Speaker 1: You can arrive however you are. There is no clean
Speaker 1: way you were supposed to get here. You do not
Speaker 1: have to set anything down before you sit. You do
Speaker 1: not have to fix your posture or arrange your face,
Speaker 1: or arrange your day. You can come in with the
Speaker 1: residue of it all still on you. The undone list,
Speaker 1: the half said sentences, the small embarrassments from three hours
Speaker 1: ago that have no right to still be alive, and
Speaker 1: are alive. Anyway. You can bring those in. You can
Speaker 1: leave your shoes on, you can leave your socks on.
Speaker 1: You can let your hands stay exactly where they have been.
Speaker 1: This is the door, and you have walked through it.
Speaker 1: That is the whole of what I am asking. So
Speaker 1: here we are, you and me and this room, and
Speaker 1: whatever time of day it is for you. I do
Speaker 1: not know what time it is for you. I do
Speaker 1: not know if it is early and the light is
Speaker 1: the kind of light you cannot trust yet, or if
Speaker 1: it is late and you have been waiting all day
Speaker 1: to press play, or if it is somewhere in the middle,
Speaker 1: that liminal hour when the day has stopped pretending to
Speaker 1: be useful. I do not know, and I do not
Speaker 1: need to know. The time is not the point. The
Speaker 1: point is that you have stopped for a little while
Speaker 1: and you are here. Take a breath. Not the kind
Speaker 1: of breath you take when someone is watching and you
Speaker 1: want to seem like you are doing the exercise. The
Speaker 1: kind of breath your body takes when you forget to
Speaker 1: supervise it. The kind of breath that happens whether or
Speaker 1: not you are paying attention. There it is. You might
Speaker 1: have caught it, you might have missed it. Either way,
Speaker 1: it was there. Here is what I want to say
Speaker 1: to you before we go anywhere. I want to say
Speaker 1: something about the title of this The body that has
Speaker 1: been waiting for you. I did not pick those words
Speaker 1: by accident, and I did not pick them because they
Speaker 1: sound gentle. I pick them because they are the truest
Speaker 1: thing I know how to say. You have been somewhere
Speaker 1: today or yesterday, or for a long time. You have
Speaker 1: been somewhere that is not here. You have been in
Speaker 1: the place where everything is happening before it happens, or
Speaker 1: after it has happened, or in the place where it
Speaker 1: is happening to someone else and you are trying to
Speaker 1: solve it from across the room. You have been in
Speaker 1: the place where you are watching yourself from a little distance,
Speaker 1: where your own life is happening to you like weather.
Speaker 1: You have been in your head. That is the phrase,
Speaker 1: and it is the right phrase, and I am going
Speaker 1: to say it without apology. You have been in your
Speaker 1: head and your body has been waiting. I want to
Speaker 1: slow down here because I believe this is the part
Speaker 1: that matters, not the breathing exercises, not the body scan
Speaker 1: that is going to come later. This part, the part
Speaker 1: where I name the thing that has been true for
Speaker 1: you for a while, maybe for longer than you have
Speaker 1: been willing to admit. The part where I say out
Speaker 1: loud that you have been living somewhere that is not
Speaker 1: the place where you actually live. Your body is where
Speaker 1: you live. I know that sounds like a sentence from
Speaker 1: a book you would not normally pick up. I know
Speaker 1: that sounds like the kind of thing you would nod
Speaker 1: at and then forget by the time you got to
Speaker 1: your car. But stay with me for a second. Your
Speaker 1: body is where you live. Your body is the only
Speaker 1: place you have ever actually lived. Every single thing that
Speaker 1: has ever happened to you in your whole life happened
Speaker 1: to this body. Every meal every cold, every time someone
Speaker 1: said your name in a way that made you feel
Speaker 1: like you were three years old again, every time you
Speaker 1: laughed so hard you could not breathe, every time you
Speaker 1: could not breathe for the other reasons. All of that
Speaker 1: happened in this body, in this body that is sitting
Speaker 1: here right now, in whatever chair, in whatever room, with
Speaker 1: whatever it is still carrying from the day. And while
Speaker 1: all of that was happening, while the whole of your
Speaker 1: life was being received by this body, you were somewhere else,
Speaker 1: up here in the place where the sentences are, in
Speaker 1: the place where you were rehearsing what you should have said,
Speaker 1: or planning what you are going to say next, or
Speaker 1: replaying the thing from two weeks ago that you are
Speaker 1: still paying interest on. You were there, and your body
Speaker 1: was here, patient, not complaining, not sending you an invoice,
Speaker 1: just here doing the work of being alive without you.
Speaker 1: That is the part that I want you to hear.
Speaker 1: Your body has not left. Your body did not go
Speaker 1: on on strike. Your body did not get tired of
Speaker 1: waiting and start packing. Your body has been here the
Speaker 1: whole time, in the chair, in the bed, on the floor,
Speaker 1: in the car, in the meeting in the shower, in
Speaker 1: the grocery store line, right here, doing its work, carrying
Speaker 1: you even when you were not carrying it. I consider
Speaker 1: this often. I imagine how strange it is that we
Speaker 1: treat the body like a vehicle, like it is the
Speaker 1: thing that gets us to the places where the real
Speaker 1: life is happening. We treat it like an afterthought. We
Speaker 1: treat it like the wrapper around the gift, and the
Speaker 1: gift we believe is up here. The gift is the
Speaker 1: inner life, the story, the narrative, the person we are becoming.
Speaker 1: The body is just the way we haul that person around.
Speaker 1: But here is the part no one tells you. The
Speaker 1: body is not the wrapper. The body is the gift.
Speaker 1: The body is the gift you have been carrying around
Speaker 1: this whole time, unopened because you were so busy wondering
Speaker 1: what was inside it. I want to say that again
Speaker 1: because I suspect you might have skimmed it. The body
Speaker 1: is the gift. Not a problem to be solved, not
Speaker 1: a project to be optimized, not a thing that needs
Speaker 1: to be fixed before you can get to the real work.
Speaker 1: The body is the gift. It is the only thing
Speaker 1: you were ever given that you did not have to earn,
Speaker 1: and it is the only thing that is stayed. So
Speaker 1: here we are, you and me and this room and
Speaker 1: your body, your body which has been here this whole time,
Speaker 1: and which has been waiting in its quiet weight. You
Speaker 1: do not have to do anything dramatic. You do not
Speaker 1: have to do anything at all, really, But if you can,
Speaker 1: I would like you to let your feet find the ground,
Speaker 1: not press into the ground, not grip the ground. Just
Speaker 1: let them land. Let them remember that there is a floor.
Speaker 1: Let them say hello to the floor in their own
Speaker 1: quiet way. If you are standing, let your weight drop
Speaker 1: into your feet. Let your heels do some of the work.
Speaker 1: Let your toes do less of the work than they
Speaker 1: have been doing all day. If you are sitting, let
Speaker 1: your thighs feel the chair. Let your sitting bones know
Speaker 1: they are allowed to be heavy. Let the chair hold
Speaker 1: some of what you have been holding. There is a
Speaker 1: floor under you, There is a chair under you. There
Speaker 1: is a bed under you, or a couch, or a
Speaker 1: patch of carpet or a patch of grass. There is
Speaker 1: something solid, and it has been holding you this whole time,
Speaker 1: and it is going to keep holding you for the
Speaker 1: rest of this You do not have to hold yourself up.
Speaker 1: Not for the next few minutes. You can let the
Speaker 1: holding be done by something else. Now, your hands. Let
Speaker 1: your hands be where they are. If they are in
Speaker 1: your lap, let them be in your lap. If they
Speaker 1: are at your sides, let them be at your sides.
Speaker 1: If they are holding something, you can set it down
Speaker 1: if you want, but you do not have to. There
Speaker 1: is no rule. The hands have been busy to day,
Speaker 1: and they have earned their rest, and they are allowed
Speaker 1: to just be hands for a while. Hands that are
Speaker 1: not opening doors or holding phones, or typing, or gripping
Speaker 1: the steering wheel, or carrying groceries or anything at all.
Speaker 1: Just hands resting, doing the work of resting your shoulders.
Speaker 1: I want to say something about your shoulders. Your shoulders
Speaker 1: have been doing a job today that they were not
Speaker 1: hired for. Your shoulders have been lifting the day for you.
Speaker 1: They have been up near your ears holding the weight
Speaker 1: of whatever you have been carrying, and they have been
Speaker 1: doing it without being asked, and they have been doing
Speaker 1: it without being thanked. So thank them in your own
Speaker 1: quiet way. Let them drop, Let them fall back and
Speaker 1: down and away from your ears. Let them remember that
Speaker 1: they are shoulders, not coat hooks. They do not have
Speaker 1: to hang things for you. There is a softening that
Speaker 1: happens here. You let it. A small softening, not a collapse,
Speaker 1: not a giving up, just a softening, like a fist
Speaker 1: that has been closed for a long time and is
Speaker 1: now allowed to open finger by finger, Like a jaw
Speaker 1: that has been clenched since the meeting and is now
Speaker 1: allowed to be a jaw again, with space between the teeth,
Speaker 1: with the tongue westing somewhere in the middle of the mouth,
Speaker 1: with the lips soft, with the whole apparatus of your face,
Speaker 1: remembering that it does not have to hold anything. Your face,
Speaker 1: your poor, overworked face. It has been making expressions all
Speaker 1: day for other people. It has been showing up looking interested,
Speaker 1: looking concerned, looking like it was following along. It has
Speaker 1: been performing the social contract. And now it can stop.
Speaker 1: It can stop performing. It can let the muscles that
Speaker 1: have been holding the expression go. It can let your
Speaker 1: brow be a brew again. It can let your eyes
Speaker 1: be eyes, not eyes that are watching for the next thing,
Speaker 1: just eyes in a face, in a head on a
Speaker 1: body that is sitting in a room. And the breath.
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to the breath because the breath
Speaker 1: is the bridge. The breath is the only thing that
Speaker 1: belongs to both places. The breath is the only part
Speaker 1: of this that lives in the body and in the
Speaker 1: head at the same time. You can give your breath
Speaker 1: your attention, and your breath will still be there. You
Speaker 1: can stop paying attention to your breath, and your breath
Speaker 1: will still be there. The breath does not need you
Speaker 1: to manage it. The breath has been managing itself for
Speaker 1: a long time, since before you were born, since before
Speaker 1: or you had a name, since before you had a
Speaker 1: head full of all this stuff. The breath has been
Speaker 1: doing its job quietly, without complaint. So let it do
Speaker 1: its job. Let it come in the way it has
Speaker 1: always come in. Let it go out the way it
Speaker 1: has always gone out. You do not have to make
Speaker 1: it deeper. You do not have to make it slower.
Speaker 1: You do not have to make it anything. You can
Speaker 1: just let it be the breath of a body that
Speaker 1: is alive in a room. Here is the part I
Speaker 1: want to be careful with the day you spent in
Speaker 1: your head. I want to talk about this, but I
Speaker 1: want to talk about it gently because I know that
Speaker 1: you know, you already know you have been in your
Speaker 1: head all day. You do not need me to tell
Speaker 1: you that. You do not need me to point at
Speaker 1: the screen of your own awareness and say, see, look,
Speaker 1: you have been up there again. You already know. You
Speaker 1: knew when you press play, you knew when you sat down,
Speaker 1: you knew when you looked for a meditation. This one
Speaker 1: specifically because something in the title pulled at you the
Speaker 1: body that has been waiting for you. You felt that
Speaker 1: title in your body before you read it with your eyes.
Speaker 1: That is how I know you already know. So I
Speaker 1: am not going to lecture you about being in your head.
Speaker 1: I am not going to tell you that you should stop.
Speaker 1: I am not even going to tell you that you
Speaker 1: can stop. You cannot by force stop being in your head.
Speaker 1: You have tried. You know how that goes. You try
Speaker 1: to stop, and the trying is the thing you are
Speaker 1: doing up there. You try to be present, and the
Speaker 1: trying is the thing that is keeping you out of
Speaker 1: the present. It is one of those little cruelties of
Speaker 1: being a person. So instead, I am going to say this,
Speaker 1: the day you spent in your head is over, not
Speaker 1: the day. Maybe the day might still be going. There
Speaker 1: might be things on the calendar might be a morning coming.
Speaker 1: But the part of the day where you were somewhere else,
Speaker 1: the part where you were up there doing all of that,
Speaker 1: the part where you were carrying the whole thing on
Speaker 1: your own in the place where it cannot actually be carried,
Speaker 1: that part is done. You are not in it anymore.
Speaker 1: You are here. The fact that you are here means
Speaker 1: you have already come back, and your body knew. Your
Speaker 1: body knew before you did. Your body started the welcome
Speaker 1: before you even made the decision to come back. Your
Speaker 1: body started softening the jaw, dropping the shoulders, lengthening the
Speaker 1: breath before your mind caught up. Your body has been
Speaker 1: doing the work of bringing you home this whole time.
Speaker 1: It has been sending you signals. Tightness in the chest,
Speaker 1: a sigh that came from nowhere, a sudden urge to
Speaker 1: put your hand on your own arm, a sudden urge
Speaker 1: to lie down on the floor. Your body has been
Speaker 1: calling you, and you have been answering, even when you
Speaker 1: did not know you were answering. So let me offer
Speaker 1: you this. The welcome your body has been keeping for
Speaker 1: you is already in progress. It has been going on
Speaker 1: all day. It is going on right now. You do
Speaker 1: not have to earn it. You do not have to
Speaker 1: do the right thing to receive it. You are receiving
Speaker 1: it by being here. The welcome is the breath you
Speaker 1: just took. The welcome is the shoulder that just dropped.
Speaker 1: The welcome is the foot on the floor. The welcome
Speaker 1: is this moment right now, where you are in your body,
Speaker 1: and your body is in a room, and the room
Speaker 1: is being held by a building, and the building is
Speaker 1: being held by the earth, and the earth does not
Speaker 1: have anywhere else to be. Let me say something about
Speaker 1: the skin. I know that is an unusual sentence. Let
Speaker 1: me say something about the skin. The skin is the
Speaker 1: quiet door. I do not know why I know this,
Speaker 1: but I know it. The skin is the quiet door
Speaker 1: between the part of you that is you and the
Speaker 1: part of you that is the world. The skin is
Speaker 1: where the inside ends and the outside begins. And the
Speaker 1: skin is porous. The skin is not a wall. It
Speaker 1: is more like a conversation. The skin lets some things
Speaker 1: in and some things out, and it does it without
Speaker 1: asking your permission. The skin is doing the work of
Speaker 1: being a boundary and a bridge at the same time,
Speaker 1: and it has been doing it all day and it
Speaker 1: has been doing it without complaint. Your skin is the
Speaker 1: door that your body has been waiting behind. Your skin
Speaker 1: is the threshold across which you are now standing. On
Speaker 1: one side, the inside, the heart, the lungs, the gut,
Speaker 1: the long slow rivers of your blood, the place where
Speaker 1: you keep the things you do not show anyone, the
Speaker 1: place where the day is still being digested. On the
Speaker 1: other side, the outside, the air, the light, the temperature
Speaker 1: of the room, the sounds, the fabric of whatever you
Speaker 1: are sitting on the world, and your skin is the
Speaker 1: door between them. And your skin is closed and your
Speaker 1: skin is open both at once, the way a door
Speaker 1: can be closed and still left the light through underneath.
Speaker 1: Right now, your skin is doing something. Your skin is
Speaker 1: touching things. Your skin is touching the air, and the
Speaker 1: air is touching your skin, and neither of you is
Speaker 1: asking for anything in return. Your skin is touching the
Speaker 1: chair or the floor or the bed, and it is
Speaker 1: receiving that touch, and it is sending that touch back,
Speaker 1: and the exchange is happening whether or not you are
Speaker 1: paying attention to it. I want you to notice, if
Speaker 1: you can, where your skin is touching something right now.
Speaker 1: The backs of your hands, the soles of your feet,
Speaker 1: the small of your back against the chair, the back
Speaker 1: of your head against whatever your head is leaning on,
Speaker 1: if anything, your face in the air. Notice the touch,
Speaker 1: Notice that the touch is being received. Notice that you
Speaker 1: are not alone in this room. Even if you are
Speaker 1: alone in this room, you are in the company of
Speaker 1: all the surfaces that are There is a quietness to
Speaker 1: the skin. The skin is not dramatic. The skin does
Speaker 1: not announce itself. The skin does not say, hey, I
Speaker 1: am here, pay attention to me. The skin just does
Speaker 1: its work. The skin is the part of you that
Speaker 1: is most generous, because the skin is the part of
Speaker 1: you that is most in contact with everything else. The
Speaker 1: skin is the part of you that says yes to
Speaker 1: the world over and over in a voice that is
Speaker 1: too quiet for the head to hear. So let me
Speaker 1: offer you this for the next little while. Let your
Speaker 1: awareness move to the skin, not to fix, not to
Speaker 1: scan it, not to evaluate it, just to notice it,
Speaker 1: just to let it be the place where you are
Speaker 1: for a few breaths. The quiet door, the threshold, the
Speaker 1: place where you end and the world begins, and where
Speaker 1: the world ends and you begin, and where it is
Speaker 1: not clear actually where the boundary is and where the
Speaker 1: boundary does not need to be clear, because the boundary
Speaker 1: is doing its work and the door is open enough
Speaker 1: for the breath to come through. Now, what your body
Speaker 1: has been carrying for you? I want to pause here
Speaker 1: because this is the part that requires some honesty, and
Speaker 1: I want to be careful with you. I do not
Speaker 1: want to ask you to inventory your day. I do
Speaker 1: not want to ask you to make a list. I
Speaker 1: do not want to turn this into a review session.
Speaker 1: The day is over or the day is in progress,
Speaker 1: and either way you do not need to revisit it.
Speaker 1: The day is already in the body. It is already recorded.
Speaker 1: It is already in the muscles, in the gut, in
Speaker 1: the way you are sitting, in the way you are breathing.
Speaker 1: What I want to do is just notice with you
Speaker 1: that the body has been carrying things, not just the
Speaker 1: physical things, not just the bag or the laptop or
Speaker 1: the child, the other things. The conversation that went sideways,
Speaker 1: the decision you have not made yet, the grief that
Speaker 1: has been sitting in your chest for six months or
Speaker 1: six years, or since you were a kid, the worry
Speaker 1: about the person you love, the worry about the person
Speaker 1: you cannot quite forgive, the small daily anxieties that pup
Speaker 1: like the laundry you keep meaning to fault, the way
Speaker 1: your shoulders have been holding the meeting you had at
Speaker 1: two o'clock, even though it is now nine o'clock at
Speaker 1: night and the meeting is over, and the other people
Speaker 1: in the meeting have forgotten about it, but your shoulders
Speaker 1: have not. Your body has been carrying all of it
Speaker 1: for you, without being asked, without being thanked, without being
Speaker 1: given a single day off. I am not going to
Speaker 1: ask you to put any of it down. I am
Speaker 1: not going to ask you to release, or to let go,
Speaker 1: or to surrender. Those words are easy to say and
Speaker 1: very hard to do, and they can feel like another
Speaker 1: thing you are failing at, and you do not need
Speaker 1: another thing you are failing at. So instead, I am
Speaker 1: just going to invite you to notice. To notice that
Speaker 1: the body is carrying, To notice that the carrying has
Speaker 1: been happening. To notice that the body has been patient
Speaker 1: with you, has been generous with you, has been willing
Speaker 1: to do the work even when you were not aware
Speaker 1: that the work was being done. Notice if you can
Speaker 1: where in the body you are carrying, just one place,
Speaker 1: just the place that is loudest right now. It might
Speaker 1: be the chest. It might be the throat. It might
Speaker 1: be the jaw or the belly, or the low back,
Speaker 1: or the space between the shoulder blades. It might be
Speaker 1: the hands, It might be the feet. It might be
Speaker 1: somewhere you cannot name but you can feel. Find that place.
Speaker 1: Just find it. You do not have to do anything
Speaker 1: about it. You do not have to fix it. You
Speaker 1: do not have to understand it. You do not have
Speaker 1: to talk to it. You do not have to scent
Speaker 1: it love or light or forgiveness. You just have to
Speaker 1: notice that it is there. You just have to let
Speaker 1: it be there with you in the room. And then,
Speaker 1: if you can, I want you to say, in your
Speaker 1: own quiet way, in the way that only you know how,
Speaker 1: thank you, not out loud. Necessarily, you do not have
Speaker 1: to say it out loud. You can say it under
Speaker 1: your breath, or in the back of your mind, or
Speaker 1: just in the body itself. Thank you for carrying this,
Speaker 1: thank you for staying with this, thank you for being
Speaker 1: patient with this. You are not behind, you are not fail.
Speaker 1: I want to say this clearly because I know you,
Speaker 1: not you specifically, I do not know you. But I
Speaker 1: know the kind of person who would press play on
Speaker 1: a meditation called the Body that has been waiting for you.
Speaker 1: I know the kind of person who would, at the
Speaker 1: end of a long day in their head go looking
Speaker 1: for something like this. I know the kind of person
Speaker 1: who would be listening to this and wondering if they
Speaker 1: are doing it right, and whether they should be somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and whether they are falling behind on something while they
Speaker 1: sit here. You are not behind. You are not failing.
Speaker 1: This is not a failure. This is not laziness. This
Speaker 1: is you coming home. This is you remembering that you
Speaker 1: have a body. This is you taking the small, ordinary,
Speaker 1: revolutionary step of being in the place where you actually live.
Speaker 1: You are not behind on your meditation practice. You are
Speaker 1: not behind on your morning routine. You are not behind
Speaker 1: on your goals or your resolutions or your plans. You
Speaker 1: are not behind on being a good person or a
Speaker 1: good partner, or a good parent, or a good friend
Speaker 1: or a good worker. You are not behind on healing.
Speaker 1: You are not behind on growing. You are not behind
Speaker 1: on figuring it out. You are here. You are in
Speaker 1: a room, You are in a body. You are breathing,
Speaker 1: and that is enough. That is the whole of it.
Speaker 1: That is the only assignment. And you have already done it.
Speaker 1: Let me say that again, because I imagine you might
Speaker 1: have missed it. You are not behind, you are not failing.
Speaker 1: You are here. That is enough. Now let me offer
Speaker 1: you a long pause, a pause to notice the body,
Speaker 1: a slow, unhurried, bodyled moment. You do not have to
Speaker 1: follow along perfectly, You do not have to do it
Speaker 1: in any particular order. You can let your awareness drift.
Speaker 1: You can let it land where it wants to land.
Speaker 1: You can let it skip ahead or go back. The
Speaker 1: body is not a checklist. The body is a country
Speaker 1: you can wander if it is okay with you. Let
Speaker 1: your awareness start at the feet, the feet which have
Speaker 1: been carrying you all day, The feet which have been
Speaker 1: walking on floors and sidewalks and grass and carpet. The
Speaker 1: feet which have been in shoes, or in socks, or
Speaker 1: in nothing, depending on the hour, depending on the room.
Speaker 1: Notice the feet. Notice the weight of them, Notice the
Speaker 1: temperature of them. Notice the small movements they are making,
Speaker 1: even now, the small adjustments, the small shifts. The feet
Speaker 1: are always moving, even when you imagine they are still.
Speaker 1: The feet are always saying here and here and here.
Speaker 1: Let the awareness move up to the ankles, to the calves,
Speaker 1: to the shins, to the knees. Notice the knees. Notice
Speaker 1: what the knees have been doing, the kneeling, if there
Speaker 1: was kneeling, the standing, the walking. The belly, which has
Speaker 1: been holding your breath, or holding your stress, or holding
Speaker 1: your fear, or holding your sadness in a way that
Speaker 1: no one taught you to do. The belly knows, the
Speaker 1: belly has always known. Let the belly be the belly.
Speaker 1: Let the awareness move to the chest, the chest, which
Speaker 1: is the part of that rises and falls that you
Speaker 1: can see if you look, that you can feel, if
Speaker 1: you pay attention, the chest which holds the heart and
Speaker 1: the lungs and all of the things. You do not
Speaker 1: have words for. The chest, which has been tight maybe
Speaker 1: or open, maybe or both. Notice the chest. Notice what
Speaker 1: the chest is doing right now in this room, in
Speaker 1: this breath. Let the awareness move to the back, to
Speaker 1: the long, slow river of the spine. Notice the spine, vertebra,
Speaker 1: by vertebra, If you can notice the way the spine
Speaker 1: is curved, the way it has been carrying the head
Speaker 1: all day, the way it has been holding you upright,
Speaker 1: even when you did not want to be upright. The
Speaker 1: spine is patient. The spine is quiet. The spine does
Speaker 1: not complain. The spine just does its work. Let the
Speaker 1: awareness move to the shoulders, the shoulders which we have
Speaker 1: already visited, but which deserve another visit. The shoulders which
Speaker 1: have been holding the day. Notice the shoulders. Notice that
Speaker 1: they are perhaps slightly lower than they were before. Notice
Speaker 1: that they have been listening to. Let the awareness move
Speaker 1: to the arms, the arms which have been reaching or
Speaker 1: holding or typing or carrying, or gesturing or hugging or
Speaker 1: pushing away. The arms have been busy. The arms have
Speaker 1: done their work. Let them rest. Let the awareness move
Speaker 1: to the hands. The hands which are right now doing nothing,
Speaker 1: in particular, the hands which have been the most articulate
Speaker 1: part of you most of the day. The hands which
Speaker 1: have been touching things and grip it things and looking things. Go.
Speaker 1: Notice the hands, Notice the fingers, Notice the palms. Notice
Speaker 1: the small movements the hands are making. Even now. The
Speaker 1: hands are always saying something. Right now, they are saying here,
Speaker 1: They are saying I am here. Let the awareness move
Speaker 1: to the neck, the neck which has been holding up
Speaker 1: the head. The neck which has been turning and tilting
Speaker 1: and looking at screens and looking at people. The neck,
Speaker 1: which has been perhaps a little sore or a little tight.
Speaker 1: Notice the neck. Notice that it is allowed to be
Speaker 1: a neck. It does not have to be a pillar,
Speaker 1: can be a neck. Let the awareness move to the face,
Speaker 1: the face, which we have already given permission to the face,
Speaker 1: which is right now just a face, not a performance,
Speaker 1: not a mask, just a face with all its parts
Speaker 1: doing nothing in particular. Notice the forehead, Notice the eyes,
Speaker 1: Notice the nose, the mouth, the chin. Notice that the
Speaker 1: face is in this moment exactly as it is. Let
Speaker 1: the awareness move to the top of the head, the crown,
Speaker 1: the soft spot at the very top where the hair parts,
Speaker 1: or where the scalp meets the air. The crown, which
Speaker 1: is in some traditions the place where you are most open.
Speaker 1: Notice the crown. Notice that the body is in this moment,
Speaker 1: the whole of it, from the souls of the feet
Speaker 1: to the crown of the head, the whole thing, all
Speaker 1: of it here in the room. You can let the
Speaker 1: awareness drift now, You can let it settle wherever it
Speaker 1: wants to settle. You can let it be diffuse and wide,
Speaker 1: and soft. You can let it be the whole body
Speaker 1: all at once. You do not have to focus on
Speaker 1: any one part. You can just be in the body,
Speaker 1: the way water is in a lake, everywhere at once,
Speaker 1: filling the whole space. Now, the body knows. I want
Speaker 1: to say this because it is true, and because I
Speaker 1: suspect you have forgotten it. The body knows. The body
Speaker 1: has always known. The body knew before you knew. The
Speaker 1: body knew when something was wrong before your mind had
Speaker 1: words for it. The body knew when something was right
Speaker 1: before your mind had a story about it. The body
Speaker 1: knew when to sleep before you had decided to go
Speaker 1: to bed. The body knew when to eat before you
Speaker 1: had noticed you were hungry. The body knew when to
Speaker 1: cry before you had given yourself permission. The body knows
Speaker 1: things that the head does not know. The body knows
Speaker 1: how to heal a cut. The body knows how to
Speaker 1: digest a meal. The body knows how to fall asleep
Speaker 1: if you let it. The body knows how to wake
Speaker 1: up when it is ready. The body knows how to
Speaker 1: fight an infection. The body knows how to regulate your temperature.
Speaker 1: The body knows how to do ten thousand things at once,
Speaker 1: without asking you to supervise, without sending you an update,
Speaker 1: without requiring your input. The body knows how to love.
Speaker 1: That is the part I want you to hear. The
Speaker 1: body knows how to love. The body loves without being asked.
Speaker 1: The body loves without conditions. The body loves the people
Speaker 1: you love, even when you are angry at them. The
Speaker 1: body loves your children, or your parents, or your friends,
Speaker 1: or your dog in a way that is older than language,
Speaker 1: in a way that does not require the head to
Speaker 1: be involved. The body loves by reaching out. The body
Speaker 1: loves by opening. The body loves by softening. The body
Speaker 1: loves you right now, by carrying you, by being here,
Speaker 1: by staying. The body knows how to grieve. The body
Speaker 1: knows how to be afraid. The body knows how to
Speaker 1: be brave. The body knows how to be still. The
Speaker 1: body knows how to move. The body knows how to rest.
Speaker 1: The body knows how to be tired and how to
Speaker 1: recover from being tired. The body knows things you have
Speaker 1: not yet learned. The body knows things you have forgotten.
Speaker 1: The body knows things that were true before you were
Speaker 1: born and that will be true after you are gone.
Speaker 1: So when I say the body knows, I am not
Speaker 1: making a slogan. I am not giving you a piece
Speaker 1: of wisdom to repeat. I am telling you about a relationship,
Speaker 1: A relationship you have with this body of yours, A
Speaker 1: relationship that has been going on for your whole life,
Speaker 1: that has survived everything, that has been more constant than
Speaker 1: any other relationship you have ever had. A relationship that
Speaker 1: is available to you right now in this room, if
Speaker 1: you let it be. Let me offer you a practice
Speaker 1: for the coming days. Not a big practice, not a
Speaker 1: complicated practice, not a practice that requires a special cushion
Speaker 1: or a special time of day or a special outfit.
Speaker 1: Just a small practice, a noticing practice, a body check in.
Speaker 1: You can do it in five seconds. You can do
Speaker 1: it in a breath. You can do it in line
Speaker 1: at the grocery store, or in the middle of a meeting,
Speaker 1: or in the middle of a difficult conversation, or in
Speaker 1: the middle of a regular conversation, or in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night when you cannot sleep. Here is the practice.
Speaker 1: Three times a day, or whenever you remember, you are
Speaker 1: going to ask your body a question. The question is
Speaker 1: this where are you? That is the whole question. Where
Speaker 1: are you not? How are you not? What are you feeling? Not?
Speaker 1: What is wrong? Just where are you? And then you
Speaker 1: are going to wait for the answer, not from your head,
Speaker 1: from your body. The body will tell you. The body
Speaker 1: will tell you that it is in the chest or
Speaker 1: in the feet, or in the hands, or in the throat,
Speaker 1: or in the belly, or in the shoulders, or in
Speaker 1: the face, or in the whole thing all at once.
Speaker 1: The body will tell you, if you let it, where
Speaker 1: it is, and what it is doing, and what it
Speaker 1: has been carrying. And then once you have heard the answer,
Speaker 1: you are going to say thank you, or you are
Speaker 1: going to send a small breath to the place the
Speaker 1: body told you about, or you are going to let
Speaker 1: a small softening happen in that place, or you are
Speaker 1: going to do nothing at all. You are just going
Speaker 1: to notice. You are just going to let the body
Speaker 1: know that you hurt it, that you are here, that
Speaker 1: you came back, even if only for a second. That
Speaker 1: is the practice three times a day, or whenever, a
Speaker 1: small check, in, a small hello, a small return. You
Speaker 1: can also do this in the middle of a feeling,
Speaker 1: in the middle of an anxiety. You can ask where
Speaker 1: are you and the body will say in the chest,
Speaker 1: and you can say thank you, And the anxiety does
Speaker 1: not have to go away. But you are not alone
Speaker 1: with it anymore. You are in your body with it,
Speaker 1: and your body knows how to hold it. You can
Speaker 1: also do this in the middle of a joy. In
Speaker 1: the middle of a joy, you can ask where are you,
Speaker 1: and the body will say in the chest, or in
Speaker 1: the throat, or in the belly, and you can say
Speaker 1: thank you. And the joy does not have to be analyzed.
Speaker 1: It can just be felt in the body where it lives.
Speaker 1: That is the practice. That is all a small noticing,
Speaker 1: a small returned. Now, I want to leave some space here.
Speaker 1: I want to leave a long, slow body lead pause.
Speaker 1: I am going to be quiet for a little while.
Speaker 1: You do not have to do anything. You do not
Speaker 1: have to follow along, you do not have to listen
Speaker 1: for my voice. You can let my voice become a background,
Speaker 1: the way the air is a background, the way the
Speaker 1: chair is a background, the way your own breathing is
Speaker 1: a background. If you want, you can let your awareness
Speaker 1: stay in the body. You can let it be the body.
Speaker 1: You can let the body be the whole world. For
Speaker 1: the next few minutes, the body and the breath, and
Speaker 1: the room and the surfaces and the air. Nothing else.
Speaker 1: Nothing to figure out, nothing to plan, nothing to remember,
Speaker 1: Just this. Take as long as you want here. The
Speaker 1: pause is yours. The pause belongs to you, and to
Speaker 1: your body and to the room. I am not going
Speaker 1: anywhere now. When you are ready, you can start to
Speaker 1: let the room come back, not all at once, slowly,
Speaker 1: the way light comes back into a room when you
Speaker 1: open the curtains, the way sound comes back into a
Speaker 1: room when you take out the ear butts. Slowly, you
Speaker 1: can let the edges of things return, the shape of
Speaker 1: the chair, the temperature of the air, the sounds that
Speaker 1: are not me, the sounds that are the world doing
Speaker 1: its thing without your input. You can let your body
Speaker 1: move if it wants to move. You can stretch, you
Speaker 1: can shift your weight. You can let your hands open
Speaker 1: or close. You can let your jaw move. You can
Speaker 1: let your eyes open or stay closed, whatever feels right.
Speaker 1: You are not ending anything. You are just changing the ratio.
Speaker 1: You are going from being mostly in the body to
Speaker 1: being mostly in the room, with the body still there underneath.
Speaker 1: The body is going to come with you. The body
Speaker 1: is going to be there when you stand up, and
Speaker 1: when you walk to the kitchen, and when you go
Speaker 1: to bed, and when you wake up in the morning.
Speaker 1: The body is not going anywhere. You can take a
Speaker 1: breath if you want, a long breath, a breath that
Speaker 1: is for the road, a breath that is for the
Speaker 1: next hour, or the next morning or the next thing. Good. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go, the slow one, the unhurried one. There's
Speaker 1: nowhere to be after this, So take as long as
Speaker 1: you like. Start with your feet, just your feet, the
Speaker 1: souls of them, the tops of them. The space is
Speaker 1: between your toes. Notice where they touch the ground or
Speaker 1: the floor or whatever surface is holding you up right now,
Speaker 1: Feel the weight of them. Notice if they're warm or cool.
Speaker 1: Notice if your toes are curled or splayed or relaxed
Speaker 1: somewhere in between. You don't have to change any of it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to relax them on purpose. Just notice.
Speaker 1: Just let them be what they are now. Your ankles,
Speaker 1: the bones on the inside, the bones on the outside,
Speaker 1: the joint itself, that hinge between your foot and your leg.
Speaker 1: See if you can find any holding there, any bracing,
Speaker 1: any tiny little clench that's been running in the background.
Speaker 1: You might find something you might find nothing either as fine.
Speaker 1: Move up into your calves. The thick muscle that runs
Speaker 1: down the back of your lower leg. Feel its weight,
Speaker 1: Feel whether it's soft or firm. Notice if you can
Speaker 1: sense the blight moving through it, that slow pulse, that
Speaker 1: quiet work it's doing right now, whether you're paying attention
Speaker 1: or not. It's been moving you around your whole life.
Speaker 1: It's patient like that. Your knees now, the front of them,
Speaker 1: the knee caps, the soft space behind them, where the
Speaker 1: leg bends. Notice the slight bend in your knee right now,
Speaker 1: the way it's not locked, The way it's holding you
Speaker 1: in a position that's sustainable. Your knees know how to
Speaker 1: hold you. They've been doing it since you first stood up.
Speaker 1: Your thighs, the heavy muscles that do so much work
Speaker 1: and get so little credit. Feel them pressing down into
Speaker 1: whatever you're sitting on, or holding you upright if you're standing.
Speaker 1: Notice the heat in them, Notice the stillness or the
Speaker 1: slight tremor the way even resting muscles have a story.
Speaker 1: Your hips, the bowl of your pelvis, the wide flat
Speaker 1: bones you sit on. Feel their contact with the surface
Speaker 1: beneath you. Let yourself sink just a fraction heavier. Let
Speaker 1: the chair or the floor or the bed take more
Speaker 1: of you. Your hips are designed for this, for resting,
Speaker 1: for being held. Your lower back, the long curve of
Speaker 1: your spine, the place where so much tension lived, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Just notice what's there. You don't have to soften it
Speaker 1: on purpose. You don't have to do anything with it.
Speaker 1: Just see it, name it. Even in your own head.
Speaker 1: There's some tightness here. That's enough. That's the whole job.
Speaker 1: Your belly now the soft front of your torso, so
Speaker 1: let it be soft. Let it move with your breath
Speaker 1: instead of holding against it. Notice the rise on the inhale,
Speaker 1: the fall on the axhal. You don't have to breathe
Speaker 1: any particular way. You just have to let your belly
Speaker 1: do what it already knows how to do. Your ribs,
Speaker 1: the cage around your heart and lungs. Feel them expand
Speaker 1: sideways and back when you breathe in. Feel them settle
Speaker 1: when you breathe out. Notice that your ribs move more
Speaker 1: than just up and down. They move in three directions.
Speaker 1: And your body has been doing this choreography since before
Speaker 1: you had language for it. Your chest, the place behind
Speaker 1: your breastbone. Notice whatever is there. If your heart is
Speaker 1: beating fast or slow, let it beat that way. Your
Speaker 1: chest feels open or closed, tight or spacious, let it
Speaker 1: be what it is. You're not trying to get somewhere,
Speaker 1: You're just checking in your shoulders. Oh, your shoulders. Notice
Speaker 1: where they are right now. Notice how far up towards
Speaker 1: your ears they've climbed without you asking them to. You
Speaker 1: can let them drop a little if you want, or
Speaker 1: you can leave them right where they are. Either way,
Speaker 1: just notice they're allowed to be where they are. Your
Speaker 1: upper arms, the weight of them, hanging from your shoulders,
Speaker 1: your elbows, your forearms, the long stretch of muscle and
Speaker 1: bone between your shoulder and your wrist. Notice what your
Speaker 1: arms are doing right now, resting on something hanging at
Speaker 1: your sides, folded across your lap. They're allowed to be still.
Speaker 1: They're allowed to be doing nothing. Your hands, your wrists,
Speaker 1: the palms of your hands. Notice if they're open or closed,
Speaker 1: curled or flat. Notice the temperature of your fingertips. Notice
Speaker 1: the slight stickiness or smoothness of your palms. Your hands
Speaker 1: have done so much for you today. They held things,
Speaker 1: they touched things, they typed, They gestured. Now they're just here.
Speaker 1: You're lower back again, briefly, the kidneys, the waist, the
Speaker 1: place where your torso meets your hips. Just a breath here,
Speaker 1: just a noticing. Your neck now, the long column that
Speaker 1: holds your head up. Notice any holding there. Notice the
Speaker 1: slight tilt of your head, the way it's balanced on
Speaker 1: the top of your spine. Your neck works harder than
Speaker 1: you realize. Let it be soft for a moment. Let
Speaker 1: your head feel a little heavier on top of it.
Speaker 1: Your jaw, the hinge of it, just in front of
Speaker 1: your ears. Notice whether your teeth are touching or apart.
Speaker 1: Notice whether your tongue is resting on the roof of
Speaker 1: your mouth or lying flat. Notice the inside of your cheeks.
Speaker 1: There's often so much holding in the jaw. You don't
Speaker 1: have to release it. Just notice. Oh, there it is
Speaker 1: your face, all the tiny muscles of expression, your forehead,
Speaker 1: your brows, the space between them, your eyelids, the slight
Speaker 1: softness or furrow around your eyes, your cheeks, your lips.
Speaker 1: Let your features be at rest, not slack, just at rest.
Speaker 1: The face you have when no one is watching. Your
Speaker 1: scalp the skin across the top of your skull, move
Speaker 1: your attention up there. Feel the slight movement of your
Speaker 1: hair or the air on your bare scalp. Notice the
Speaker 1: bones of your skull beneath, the dome of it, the
Speaker 1: protection it offers. And finally, the crown of your head,
Speaker 1: the very top, the place where some traditions say consciousness enters.
Speaker 1: Just notice it. Just be aware of the top of
Speaker 1: your head for a moment. Now feel all of it
Speaker 1: at once, Your whole body, from the soles of your
Speaker 1: feet to the crown of your head, one long instrument,
Speaker 1: one continuous animal, held together by skin and bone and
Speaker 1: breath and whatever else you'd like to call it. You
Speaker 1: live here. This is the place you've been given. It's
Speaker 1: been waiting for you to arrive in it. Okay, so
Speaker 1: the body scin you just did. You don't have to
Speaker 1: do it like that again unless you want to. But
Speaker 1: there are these small ways to drop back into it.
Speaker 1: Tiny ways, like embarrassingly small, the kind of thing no
Speaker 1: one in the coffee shop would ever know you you
Speaker 1: were doing. Here's the first one. Whenever you're waiting in line,
Speaker 1: add a red light for the microwave for a download
Speaker 1: for the person ahead of you to find their keys.
Speaker 1: Just press your feet into the floor, Feel the whole
Speaker 1: soul of each foot. Press down like you're trying to
Speaker 1: leave a print. Do it three times. That's it. Three presses.
Speaker 1: You'll feel wearily, more in your body afterward, more here,
Speaker 1: more on the ground, more like a person standing on
Speaker 1: a planet instead of a head full of plans. The
Speaker 1: second one, when something hits you, a piece of news,
Speaker 1: a notification, a difficult email, a sentence someone said, put
Speaker 1: your hand on your chest. Just lay it there, flat
Speaker 1: over your heart. Don't press hard, don't rob just rest
Speaker 1: your hand there. It's the oldest gesture in the world.
Speaker 1: You're telling yourself, I am here, I am on my
Speaker 1: own side. Something just happened, and I am going to
Speaker 1: land in my body before I respond. That's all. You
Speaker 1: can still respond. You can still react. You're just going
Speaker 1: to do it from your body and not from the
Speaker 1: top of your head. The third one, three slow breaths
Speaker 1: before you unlock your phone, just three before your thumb
Speaker 1: even moves. You can do it while you're picking up
Speaker 1: the phone. You can do it while you're walking toward it.
Speaker 1: Three breaths, and then you let yourself in. It's such
Speaker 1: a small thing, and yet it creates a gap, a pause,
Speaker 1: a little room between you and whatever is about to pour.
Speaker 1: In the fourth one, when some one asks you a
Speaker 1: question at work, at the store, at home, and your
Speaker 1: body already knows the answer before your mouth opens, take
Speaker 1: one shoulder drop before you speak, Just one. Let one
Speaker 1: shoulder fall an inch, let the weight of it settle,
Speaker 1: and then answer. The shoulder drop is a signal to
Speaker 1: yourself that you're allowed to pause before you perform. You're
Speaker 1: allowed to let your body weigh in before your voice arrives.
Speaker 1: The fifth one, when you wash your hands, and you'll
Speaker 1: do this several times today, won't you just feel the
Speaker 1: water for like five seconds, not the whole time, just
Speaker 1: five seconds of actually feeling the temperature, the pressure, the
Speaker 1: way the water moves over your knuckles. It pulls you
Speaker 1: into your hands, which pulls you into the present, which
Speaker 1: pulls you into your body. You weren't gone by the way,
Speaker 1: you were just considering being gone. This is what being
Speaker 1: here feels like. The sixth one, when you eat something anything,
Speaker 1: a meal, a snack, a sip of coffee, Take one bite,
Speaker 1: one sip where you put your full attention on it,
Speaker 1: the texture, the temperature, the weight in your mouth, just one.
Speaker 1: You don't have to make a whole meal out of it,
Speaker 1: just one conscious bite among all the unconscious ones. It
Speaker 1: reminds your body that it's allowed to be tasted, not
Speaker 1: just consumed. The seventh one, when you go through a doorway,
Speaker 1: any doorway, into a room, out of a room, into
Speaker 1: a store, notice your feet crossing it. Just the feet,
Speaker 1: just the step. You don't have to do anything ceremonial
Speaker 1: about it. You just have to be in your feet
Speaker 1: for the half second it takes to cross. These aren't rules,
Speaker 1: they're invitations. You can do one a day, you can
Speaker 1: do all seven. You can forget them entirely. And remember
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday three weeks from now that some at
Speaker 1: once suggested the feet on the floor thing, and it
Speaker 1: actually helped. The point isn't to be good at it.
Speaker 1: The point is that your body is right there the
Speaker 1: whole time, waiting to be consulted. You're just giving it
Speaker 1: a few more chances to speak. Here's something the mind
Speaker 1: thinks in a straight line, past, present, future, cause effect,
Speaker 1: question answer. It's a great tool. It does so much
Speaker 1: for you. It plans, it worries, it imagines, it remembers,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't know everything, And one thing it really
Speaker 1: doesn't know is what your body all already knows. Your
Speaker 1: gut knows things. You've had the experience you know you
Speaker 1: have where your stomach dropped before your brain caught up,
Speaker 1: Where you knew in your body, in some place below
Speaker 1: your ribs, that something was off before you had the
Speaker 1: words for it. The gut has more nerve endings than
Speaker 1: the spinal cord. It's sometimes called the second brain, and
Speaker 1: that's not a metaphor. It's a fact. There's intelligence down there,
Speaker 1: older intelligence, intelligence that doesn't speak in sentences, but speaks
Speaker 1: in flutters, in tightening, in the sudden loss of appetite
Speaker 1: when something is wrong. Your shoulders know things before you do.
Speaker 1: You walk into a room and your shoulders climb up
Speaker 1: towards your ears before you've consciously registered why tents around
Speaker 1: certain people before you've decided you don't want to be
Speaker 1: around them. The shoulders are taking in information faster than
Speaker 1: the mind can process. They're a barometer their weather. They're
Speaker 1: reading the room before you've even looked around it. Your
Speaker 1: hands know things before you've decided. Have you ever reached
Speaker 1: for something and then pulled back before your mind said, wait?
Speaker 1: Have you ever felt the texture of something and known immediately,
Speaker 1: not decided, known whether it was right or wrong. Your
Speaker 1: hands are pre verbal. They were here before language was.
Speaker 1: They know how to grape, how to release, how to
Speaker 1: hold without crushing. They have wisdom that your vocabulary doesn't
Speaker 1: have a name for yet. Your chest knows things. When
Speaker 1: something is true, you feel it open. When something is
Speaker 1: a lie, you feel it close. You can be mid
Speaker 1: conversation and feel your chest tighten, and that tightening is information.
Speaker 1: It's not a problem to solve, it's a signal to
Speaker 1: listen to. The chest is the throne room of feeling.
Speaker 1: It knows what's safe and what's not, what's yours and
Speaker 1: what's not, what's right and what's just dressed up to
Speaker 1: look right. Your face knows things. Before you smile on purpose,
Speaker 1: before you arrange an expression, your face has already responded
Speaker 1: the micro expression, the tiny flinch, the half second softening
Speaker 1: that happens before the social performance begins. Your face is
Speaker 1: honest in ways you're not always allowed to be. It
Speaker 1: tells the truth in microsecond, and it can teach you
Speaker 1: what the truth actually is if you let it. Your
Speaker 1: posture knows things the way you stand in front of
Speaker 1: certain people, the way you sit in certain chairs, the
Speaker 1: way your spine arranges itself when you're being yourself versus
Speaker 1: being who you imagine you need to be. Posture is
Speaker 1: not a moral issue. It's information. It's the body's running
Speaker 1: commentary on every situation you walk into. The body is
Speaker 1: older than the mind. It was here before language, it
Speaker 1: will be here after language. It carries the imprint of
Speaker 1: every meal, every fall, every hug, every cold you've ever had,
Speaker 1: every night you didn't sleep, every morning you did. It
Speaker 1: remembers in a different way than the mind remembers. It
Speaker 1: remembers in scars and preferences, in twinges and leanings, in
Speaker 1: the way you always cross your legs to the left,
Speaker 1: in the way you always sleep on one side. So
Speaker 1: when the mind is spinning, when it's arguing with itself,
Speaker 1: when it can't decide, when it's rehearsing, when it's predicting,
Speaker 1: when it's telling you a story that may or may
Speaker 1: not be true, you have somewhere else to go. You
Speaker 1: have this, the body, the patient, ancient, quiet thing that's
Speaker 1: been with you since before you had a name. It
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be fixed, It doesn't need to be optimized.
Speaker 1: It just needs to be listened to. That's what this
Speaker 1: practice is. Not fixing, not improving, just listening, letting the
Speaker 1: body finish a sentence, letting the older, slower voice get
Speaker 1: a word in, letting the mind for once not be
Speaker 1: the only one talking. Now a few closing words. You
Speaker 1: came back tonight or this morning, or whenever it is.
Speaker 1: You came back to the body. You came back to
Speaker 1: the room. You came back to yourself in the way
Speaker 1: that you can, in the way that was possible, in
Speaker 1: the way that mattered. And your body has been here
Speaker 1: this whole time. Your body is going to be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Your body is going to be here in the morning,
Speaker 1: when the light comes back and the day starts asking
Speaker 1: things of you again, your body is going to be
Speaker 1: there doing its work, holding you, carrying you, loving you,
Speaker 1: even when you are not paying attention to it. I
Speaker 1: want you to remember, when the day gets loud again,
Speaker 1: when the head gets loud again, that you have a body,
Speaker 1: that the body is here, that the body is patient,
Speaker 1: that the body is waiting in its quiet way for
Speaker 1: you to come back. And you can come back. You
Speaker 1: can come back with a breath, You can come back
Speaker 1: with a foot on the floor. You can come back
Speaker 1: with a hand on your own arm. You can come
Speaker 1: back in five seconds or one second, or in a
Speaker 1: single noticing somewhere in the middle of an ordinary moment.
Speaker 1: You do not have to wait until you are lying down.
Speaker 1: You do not have to wait until you have an hour.
Speaker 1: You do not have to wait until you have earned it.
Speaker 1: You can come back right now, in the middle of
Speaker 1: the next thing, in the middle of the next sentence,
Speaker 1: in the middle of the next breath. You can come
Speaker 1: back to the body, and the body will receive you,
Speaker 1: and the body will say, in its quiet way, welcome back,
Speaker 1: Welcome back, welcome back. You are allowed to come back.
Speaker 1: You are allowed to be here. You are allowed to
Speaker 1: be in your body, in this room, in this life.
Speaker 1: You are not behind, You are not failing, You are
Speaker 1: not lazy, you are not broken. You are a person
Speaker 1: in a body doing the work of being alive. And
Speaker 1: that is the whole of it. And that is enough.
Speaker 1: The body knows, the body has always known, and you
Speaker 1: finally are beginning to know it too. Take this with you.
Speaker 1: Take the breath, take the feet on the floor, take
Speaker 1: the hand on the arm, take the small practice, Take
Speaker 1: the permission to come back. Take the permission to be here,
Speaker 1: Take the permission to be in your body, which is
Speaker 1: the only place you have ever lived, and which has
Speaker 1: been waiting patiently for you to remember that goodbye for now,