And getting really nice and comfortable in your seat,
Making sure your back's supported by your head's upright and unsupported.
And easily fall if it needs to,
And you can fall asleep if that's what your body needs to.
And then taking a nice big sigh out.
Just letting go from your day.
And thinking into this moment,
This time that you've carved out for yourself to rejuvenate,
Replenish,
Re-center.
With 30 minutes of senses awakening.
And if you haven't already,
Closing down your eyes.
Turning off all your devices,
So there's no disturbances,
It's your time.
And then tuning into your breath.
Just noticing what your breath is doing.
Noticing its rhythm,
Its pace,
And the way that it rises and falls all on its own.
And starting to deepen your breath now.
Deepening your breath.
And lowering the awareness of your breath down into your belly.
Feeling your belly rising with each inhale,
And then falling with each exhale.
And when we feel the belly rising and falling,
It means that we're effectively breathing through our diaphragm,
The main breathing muscle below the ribcage.
And when we breathe through the diaphragm,
It signals to our body that we're safe.
There's no dangers,
No threats around.
We can stop fighting or fleeing.
We can rest and digest.
The parasympathetic nervous system is invited to activate.
Relaxation response takes over.
And if you'd like,
You can start to extend your exhale so it becomes a little longer than your inhale.
And now exhale is longer.
Again,
It signals to the body,
It's time to relax.
It's the first thing we do when we get into a nice hot bath.
Ah,
That long extended exhale.
And as you continue with this breath work,
Just remembering that the aim of your meditation practice is not to think of nothing.
It is not to have a still mind.
It's just to allow your mind to debug itself in the way that it knows how.
And we do this by just following the simple process of effortless meditation.
We come to rest our awareness on our anchor,
Which right now is our breath,
But it'll change throughout the meditation.
And then we allow the awareness to drift away.
So drift away onto thoughts,
Onto feelings,
Onto sensations,
Wherever it wants to go.
And then at some point we happen to realize where we are,
What we're doing.
And it's at that point that we stay completely unfazed.
We don't judge in any way.
We just choose that it's the right time to very gently drift back to our anchor again,
Drifting back as effortlessly as we drifted up in the first place.
And there's nowhere we're trying to get to,
And there's no state we're trying to achieve.
Just allowing this process to unfold in its own time,
At its own pace.
And when you're ready,
You can return your breath now back to its natural rhythm,
Its natural pace.
There's no need to control it or think about it any longer.
Just allow it to go into the background once again.
And I invite you now on a journey through each of your senses.
I'm gonna start now with our sense of hearing,
Listening to all of the sounds you can hear entering your ears,
Starting with the sounds that are loudest,
Perhaps the sound of the music.
And now the other sounds of the heater,
Of footsteps,
Voices,
Of the wind,
Moving to sounds further away,
Perhaps softer,
Subtler,
Sound of the elements of nature,
Wind blowing,
Birds chirping.
And noticing the softest of sounds,
Perhaps the sound of your own breathing.
Now switching to your sense of smell,
Noticing all the scents.
And they're coming into your nose.
You might smell a deodorant or perfume,
Aftershave.
You might have a candle burning.
You might not smell anything at all,
And that's perfectly okay too.
Now moving to your sense of sight,
Noticing what you can see behind your closed eyelids.
You might just see darkness.
It might be shades of darkness,
Shades of light.
You might see patterns,
Colors,
Shapes.
And whilst you're there,
Softening your eyelids and your eye muscles,
Relaxing your forehead.
Now shifting to your sense of taste,
Noticing all the flavors still lingering inside of your mouth,
Leftover from your last meal,
Or sip,
Or snack.
And whilst you're there,
Unclenching your jaw,
Dropping your tongue from the roof of your mouth.
Unpursing your lips.
And finally coming to your sense of touch,
Noticing where your body meets your seat,
Where the soles of your feet meet the ground.
Where your clothes meet your skin.
And the air meets your face.
And then scanning from the top of your head,
Very slowly down your body,
This notion of being in touch with the air.
Noticing any remnants of tension in any parts of your body.
Inviting them to relax,
To soften,
To let go.
All the way down to the tips of your toes.
And I invite you now to rest your awareness on a sound as your anchor for the rest of the meditation.
You can be to the sound of the music as a whole,
Maybe even a particular layer of the music.
Like the water fountain.
And you're just listening ever so gently as these sounds wash over your ears without focusing or concentrating on them in any way.
Feeling the resonance in your body.
The impact of these sound waves meeting your eardrums.
Whenever you happen to realize where you are and what you're doing,
That your awareness is no longer on your sound.
Remembering this is a normal,
Important,
Expected part of the process.
So not making it mean anything at all.
Staying completely unfazed.
And then choosing in your own time to very gently come back to the sounds.
Drifting away.
Drifting back.
Drifting away.
Drifting back.
There's no where you're trying to get to.
There's no where you're trying to go.
There's no where you're trying to get to.
There's no state you're trying to achieve.
Allowing the process to unfold in its own time,
At its own pace.
You are not your thoughts.
Your thoughts are simply passing through you.
And you are not your emotions.
Your emotions too are just passing through you.
You are that calm,
Content,
Ever-present witness deep inside of you.
I invite you now to let go of the sound as you rank up.
Just rest for the last couple minutes.
There's nothing to do here.
Just bask in the effects that the meditation has brought.
Gradually beginning to deepen your breath now.
Deepening your breath,
Allowing it to awaken the contours of your body.
Allowing it to awaken the contours of your mind.
Bringing very gentle movement into your fingers and toes.
And gradually extending this movement into your arms,
Your legs,
Rolling your shoulders,
Rolling your neck.
And just pausing and checking in with yourself.
Noticing whether you're feeling a little more calm,
A little more centered,
A little more you.
And just setting your intention to carry these feelings with you throughout the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for joining me.
There's absolutely no rush to get up.
Just take as long as you need,
As long as you have.
Have a great rest of your day.
