Page 75 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

fr om caratIve fact or 1 to C a r i t as Pr oC e s s 1
into your body, softly allowing yourself to feel your body settled and
grounded, knowing you are supported.
As you close your eyes to the outer world, open your inner eye
and investigate what is happening in your inner mind-body self. To
experience this, do a gentle body scan to be alert to your body position
and let yourself breathe into all parts of your body, releasing tension,
relaxing and settling and softening your body and your gentle aware-
ness toward yourself and your body, offering loving, kind thoughts to
self for this moment of stillness within and without.
As you continue to take deep but gentle breaths, on the out
breath release everything in the outer world that you brought into
this space, then release all the inner chatter. Just be still, breathing in
and out, emptying out and filling up. As you breathe in, become gen-
tly aware that you are breathing in new life, new breath of life, spirit,
energy of the universe. If you wish to have inner peace and to calm
and relax any tension, you can do so on your out breath. By exhaling,
we can obtain a state of restfulness even in the midst of inner and
outer tension.
From this quiet place, gently continue to watch your breath, ris-
ing up and falling away. In gently and quietly attending to breath alone,
one is connecting with the rhythm of the universe in that everything,
everything, is rising up and falling away, just like the breath. In con-
necting with the natural rhythm of all of life, one is opening self to
connection with the universe and the infinite wellspring of gratitude,
loving-kindness, and equanimity.
As you continue to breathe, allow all thoughts, emotions, images
that cross your awareness to rise up and fall away. In this quiet, still
point, the in-between place, this void is where we access our deep
source of creativity; it is where new awareness energy can manifest
from spirit to material plane; it is where miracles occur, where we
access the single point field and align with the universe.
We can access this space and awareness through this simple, brief,
conscious, intentional, alert releasing practice of just stopping in the
moment, quieting down, and breathing.
In connecting with breath, we breathe in spirit, the breath of life
itself.

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