A Journey to Your Own True Self Via Prayer

This week’s special guest on the show, international author  Rich Lewis!  Rich helps people become their true self. As well as an accomplished author, Rich is also a speaker and coach who focuses on centering prayer as a means of inner transformation. He teaches centering prayer in both his local and virtual community and offers one-on-one coaching. 

Rich’s newest book titled, Sitting with God: A Journey To Your True Self Through Centering Prayer, is available worldwide.

It is a gift to have someone on the show who really walks their walk.

"We constantly feed ourselves thoughts that are just not true, and are harmful for ourself. So we're letting go of all thoughts, which might include some of those types of thoughts. And coming back to the present. And you seem to come out of yours over the long haul, you seem to, at least for me, come out of my sits more calm, more confidence and more knowing who I am. And the actions I should take. Because I let go of Act, I let go of thoughts that really are not helpful to me. Worry and anxiety and uncommon, you know, no confidence. So you're letting go of all those thoughts and letting your true self emerge, which is the person God wants you to be and, and the things you want to try the things you want to do. And the nudges to get out of your comfort zone and try and do new things. 
This show also includes a modern yoga  meditation inspired by the talk."

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Transcript

0:00  
Welcome, I'm your host, The Gentle Yoga Warrior. Please welcome to the show today, the International offer rich Lewis, rich helps people become their true self as well as an accomplished offer. Rich is also a speaker, and a coach who focuses on centering prayer as a means of inner transformation. He teaches centering prayer in both his local and virtual communities and offers one to one coaching. Rich's newest book titled sitting with God, a journey to your true self re century prayer is available worldwide. I'm super keen to talk to rich today and learn about embodying a deeper understanding on the process of connecting to one's true self via prayer. I'm convinced I can help myself and also my listeners. So without further ado, joining us today from Ambler, Pennsylvania, rich, Louis rich, welcome to the show.

1:05  
Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

1:09  
Thank you for joining us this morning. So I'm keen to understand more about prayer and to understand at a more

1:15  
extensive

1:15  
level, how prayer can aid us all in our life's journey, and also understand why so many of us seem to forgotten about its power. prayer to me is not about wishing for a lot of things and then getting upset if they don't arrive. Prayer is sacred, and very much intimate. Those divine moments when we allow silence to be and to connect to that which is beyond what we can explain is a deep way of honouring life. And so having started Rich's incredible book, I thought, who better to speak to us a day about prayer. And you rich, so rich? What does the journey into your own true self via prayer mean to you? And what inspired you to talk about it today?

2:04  
I mean, that's really centering prayer is a journey too much the name of the book is sitting with God a journey to your true self through centering prayer. And that's how I connect to my true self. And we'll, we'll talk about, you know, what is centering prayer and why I wrote the book. But that's really every day I practice centering prayer twice a day, and I'm journeying into my true self, and then coming out of my sets and as and hopefully living from my true self each day. And my true self is not an endpoint. It's it's a journey, which which is a neat thing.

2:39  
That's very interesting that you say it's a journey, and then I can really relate to that. And I'm very excited to understand your journey and to see how, how things have changed for you and how it's helped you in your life. I'm sure our listeners are very keen to hear that as well. And so, what is your true self? How would you explain that to someone who didn't really understand what that meant?

3:03  
So for me, my true self is the person God wants me to be. And I connect to this person through centering prayer. So should I quickly explain what is centering prayer? And then that'll come? Please, that would be great. So centering prayer is silent prayer, wordless prayer. So you're not saying any words. It's two things really, it's meditation, but it's also a relationship with God. Because during this time, we open to the presence and actions of God within and then how you do centering prayer. Well, first thing I'll say centering prayer has been around for about 50 years. It was created by three Trappist monks in the early 1970s. They saw, so it really three Catholic priests, they saw Transcendental Meditation going on, and they wanted something for the Christian community. So they created centering prayer, one of the priests actually found kind of the method in an old book called The Cloud of Unknowing. So the practice is 50 years old. And how you do it is you sit, you sit quietly, and then to begin your prayer time you introduce interiorly, a sacred word of wonder to what the most three syllables so could be love ocean, colour, Jesus, to begin your prayer. And then whenever you begin engaging your thoughts. What I mean by that is when you begin thinking about what you what you did before your sets, and what you're going to do after you sit and realise you're not sitting with God, you're sitting with yourself and your thoughts and your planning. So you reintroduce the sacred word to come back to the present moment. And then let go of your thoughts and let go of the sacred word. And that's what you do during the entire time as you're, you're constantly letting go of your engaged thoughts and coming back to the present moment. So So that's how you do the prayer. So I think to come back to your question, I think your question was, who is your true self During centering prayer, you you let go of thoughts. And many thoughts are things that you tell yourself that are true that I'm not good enough to do something or who am I to think I should take on this new task, or I'm too young to try this, someone more experienced and older or I'm too old, someone younger should do this. We constantly feed ourselves thoughts that are just not true, and are harmful for ourself. So we're letting go of all thoughts, which might include some of those types of thoughts. And coming back to the present. And you seem to come out of yours over the long haul, you seem to, at least for me, come out of my sits more calm, more confidence and more knowing who I am. And the actions I should take. Because I let go of Act, I let go of thoughts that really are not helpful to me. Worry and anxiety and uncommon, you know, no confidence. So you're letting go of all those thoughts and letting your true self emerge, which is the person God wants you to be and, and the things you want to try the things you want to do. And the nudges to get out of your comfort zone and try and do new things. So it's the letting go opens you up to what's underneath all of the fear and wary. And then the nice thing is the letting go continues outside of your centering prayer set so that over the long haul, long haul, you really begin letting go more easily of things you tell yourself that aren't true, and open up to life and experiencing life and doing things and trying new things. Oh,

6:36  
that's a brilliant explanation. And I really appreciate you sharing that with our listeners today. I did have I did practice a centering prayer the week prior to this interview. And I found it very helpful. And I was focused on the word love and because our thoughts will try and entice us Won't they like, we can be really horrible to ourselves, sometimes I who am I to try and sit and do this or it can all these kind of thoughts can come in, into to our to our mind, but I got the feeling from doing this. We would connect to wants to sell food for you to connect to God more and you would be able to build up a site building muscle in a sense of of being in that stillness instead of it's quite easy to go on to the external role and kind of be with ourselves sometimes. And I find the tool of saying the sacred word really helped me to kind of come back into the present moment. So I can see a lot of value in this form of prayer. And yeah, it just it feels really special. And it's a great service that you're doing to the world by sharing it with people. And hopefully a lot of people will benefit from from doing this. And so it how if you've kind of already answered this a bit. But how do you begin a centering prayer practice?

8:00  
No, I think it is important to answer that question. Because sometimes you make a decision, you're going to try a practice and how do you begin you, you take baby steps. So the first thing I tell people is make it the first thing you do when you begin your day. That was so if you're worried about when do I do it, make it that and for me it is that way too, but make it the first thing you do to begin your day. And then take baby steps. So if you feel that 20 minutes is too, I do two sets of 20 minutes. But you don't need to start at 20 minutes, start with one minute or two minutes or five minutes. So take baby steps and make it the first thing you do to begin your day. gradually work your way up and increase the time. And then I even encourage people after you've got the first sit down, add a second set because you find you really need the second sets to kind of reconnect you to life reconnect you to the present moment and and just kind of refill the interior reservoir. So when after you have a first sit established at a second sit at some point during the during the day and look at your life at the ebbs and flows of your life and fit it where it belongs. And then take the same approach if you have to start small with a few minutes and slowly work your way up. So so that's how I encourage people is just to be gentle and kind with yourself and put your sets where they best belong.

9:24  
That's, that's a really good way to approach it to just to work up gradually rather than if someone's not used to doing like jumping into 20 minutes might be a bit too much for them. So they're more likely to stick to the practice if they do a little bit each day and just build up the time and and I can see the value of doing it at twice or three times during the day because you can then like you said come back to yourself because you might do it in the morning and then get lost in the day and it's about time to then kind of set and be with yourself and get all the thoughts out of the way. I remember reading your book that you said that you I need these 45 minutes a day with God. And that line really stuck out to me it's like seeing time as well in a sacred way of kind of just, you know, we can get so busy, I think we need to do all these things. But we're really appreciated about it in your book is how you said that you make time and even when you're in your job, they understand that you can go off in the afternoon and you have your you get time to do your centering prayer and down how it's really helped you in your life and, and helps you feel less reactive, I would have said to life because you're more centred and more within your true self. So on that note, how often should you practice centering prayer, like his daily isn't it as it must be daily and a couple of times a day, just to count, we

10:48  
definitely recommend try to do it on a daily basis. Now, if you miss a day, don't beat yourself up, just show up for the next set. But no, I would encourage people to make it a daily practice. And I would encourage people to try to make it a twice a day practice because like, for me, I'm working, I'm working from home, I've been working from home. Now with with with COVID. And for about 18 months, I need my second set. So some people will argue they don't, I don't have time for my second set. And I'll say you have to try for yourself. But it has a way of giving you back time. Because after my second set, then I get back to work. And I'm more focused, and I'm more present and I'm more calm. And I'm better able to let go of things that I don't need to do and hone in and focus on what I need to do. So I find that I'm more productive after my second set. versus if I don't do a second set, it has a way of giving you back time. But you have to try it for yourself to see to see that that's true. So I encourage people to do at least two sets. But there actually was a period of time, a couple years back where work was really busy. And I needed three sets. But I just lowered the time. So I did a 13 minute sit in the morning, I did a 13 minute set right before lunch. And then about two hours later, I did one more 13 minutes set. And that work was just so hectic, I needed that. And then when we're calmed down a little bit better, I switched back to my twice a day sets. So really just look at your life and determine when you need to do your sets and determine how many sets you need to do. And you can just be creative and flexible with when you do them. And even how long you do them.

12:30  
Well, that's a really good way to do it. Because like you said, life can fluctuate and you can have different times when you're busy and not quiet. I like the fact that you increase the amount of sets that you did I just reduce the time. And it's so yes, that's a really good idea. So listeners, if you feel that you're too busy, and listen to rich advice and just do shorter slots, and then when you get less busy, you can increase the time. And so what happens during centering prayer, what what what actually happens? Could you explain that to our listeners?

13:02  
Sure. So what's so what's happening during centering prayer is, you know, you're you're letting go and you're letting go of yourself and your thoughts and you're planning and you're really just sitting with God. And then what happens over the long haul is, I guess, like many things happened one night I I think of it as a reverse prayer, God is praying in me. And whatever I need. So it could be inner peace and calm. It could be wisdom for tasks, it could be nudges to get out of my comfort zone and try and do new things. So that's happening and centering prayer. And what's also happening is, it's a safe place to sit with yourself. So a lot of your body's holds a lot of tension. And your mind holds a lot of thoughts and repressed thoughts that in some cases you don't even know you have. So during this time, you're relaxing and releasing tension in your body. And you're relaxing and allowing thoughts to come out that you didn't know. And you're releasing the baggage of, you know, emotional baggage of a lifetime that that you weren't meant to hold on to. So it's Thomas Keating, one of the centering prayer founders considered a divine therapy where we're, we're being transformed and healed during this prayer. So that those are some of the things that are happening. And then those are definitely the things that I've noticed within myself as well. But I think of it though it's a long term marathon with God. It's not a short term marathon, it's just a long term marathon with God. And you notice the fruits outside of your practice during the practice, you're simply sitting with God and letting go. And that's it. Outside of the practice is when you you or other people might notice differences about you because of your practice.

14:53  
Ah, it's the combined doing the commitment you can make it sacred and having space and making that time. I saw that in your book that you said, drop all your excess baggage at God's front door. And I really liked I really liked that. That was, yeah, it's just, I don't we can carry suitcases of luggage. When and we don't need to yet we feel we have to in so many ways and central prayers, I can say is definitely a way to kind of let that go. And so the fruits of the centering prayer, I know you said that people notice difference in in You did? Did you notice any difference within yourself? What what are the long maybe the long the short term long term fruits? And what have you realised over a period of time have been the benefits of this prayer?

15:48  
Sure, when I think about myself prior to centering prayer and after centering prayer, so I've been practising it. Since June of 2014. I'm a much more confident person, I'm a much calmer person, or I can calm myself down more quickly. I think I'm less reactive and more willing to just listen or be in a situation or listen to people rather than jump to reactive mode. I seem to get nudges just to get out of my comfort zone and try and do new things. And I would say x seven excitement for life that I didn't have before centering prayer, it's not that I didn't enjoy life. But now I think because you're you can let go and be more open to the present, then you can really just enjoy the present moment and what it has to show you.

16:35  
Yeah, I think there is a lot of riches to be found. Being in the present moment. And I don't know sometimes I feel like society in a way is it's kind of looking too much into the future or too much into the past. And it's it's missing the, the gifts of of the here and now. And that is in my belief is how we're supposed to really live is in the present rather than the fantasy of the future or being stuck in the past. And by doing that I feel will become more complete as as people as humans. And the process when you sat down to write this book, because I got your book on Amazon, and I'm really enjoying it is so it's such an easy, page turner and you you make it so accessible to the reader. So it doesn't feel that, that it's something that's going to be too difficult to do. But at the same time we can feel there's a lot of depth, wisdom and knowledge within within the pages. And can you talk us of process of how you came to write this book? And did you set out to write a book or is it just

17:47  
it came to you know, I

17:48  
sort of stumbled into it because I I stumbled into centering prayer I found centering. I was looking for a book to read on Amazon in late 2013. And I stumbled across Amos Smith's book healing the divide recovering Christianity's mystic roots. And in his book, he talked about a practice he did in the silence. So that really intrigued me. So I began practising centering prayer, reading other books on centering prayer, and I reached out to him and began kind of an email dialogue with him. And then we've actually become friends at this point. But Amos was the one that challenged me to write a book, he had written that book. And he was in the middle of writing his second book, which actually then was published in 2018. And he's, he's got a couple more books he's written, but he's he challenged me to write a book, he thought I had something interesting to say that was different than his book and he and more accessible for everyday people. He said his book was probably more academic. So he was the one that challenged me to try writing a book. So he told me, you know, he told me just to jot down single sentence statements about centering prayer. And then I did that came back to him and a couple weeks later, and he said, Well, there you go, there's the chapters of your book go, right. Well, I thought he was crazy, because I've never written anything more than six or seven pages in length. So I decided, well, I'll just pick one sentence and that I one thought and write a chapter. And I took a couple of weeks to do that and emailed him. And to my surprise, he said he thought it was good. He thought it was fresh. He thought it had a neat perspective. And then at that point, it made me realise maybe I really can do this. I just need to figure out how I'm going to do it. So I spoke with my wife and I said, Would you be okay if I tried to write a book, but I don't I don't want to take time away from the family and the kids. So she said yes. And I just decided to discipline myself to write it on Saturday mornings at the local Starbucks. So I actually would get up at about 530 on Saturday, believe it or not put on a baseball cap and just get my laptop and drive to the local Starbucks. Get a cup of coffee, open the laptop and begin typing for about three hours and then come back home by 10am in the morning when everybody was kind of getting up for the Saturday, and I didn't miss any time from the family. So that's that's how the book was spawned, I guess you could say, or birth by Amy Smith suggesting I write a book and encouraging me. And then kind of mentoring me through the, through the process. And then the discipline, which I guess centering prayer is a discipline. So perhaps the discipline of centering prayer helped me with the discipline of writing the book. And it mostly got written on Saturdays, very early in the morning, it's at Starbucks.

20:36  
That's really good. On a Saturday morning, well done. I get up very early myself, but well done for getting up so early on a Saturday morning. And I know just the dedication of actually doing that, when I'm sure it must be kind of nice to have a line on Saturday, but you felt this way, it was so important that you made the effort. And then I guess you must have enjoyed the process, or you wouldn't have kept doing it each morning, each Saturday morning. And so how long does it take you to write?

21:04  
So I did enjoy it, it was like it was a spiritual practice. Because most of the chapters I didn't know what would land on the page, I just kind of let it naturally flow. One or two of the chapters, I get to do some research and take notes. And then I just read my notes and let it naturally flowed from my notes. So, so no, I really, I really did enjoy, I really did enjoy it. And now I'm forgetting what you're good at either first or second question.

21:33  
Yeah, and I was just any must have enjoyed the process of doing it to having a dedication to get up to get up and do that. By doing that you push outside your comfort zone, like you said, it's not something that you you sat down at start with to think I'm gonna write a book it just unfolded and then and then you're you now teach it in to your local community in groups, and you do talks on it, from what I understand. Is that correct?

21:59  
Yes. Oh, and I think you asked how long it took. So if I think about it, I think I probably started writing the book in like june of 2014. The book was published in August of 2020. But I know it was what it was written, it was done, probably a year to year and a half even before that. So that backs us up into 29th, I would say by probably was mostly done in 2018. So I guess the book probably took me about three and a half to four years to do. I mean, it was done. But then we added it. And we would go back and forth to sameness. And we we edited and then added the table of contents. And then, you know, part of the processes was writing a book proposal and reaching out to publishers and asking people to endorse it. So even along all along that way the book was being edited and fine tuned. So I would say about three and a half years, where it was probably 75 to 80% done and then just needed fine tuning.

23:08  
Oh, wow. That's that's a good amount of time. And it's I don't know, that's why probably is read so well, because you can see that you put so much work into it that it reads really naturally and and you can buy it on Amazon worldwide, isn't it in bookstores as well people can order it in as well to get to what's the best way for them to purchase your book.

23:30  
But it's available in paperback and Kindle, definitely on Amazon. So wherever you are, it's internationally and Amazon most places carry its or most countries, I guess, carry it. And I have had sales interesting. So when the book came out in August of 2020, and in January, when I got kind of read out of the sales, I was pleasantly surprised that half of my sales were not in the US and I consider that a great thing they were they were in the UK and Canada, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Japan, Japan, Australia. I think I've gotten most of the country. So that was neat to see where it was being read. And it was neat to see that half the sales were actually overseas, not in the United States policy reaching

24:14  
worldwide. That's brilliant. It's just it just goes to show some some good work on rich everywhere. If it's something of value, I really believe that if people put something out that is of a value, then it will reach people everywhere. So that's amazing. One of the lines that really stuck out for me was we answer silence not to pray, but to have God pray in us. Could you explain that a bit more to our listeners?

24:42  
Sure. Because that's what you're doing during centering prayer, you're letting go and you're not. You're not praying you're sitting with God and letting go of you and your thoughts and your engaged thoughts and your emotions and opening to the presence of actions of God within and God's acting within at a deeper level, so God is I think of it as a reverse prayer. God is praying in us what we need. And that's could be anything, whatever it was what we need for as we get up from our sit to finish our day. And so that could be wisdom for a task or inner peace or calm or excitement. Whatever God knows we need just just just to finish out that day or or start that day.

25:27  
No, very well explained. And talking to you is inspired me to do I'm going to do the second set, I've only been doing the morning sets, I'm going to I'm going to make time to do a second set and see how how that feels as well. So looking forward to doing that. I like to ask them, I guess what other books would you recommend for them to listen to or rather read, I guess people have audiobooks as well these days. So any other books out there that you do recommend to our listeners, or any pieces of music that inspired you?

26:01  
Well, I guess from a centering prayer perspective, because the first two books I read on the practice that really helped me, were open mind open heart by Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bordeaux's book, centering prayer and Inner Awakening. So both of those books were just really helpful books for me in, in my practice. And then for those that have been practising for a year or longer, the path of centering prayer by David fernet is is a really good book because he talks a lot about deepening your practice. Oh, I know I've honed in on centering prayer. But those were like three books that were really helpful for me to understand centering prayer to get other people's perspectives, and just to, to really understand what, what what happens and what's going on during centering prayer.

26:53  
Oh, thank you rich. So the listeners, if you didn't quite catch that, they'll leave details in the transcript as well. And as well as links to to purchase Rich's amazing book, which I got mine within 24 hours. So they come quite quickly. I always like to ask this question as well as how do you think we can be better guests on this planet? It's like, it's like one of my key questions I asked at the end is there any tips that we have what we can do to be better guests,

27:23  
I would say dude, just to be more present. Because when we're more present, we enjoy life, we enjoy the experience in front of us, whether that's just nature, or the sun, or for the city or small towns or wherever you are, but also being more present with people and just being present with the person sitting in front of you and listening to them. And not planning what you're going to say but really listening. So I would say just presence, the gift just just to be more present in life is is a beautiful thing, whether it's with people or not with people, when you're not present, you just miss out on on the beauty of life and what you should be living and how you should be enjoying life.

28:09  
It's so true. So true, Rich 100%, I can really relate to that. And I know in the times where I haven't been present. And that's when our minds kind of taken me off in places or the more we can kind of focus and just be and I believe we could do that as well by just slowing down our breath. And just remember to breathe correctly, which is what we do half of us don't remember to do, unfortunately. And that can help help a lot as well. Are there any other closing remarks that you'd like to add to the podcast, do no pressure, it's just I would just like to make sure that

28:41  
I would just encourage people to try it. Most people think of prayer is talking to God. And I would encourage people to try silent some type of silent prayer where you're quiet and letting go of yourself. Because it's, we're better when you learn to just be you're better at you're doing. So I would just encourage people it may be hard, but even so even start with one or two or three minutes. And we're most people when I do introduction to centering prayer workshops for groups, we just do a five minute set. And the reaction is always that wasn't as bad as I thought. And I thought it would be an eternity and it wasn't. So people are pleasantly surprised at five minutes to sit silence with yourself is not that bad. It's not an eternity. And it's doable. So you're better at your doing when you learn to just be so I would encourage people just to try doses I'll call it of silence each day.

29:37  
Perfect. So it's all about I would say about being and being with God and just being in the moment and to step outside of one's comfort zone. You know, sometimes people think they can say that, Oh, no, five minutes is a long time. But when you're really in the moment and you really in the present moment, it's not it can go quite quickly and I don't know about you sometimes with my manage my meditation practice. And I can find sometimes I can feel like I'm there just for a moment and the times passed really quickly. And then other times it can feel like paint drying on the ceiling. But I still stay there. Because I know on the long term benefits of of doing. So that will be a tip I would say to our listeners, oh rich has been really delightful to have you join us today this morning. I don't want to keep you too much longer. But I would just like to say thank you for your time. And do stay tuned listeners I'm going to share with you and meditation as I always do each week. And I will put information on how to purchase Rich's book in the Bible. So thank you. Thank you, rich for joining me today.

30:46  
Thanks again for having me on. I really appreciate it. And hopefully this is something that will be helpful for your community. And they can reach out to me on my website at silence teachers calm I love to interact. So if anybody has questions or comments or just wants to reach out to me, I love dialogue, you'll I read all my emails and immediately respond. So feel free to reach out to me.

31:09  
Oh, brilliant. Yes, thank you, I forgot to ask you that brilliant rich, please feel free to reach reach out to rich and thank you once again, listeners, take care. So it's really lovely to speak to rich. It's always a pleasure to meet people from different parts of the world and to learn about their lives, etc. So this is the section of the podcast where we do a meditation, I always say this, but like with all forms of meditation, obviously do somewhere where you're sitting peaceful, and obviously not only middle of doing operating machinery or driving, just pause it and just wait to get home. So I thought that's fine, the meditation that we can do today, that will help us bring some stillness. And as I record this meditation, it is September here in the UK, and September, we have another bit of a growing sprout again with flowers because they know it's coming to the end of that life before it turns into the fall into autumn. So I have this beautiful rose from the garden. And it's got amazing sense. And it's really lovely to just Behold, I thought why not today do a staring meditation. So quite often I say to do meditation with the eyes closed. But let's have a go at the staring meditation. So maybe you don't have a rose, maybe there's some sort of objects in your house that you would like to focus on today. And what you can do is sit up super tall, and just hold the object in front of you. So my case, I've got a beautiful rose. And take some slow, calm deep breaths as we embody this five minute meditation. So take some slow, calm, deep breath.

33:12  
So just allow your eyes to be totally focused on the objects in front of you. Using the breath, as you inhale. As you exhale, can you just allow the moment to be? Can you allow the breath to be long, calm deepened Eva, can you allow your focus to be completely on to that object, a flower? Or maybe it's a book, something that really feels like it inspires you to be right here in this present moment. And as you stare at that object, can you connect with the Divinity within it? Can you allow the possibility of just being here right now, right this moment, no place to go. No way to go back into the past or project into the future instead. Whatever you have to do before or whatever you have to do after doesn't matter right now. We are in the present here and now. Let the breath be let the joy calm. Let yourself be. Allow, allow. Allow. open yourself to the Divinity within. Don't run from the present moment. And I thought may try to entice us, but instead just come back to that object. Just come back and back and back and back. Back to the object just BBB. Allow yourself to be free, free, free, full of joy full of happiness full of presence. And if only external noises, just allow them to be. Your vision is staring completely on that object. Allow, allow, allow. Free silence free being relaxed dedication. Allow the space allow the space. A nice deep inhalation a nice deep exhalation and then just start to gently move the eyes around the room. take a nice deep, big breath. Come back into the present come back into the now. See just a few moments of present being how much better do you feel

Transcribed by https://otter.ai