Welcome to first this, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nikolai. Thanks for sitting with me.

Please make yourself comfortable and don't be shy about that.

There's no particular kind of enlightenment that comes from forcing

yourself to sit uncomfortably for 10 minutes. It just makes it less likely that you'll come back

tomorrow. So add cushions, take your legs up a wall, or arrange your body any way that feels good.

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

Again, in, out with sound.

Good.

Now lips together and let your breath go just through your nose.

This becomes like a metronome to your practice.

The steady rhythm of your natural breath.

And we can tune back into it at any moment.

No matter how many miles you wander from your breath,

it's always just one step back. Thank you. Thank you. I. I'm

I'm

I'm Thank you. Thank you. I'm thinking today about a story one of my teachers used to tell.

About someone coming to your door,

trying to give you a bangle tiger as a gift.

How you don't have to accept something just because it's offered as a gift.

You don't have to let the tiger in and let him wreck up the place. You can close the door and send them back home with it.

Sometimes people try to give you their anger as if it were a gift.

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