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

I'm Catherine Nicolai. Thanks for joining me today.

We've got a slightly different approach to our practice today, so if you're somewhere that you could possibly lay down

and let your body really relax, do that.

If you're listening on the subway, on your way to work right now,

this might be one to save for when you get home.

Take a deep breath in and sigh it out.

One more, breathe in.

Really flush it out.

Good.

And as always, we'll start just by tuning in to where we are, what we feel.

We want to know what we're starting with.

And we're also building this go-to response of quickly connecting with sensation and breath is a way to center

yourself. With practice, you'll start to notice that popping up in other moments. It's very

useful. So natural breath, let it flow through your nose if you can.

And just gently resting your mind on the feeling of breath coming in and going out.

Like an upturned leaf, rests on the current of a river. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now we are going to do a practice called progressive muscle relaxation.

It does a bunch of useful things for you. called progressive muscle relaxation.

It does a bunch of useful things for you.

It closes out incomplete stress cycles,

stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system,

can lower your blood pressure and ease chronic pain,

...