce or stretch or alternate one and then the other and notice whether this allows you to feel more or less.

How well can you see yourself?

How close to the ground are you?

How far from the sky?

What is your wingspan?

What is your reach?

Take in the space around you. Open your gaze if it has narrowed. Keep finding movement if it is there.

Notice the light, the shadows, the smells. Notice what is near and far. Notice whether this allows you to feel more or less.

Can you feel your clothing touching your skin?

Can you feel your bones, your muscles, your blood?

Can you feel your heart beating?

Can you feel the soft rhythm of your lungs?

Are you here in this moment?

How do you know?

Slow your movements.

See your body somewhere other than where it is. Imagine it somewhere comfortable, somewhere you might like to be.

Trace the outline of your body.

See the space that you’re filling.

See yourself with kindness.

Allow yourself to be wide, soft, supported, grounded.

See yourself being met by the ground and by the air.

See yourself being held with kindness.

Open your gaze if it has narrowed. Bring this kindness back to the body that is you, in the present moment.

Feel your body meeting surface, meeting air.

Feel your breath supporting you
Moving you in the present moment
Moving you into your day.