The letter B - or to Be or to be home

Let's look at the letter B and where it takes us this week.  Join me in this bit of introspection! 

Transcript

00:00.56
Christina Scovel
Hello and welcome back to A Pinch of Honesty. This is our weekly, or I guess it's every couple weeks, letter pod. And this week's letter is the letter B. I dutifully sat down to go through all kinds of things to know about the letter B. The most popular B word in the English language being B-E.

00:25.06
Christina Scovel
b e um popular books with the title that starts with B would be the Bible or a Brave New World. And as meandered down the list of things that are associated with B, I also looked up um the history of the letter B.

00:48.02
Christina Scovel
I was surprised to see that there is a B-type letter in Egyptian hieroglyphics. So the Egyptian hieroglyphic for the constant B is a picture of a foot and calf.

01:00.29
Christina Scovel
And the capital B um is a look, it's like a house, ah a Egyptian looking house that's like a pictogram of a house. And that's kind of the phenomenon.

01:17.53
Christina Scovel
Phenomenon, if I'm getting the word correctly, letter B. Of course, there is the whole Greek alphabet beta. There's a gloriously sordid history of the letter B and the meaning of B.

01:35.89
Christina Scovel
um in the ah In the history of the letter B, is really meant in a lot of different languages house.

01:51.73
Christina Scovel
Just the letter itself meant house. And at this point I kind of stopped digging through the letter B, and I started to think about being, being in one spot, being centered, and of course, home and house, right?

02:12.11
Christina Scovel
Things around our house have been absolutely nuts. There's been a ton of travel, there's been a surgery, there's been helping out ailing parents,

02:23.62
Christina Scovel
Pretty much, I feel like at this point, if you could guess it it' probably it's probably occurred. um The United States currently is going through a lot of upheaval. That upheaval is spilling over into work life.

02:38.02
Christina Scovel
There's this whole insanity between work life and home life balance and being just being the human that I want to be. And so i decided that this podcast then is going to be you and I sitting together for a few moments in a silent meditation where we can focus on our breaths and we can literally just be.

03:15.14
Christina Scovel
So here's what I ask you. Of course, if you're driving, please don't do this. ah Maybe hit pause and wait until you're somewhere stationary. and would really hate for somebody to get injured. But if you can, if you're in any type of chair, place both feet on the floor firmly.

03:33.40
Christina Scovel
You don't have to sit ramrod straight. You should try to have your back be somewhat straight, but you don't have to really focus on having the straightest back known to man.

03:44.44
Christina Scovel
You can place your hands on your knees. you You can place your hands on your stomach. I currently have a cat in my lap and so my hands are currently holding a cat. ah Feel free.

03:55.08
Christina Scovel
You can hold your cat. Close your eyes. And tip your chin just a tiny bit. As you tip your chin, lengthen your spine just ever so slightly. And what this will do is it will open up your lungs. You'll feel like your lungs have space to actually breathe.

04:13.52
Christina Scovel
And at this point, right, make sure that your eyes are looking down. They don't have to be closed, but closing them might make you feel a little bit more centered. Feel the ground underneath your feet.

04:26.51
Christina Scovel
Just be. Right? Just be in your current state, in your current house or home or wherever you are, office space. Just be. Relax your shoulders.

04:39.96
Christina Scovel
Breathe in and out through the nose.

04:45.25
Christina Scovel
As you inhale and exhale, see if you can lengthen your breath as you draw it in. and in particular, as you let it out.

04:59.68
Christina Scovel
Feel your lower belly expand out, contract back in, and don't care if anybody's watching you Don't think about whether or not your stomach is sucked in or it's hanging out over your jeans. Doesn't matter.

05:15.82
Christina Scovel
Doesn't matter. Just be.

05:25.52
Christina Scovel
As you inhale and exhale, feel the seat beneath you, whether you're sitting on the floor or a chair or a bus seat or a train seat.

05:37.14
Christina Scovel
Feel the hard seat. Again, be, be present.

05:56.09
Christina Scovel
See if it's possible for you to increase how long those exhales are out of your nose. Can they grow any longer? Now as you think about your breath, feel your body.

06:13.11
Christina Scovel
See if you're holding any tension anywhere. For me, it's my shoulders. It's in between my eyebrows. Sometimes my lower back.

06:26.03
Christina Scovel
I've also been known to make little fists with my toes and my shoes. So I'm relaxing my feet.

06:34.90
Christina Scovel
and I want you move through your body. Relax.

06:42.43
Christina Scovel
This is not the world's longest seated meditation.

06:49.21
Christina Scovel
But what I'm hoping for is that we can be in the house that is us. can be present in our own body, to feel what it feels like in our body this week, and to recognize that it does everything for us.

07:12.04
Christina Scovel
Take one more deep inhale and a nice deep exhale

07:22.07
Christina Scovel
and let your eyes open up.

07:28.56
Christina Scovel
I've decided that this week I'm really going to focus on being more in the moment, being present, being who I am to its fullest.

07:43.73
Christina Scovel
And I'd ask you to kind of give it a try with me. Try to be you in all sense of the word. Take up space.

07:54.46
Christina Scovel
Don't be small. Be you. in whatever form that is. And I would like to say welcome home. Welcome to the home that is you.

08:06.72
Christina Scovel
So with that bit of introspection for this week versus a history of a letter, um I'll catch you on the flip side.