Welcome to First This, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nicolai. Let's settle in.

If you feel like you are supposed to sit in a certain way or like you're supposed to hold yourself perfectly still,

let me just say that's made up.

You can sit or lay however suits you.

And if you need to adjust or scratch your nose, go right ahead.

You don't have to pretend you're superhuman.

You can just be regular human.

And this will still benefit you.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and sigh from your mouth. Again, fill to the top and let it out.

Good.

Lips together, breathing just through your nose.

Let it be a relaxed natural pace.

There's nothing to do right now, but that doesn't mean that we're aiming for a nothing sort of experience.

We actually want to feel more of what's happening now since we're doing less.

So notice how your breath feels on your upper lip. Notice the parts of your body that move as you breathe.

Let that move to the front and all thoughts to the back.

And when you get distracted, see how quickly you can go right back to noticing what now feels like. Thank you. Thank you. I'm thinking about the tendency to want to seem superhuman.

It reminded me of this time when a friend asked me to sub his 6 a.m. yoga class when I lived 45 minutes away from his studio.

And I said yes.

I wanted him to think I had evolved beyond the need for sleep.

I was the person who could and would do it all with grace.

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