Embodied check-in script for Module 1

Here is the script (thoughtfully written & led by Abby) for the embodied check-in during the first synchronous session:

  1. Close your eyes and assume a comfortable position: seated, standing, or lying down.
  2. Begin breathing deeply. As you inhale, notice all of the sensations touching your skin: the feel of your clothing, the flow of the air, any slight discomforts of posture.
  3. As you exhale, imagine sending your breath into whatever surface is holding you up through your feet, your legs, your back if you’re lying down.
  4. I invite you to, as you breathe, reflect on whatever stress, anxiety, or pressure you are bringing with you to this virtual learning community. What is weighing on you? Continue to breathe deeply—can you place the center of your emotional discomfort at a physical location in your body? Maybe it’s under your ribs, at the base of your skull, in the center of your stomach. Focus on the physical sensation of that emotional discomfort.
  5. On you next deep inhale, imagine that place at the center of your discomfort becoming a physical object inside of your body. Maybe it’s a ball of yarn, or a bar of soap, or a piece of glass. Give it form, and material, and weight.
  6. I invite you now to shift your posture to guard that object from the rest of the world: you can cover it with your hand, curl around it, tighten the muscles around it…protect your object of discomfort so that nothing can get to it. Stay here for two breaths(2 breaths)
  7. Now, over the next three breaths, slowly return to the comfortable, open, posture that you assumed when we first began this exercise. As you open back up, imagine that physical object of your discomfort slowly unraveling, dissolving, or floating away.
  8. Take a deep breath in, and on your next exhale, dismiss the last remnant of that object of discomfort. Feel the new empty, open space where it used to be. Inhale into that empty space, and exhale to return your breath to the object that is supporting you: the floor, the chair, the couch…
  9. When you feel ready, open your eyes and turn your camera back on to rejoin each other.