Please take a break.

Let's take, two seconds, to stop. Right now. If your cell phone is next to you, turn it to "belly up" or get it out of your line of sight. Take a deep breath in and out. Lift your head from the screen for a moment - just to take in your surroundings. Look at your surroundings. Listen. Smell. Fully. Without unnecessary tension (shoulders, jaw, forehead, eyebrows,...)

-

You're not on the screen anymore.

We agree.

-

Then you can turn your attention to the internal environment. In particular, your breathing. Gently resting your attention, in a curious way, on the sensation of air coming in and going out.

Pause

Then, at the same time, you can see the things that it induces. Just listen. Like this is all a dialogue. That something is talking to you and you are listening as hard as you can. Without identifying with what is being said*, in a totally open way with that childlike curiosity, if I may say. Concepts are no more, names no more. Good and evil are foreign to you. You take everything that is said, without judgement. You embody a presence.

I share with you my tip: I have a photo of myself about ten apples high on all fours on the grassy expanse of a park with a blissful smile**. I put myself in that perspective where everything is still unknown. Everything is accepted as such. It is a discovery, an exciting and obvious exploration. All my senses are enjoying themselves.

Pause

Now that the senses are open, that you are, just. Sit or stay seated for the sake of sitting.

Pause

Observation:

When, in the first part, you put your attention on the air that comes in and out. Is it really something coming in and out of you? Or is this not a whole phenomenon?

When you realize this, do you still consider yourself cut off from everything, with problems of your own? Or do you smile at the perspective you have just gained? That it is not about you per se. That you are part of this whole life. That you participate and move with the flow. Aaaah. Fuck yes. What a relief. It's not all on me. Damn yes.

Give yourself a vacation for this weekend. For that pause your attention on the air that caresses your hands (or feet for my case), the noise and not the noise of the birds. The smells of cooking, the sun on your skin ....

Thank you

Notes:

* I'm being vague so you won't be tempted to put labels on everything that happens and, thus, fuel thoughts.

** It's been a long time since I rechecked the photo. My memory of it may be wrong. But that's not the point. Imagination can be a tool to grow.

*** For non-weekly readers I write "the body" because I don't want to use the term "my body" in order to avoid identification with it. That is to say, to the fact that the tensions felt at a given moment define me.

- Marie Mazeau Yoga teacher in Paris and online internationally. Beyond time and space. Guiding with gentleness, mindfulness and Joy.