So hello and welcome,
My name's Kevin Jenks from Scented Meditation and today I'm going to be leading you on a guided meditation.
So whenever you're ready,
Just closing your eyes,
Making sure devices are all on silent,
They're not going to vibrate against things and email notifications off,
All that stuff.
If you're wearing glasses,
I always like to take mine off,
It just allows my face to relax a little bit more and then closing your eyes if you haven't already done so.
Very first thing as you close your eyes is you'll probably notice both the silence and then anything that's not silent.
You might notice sounds from your environment,
You might notice chatter inside of your mind,
You might notice sensations inside of your body,
You might be thinking about your to-do lists,
Things that happened in the day,
Things that are yet to happen but may occur in the future.
So whatever you've sat down with,
Just let it all be there,
This is a totally inclusive process,
Totally inclusive practice.
We get to bring our whole selves just as we are and importantly,
Just as we're not.
And rather than trying to reach any particular state of bliss or relaxation or stillness,
I invite you just to tune into your breath,
Noticing the air as it enters and leaves your body and bring it in and out through your nose if that's comfortable.
And with that air gently flowing at your own speed,
At your own rhythm,
Starting to take it down to the base of your lungs.
What I mean by that is just feeling the gentle rise of your belly on each inhale and the gentle fall of your belly on each exhale.
You're welcome as well to place a hand down on your belly to actually feel that feedback of your belly gently rising with each inhale,
Falling with each exhale.
What's happening here is you're not actually breathing through your belly,
You are breathing through your diaphragm though,
Or with your diaphragm I should say,
The diaphragm's traveling down into your belly as the breath comes in and the contents of your belly having nowhere else to go,
Gently press out.
That's why you get this gentle expansion with each inhale and then the reverse takes place on the exhale,
Remembering there is nowhere to get to,
No place to be,
Just a process to follow.
And that process really is as easy as gently resting your awareness on the anchor point of the meditation,
Knowing that your mind will wander away and that's all part of the process as well,
It'll wander away to thoughts,
To-do lists,
Random stuff,
Perhaps memories.
You might also just even fall asleep or drift off to a place between sleeping and wakefulness.
Basically whatever happens,
It'll out-unfold,
So you're just resting your awareness on that anchor point,
Right now being the belly breath,
At any time though my voice,
Wherever we're up to,
Allowing your mind to wander,
Allowing the experiences to unfold as they do,
Never trying to stop the mind from wandering,
Never trying to push thoughts away,
Never trying to catch the mind while it's wandering either.
From time to time during the meditation,
You'll just have these spontaneous realizations that you're no longer on the anchor point and it's only at this point that you're easily and effortlessly returning back,
Back to my voice or back to wherever we are in the meditation.
So that all being said,
Just gently you're returning your breath back to a normal comfortable breath,
However that looks for you and I invite you now to tune into your body,
Scanning it with your mind,
Starting up at your face and noticing first around your forehead,
Around your eyebrows,
In between your eyes,
Noticing if there's any scrunching,
Crunching,
Tightness and sometimes just by noticing it starts to release all on its own,
Just giving your body permission to gently soften,
To gently release.
You might like to use your exhale,
Moving down to your jaw,
Doing the same,
Just allowing or even imagining a gentle releasing of your jaw.
From here,
Taking a moment to notice your neck,
Your shoulders,
Gently scanning your awareness from the top of your neck,
Down its length,
Out through the sides of your shoulders,
Noticing if you're holding or scrunching your shoulders up and again,
Often just by resting our awareness there,
You might find a small softening in the shoulders,
Releasing.
And with your next inhale,
I invite you to imagine yourself gathering up any remnants of tension through your shoulders,
Maybe even feeling your shoulders rise slightly on the inhale before letting them all go on your exhale,
Letting your shoulders sink down towards the floor and taking that awareness,
Gently resting it down on your hands,
Allowing them to rest heavy wherever they fall and even noticing the fingertips,
Noticing any tingling right at the tips of your fingers,
We're not trying to force any release here,
We're just giving our body permission to soften and equally importantly,
We're allowing it to do whatever it does,
What's important is that we just move through the process and all the results will get outside of the meditation in our everyday life where they really matter.
Moving up to the top of your chest,
This time taking a deep cleansing breath into the top of your chest,
Letting it all go through your mouth and allowing it to come out as a sigh or a yawn and as it does,
Just allowing the top of your chest,
The top of your back to sink down into your chair,
Big sigh,
Big yawn,
Whatever's there for you,
Moving from there down into your belly,
Now your belly pausing for a few moments,
Pausing just to notice what you notice in your belly,
Sensations,
Feelings,
Emotions,
Digestion and even a lack of sensations might have a certain quality to them,
So just spending a few moments,
Resting your awareness there down in your belly,
Noticing what you notice and in your own time,
Taking another nice deep cleansing breath,
This time all the way down into the base of your lungs,
Feeling your belly expand as you imagine gathering up any remnants of tension before letting it all go on your own exhale,
A complete and cleansing breath out and finally allowing your awareness to sink all the way down and into your feet,
Allowing your soles to rest into the floor and then from this place,
I invite you to very gently allow your awareness to come to rest on your breath or any part of your breath you might feel is prevalent,
It might be a breath at the tip of your nose,
The sensations of the air entering and leaving your body,
It might be the feeling of your belly moving with each breath or it might even be a very faint or vague thought about your breath inside of your mind,
Any of that is enough to gently rest your awareness on without any focus or concentration,
Whenever you happen to realize you're no longer on your breath,
Easily and effortlessly returning back there,
Back to your breath,
Not resisting anything at all,
Not even resisting sleep if it comes,
Just using your breath as that place to come back to,
Whenever you happen to remember you are not your thoughts,
You are not your emotions either,
All the thoughts and all the emotions,
They're all just passing through,
I invite you now to let go of your breath,
Letting go of any anchor point at all and just resting here for these last few moments,
Allowing the effects of the meditation to sink in as I keep the time,
Feeling free to recline back into a more comfortable position or stay as you are and keeping your eyes closed,
Very gently starting to deepen your breath,
Deepening your breath,
Starting to bring some gentle movement into your body,
Expanding this movement into anything that feels comfortable whenever you're ready,
Whether that's stretching,
Twisting,
Whatever there is,
Just before you do open your eyes whenever that happens to be,
Taking a moment to check in with yourself,
How you're feeling inside of your body,
Inside of your mind,
Perhaps a little calmer,
A little more centered,
Really recognizing yourself,
Making the time to do this meditation today,
As I recognize you for the same,
It's absolutely no rush,
Whenever you're ready,
Very slowly open your eyes,
Thank you so much for joining me,
My name is Kevin Jenks.
