Like an old house, feel yourself settling. Move an elbow here, a chin there. Wiggle your toes and fingertips. Settle more deeply into yourself. Settle into your breath, notice the rise and fall of it. With each outbreath, settle even more. The original meaning of the word settle comes from Old English setlan, which means “come to rest.” A house may take years to settle, a small child may take an hour. With practice, you can settle in just a few minutes. Imagine you’re a ball rolling along the pavement and see yourself coming to rest. Or imagine you’re a bird in flight and you come to rest on the branch of a tree. Actually visualizing yourself coming to rest makes it happen. It’s as though by settling into yourself you’ve crossed through a portal into another existence, the magical world of stillness.
