Set aside five minutes before the session.

Find a comfortable position, and take three deep breaths to center yourself. Feel the details of your body—where it is touching the chair, walls or ground, how your feet feel on the floor and the sensations of your breathing. What is miraculous about your ability to be alive, here, and present in this way? Take a moment to appreciate the miracle that is you.

Imagine yourself moving through your typical actions on a typical day, in slow motion. Then, imagine yourself coming to a stop. What do you notice around you? What makes this moment miraculous? Allow yourself to luxuriate in the “miracle moment” from your everyday life.

Gently come back to yourself sitting. Read this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and reflect on its meaning for you:

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.