Leaving Home

Hi, and welcome to day one of the Leaving Home pack. So, this pack is designed primarily for when you're heading off to college, to university, but hopefully it'll work equally if you're leaving home and heading off to someplace new to start work. The thinking is that no matter how exciting the adventure, it comes with a whole lot of challenges as well, whether it's moving to a new place leaving perhaps friends and family behind, whether it's the academic expectations that might come with going away to college, whether it's making new friends, being in a new environment, there's so many different changes that take place on that journey, it's really helpful to find a sense of balance and consistency kind of throughout that. So this pack is, as I say, is designed to help you cope with that change, with that transition, but also to just bring a sense of stability. I'm gonna lead you through the exercise as we go. All you need to do right now is to make yourself comfortable. We're gonna begin with the eyes open however you're you're sat right now, ideally with a straight back. And then just maintaining that soft focus with the eyes, just taking some big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out this time, just gently closing the eyes and just feeling that weight of the body pressing against the seat beneath you. Whatever thoughts racing around right now, just letting those go, letting them come and go. Just feeling that contact, body against the seat, and just taking a few moments to settle in to wherever you are, just starting to notice the different sounds and just allowing them to come and go. And now just bringing the attention back to the body, so just checking in with the body, noticing how you feel right now. There's no right or wrong way. Just noticing whether the body feels sort of heavy or light, restless or still. And just to build up a clearer picture, starting at the top of the head, just scanning down through the body, just noticing any areas that feel particularly comfortable and any areas that might feel a little tense or tight in some way. Just scanning down towards the toes. So as you become more aware of those sensations in the body, you might have already noticed that rising and falling sensation of the breath. So some people feel it in the stomach, some people the chest. Doesn't really matter where it is. If you can't fit anything, just gently place your hand on your stomach to feel that movement. But just beginning to notice where in the body you feel that rising and falling sensation. No need to breathe in any special way. So just staying with that movement of the breath, just beginning to notice the rhythm of breathing. So are all the breaths the same, or is each...