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

I'm Catherine Nicolai. You can sit or lie down, elevate your legs, or be in any position that suits you.

Unlock your jaw and relax your shoulders. Draw a deep breath in through your nose and let it out your mouth. Again, breathe in and let it out.

Good.

The first step here is to hone our attention a bit.

Kind of like you hone a knife.

And sometimes your knife has just chopped too many carrots and it's lost its edge.

And your brain can be the same way.

So to realign, to sharpen and be perceptive of what is actually happening now,

we focus on breath as it comes in and goes out,

like the long stroke of the blade on the stone,

in and out.

Each moment that you're present, and out.

Each moment that you're present, putting you more and more into alignment,

and simply starting over whenever you wander. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you might think, then what?

What is this alignment for?

Well, here's the practical part. It allows you to observe without reacting.

Often we swing between two extremes.

On one end is numbness, disconnection, dissociation.

And on the other end, full on freak out, emotional overwhelm.

But there is this third option, it's right in the middle.

It's observation.

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