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

I'm Catherine Nikolai. Please settle in and find a position that makes you as comfortable as you can be for the next 10 minutes or so.

Consciously unclench your jaw, release your shoulders, and if it's okay with you, close your eyes.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and sigh from your mouth.

Nice. Do that one more time. Breathe in.

And out.

Good.

Bring your lips together and let your breath move naturally through your nose.

This is the part where we step out of the role of doer and recede to observer. There's nothing to do right now. You don't need to breathe in any particular way or attempt even to quiet your mind. Give over control and just allow the sensations in your body to move to the forefront. Subterve them. Subtle or gross, pleasant or un, you're just aware as they rise up and pass away. They rise up only to pass away again.

If you find yourself doing something else,

see if you can come back to observing on the very next breath. Thank you. Thank you. The Still feeling, still observing. Letting this moment unfold in your cells and synapses, however it does.

That letting it unfold reminds me of an idea I ran into the other day.

It's not mine, I'm borrowing it to share with you.

I heard this person call crying going number three. So when you drink liquids, you go number one,

and you consume solids, you go number two.

When you exist in the world, sometimes you will need to go number three. Thank you. Thank you. I. I'm

and the That's a reminder that emotional releases are biologically necessary, not morally weighted.

Things that come in at some point must go out.

And going number three might not be exactly crying for everyone.

I know not everyone will relate to that.

Maybe it's a deep sigh after a big feeling,

a run, shaking when the adrenaline wears off,

...