Hello and welcome,
My name's Kevin Janks and I'll be taking you through this guided meditation.
So whenever you're ready,
Turning your devices onto silent,
Making sure that nothing's going to vibrate and disturb you,
No email notifications,
All of that stuff.
And then whenever you're ready,
Just taking a moment,
Closing your eyes and just allowing yourself to be just as you are,
Just as you aren't.
I always like to take my glasses off,
I find that it helps my face just to release a little bit.
And then as you close your eyes,
Taking a few moments just to notice whatever you sat down with,
So noticing all the thoughts,
All the sensations,
All the to-do lists,
All the analysis,
The judgment of the day,
Thoughts about the past,
The future,
And then how we feel about all of that,
So whatever you've sat down with,
Positive,
Negative,
Neutral,
Just allow it to be there,
Remembering that we're not trying to achieve any state of bliss,
There's no state of perfection we're trying to achieve in this meditation.
So rather than any of that,
Just taking a couple of deeper than usual breaths,
Maybe sighing it out,
A little sigh,
A little yawn,
And just start to feel your body breathing.
So feeling your body as you inhale,
Feeling your body as you exhale,
Feeling what it's like to breathe.
And if it's comfortable for you,
Taking the air in and out through your nose,
And even taking a moment to imagine the air being pulled into your nose with each breath in,
So imagining perhaps even that you can see the air just outside of your nose,
And what would it look like as you created that vacuum through your lungs to gently pull the air in.
So the ideal way to gently take the air into your body is by using your diaphragm,
That big breathing muscle just underneath your ribcage,
And taking that air in deep into the base of your lungs,
Feeling your belly gently rise with each inhale,
Feeling your belly fall with each exhale,
And even starting to lengthen your exhale a little,
Just so it's slightly longer than your inhale,
Without any need to be precise.
So remembering that this meditation is all about following a process,
A really easy,
Effortless process,
That process being that we rest our awareness on the anchor point of the meditation,
Whether that's your belly breath right now,
My voice at any time through the meditation,
Or whatever we're doing,
Gently resting your awareness there,
Without any focus,
Without any concentration,
A lazy,
Effortless awareness,
So lazy,
So easy and so effortless that your mind will wander away,
That's exactly what we want,
It's all part of the process,
Whenever you happen to realize that your mind had been wandering away,
Only then are you easily and effortlessly returning your awareness back to that anchor point,
Whether it's back to my voice,
Or wherever we happen to be in the meditation,
So having said all of that,
Gently returning our breath back to a normal,
Comfortable breath,
However that looks for you,
And just starting to take your awareness deeper inside of your body,
And we'll do that by beginning up at our faces,
Noticing any tension or tightness through your forehead,
Your eyebrows,
Your jaw perhaps,
And without trying to force any release,
Just giving your body permission to soften,
Allowing your body to loosen,
Allowing your forehead to release if it chooses to do so,
Allowing your eyebrows,
Your jaw to soften if that chooses to do so,
And moving down into your shoulders,
And allowing your shoulders,
Perhaps with your next exhale,
To sink away from your ears,
Melting towards the floor,
Even just very slightly,
And as you invite your body to soften,
You also extend your body some compassion for exactly how it is,
And exactly how it isn't,
What does that feel like for you to extend your body this compassion,
Allowing it to be as it is,
You find yourself accepting this,
Or perhaps as elements of resistance,
And in either case just noticing the parts of your body that you feel this,
And taking your awareness then to the top of your chest,
And from here taking a nice deep cleansing breath into the top of your chest,
Letting it all go through your mouth this time,
Allowing it to come out as a sigh or a yawn,
There,
Moving down and into your belly,
And at your belly noticing any sensations that you may have,
Tingling,
Tightness,
Looseness,
Lightness,
Imagining gathering up any remnants of tension with your next breath in,
Nice deep breath down into the base of your lungs,
Feeling your belly expand as you breathe in,
And then letting it all go whenever you're ready,
Completely emptying the breath,
Allowing your belly to sink all the way back into your chair,
And then from that place,
I invite you to move your awareness right into the center of your chest,
Imagining a tiny glow of light emanating from your heart center,
And this glow of light might encompass the compassion that you were feeling before for your body,
You need not even feel any sensation through the center of your chest,
Just imagining this tiny ball of light is enough,
And imagining with each breath that ball of light becoming a little bigger and bigger,
Imagining this ball of light encompassing your entire chest,
Moving around your ribcage,
Moving down into your belly,
Moving around your lower back,
Imagining this ball of light encompassing your neck,
Your head as it continues to grow,
Circling your entire body,
Creating a cocoon for your body to just rest inside of,
So imagining your body resting inside of this cocoon of light that's begun in the center of your chest,
The light woven together with compassion for yourself,
Feeling free to gently rest your awareness on that image inside of your mind,
Of you resting inside of that cocoon,
Or perhaps a sensation emanating from your chest,
Or feeling free to rest your awareness on an anchor point of your choosing,
You might be resting your awareness on your breath,
Or perhaps the sensations inside of your body,
The image of you inside of this cocoon,
Or anything else at all,
Resting your awareness in a very easy gentle way,
No focus,
No concentration,
And whenever you happen to realize that your mind had been wandering away,
Only then are you easily and effortlessly returning back to your anchor point,
Your thoughts,
And you are not your emotions either,
The thoughts and all the emotions are just passing through,
I invite you now to let go of your anchor point,
And simply rest here for these last few moments,
Allowing the effects of the meditation to sink in,
As I keep the time and you just rest,
Gently starting to deepen your breath,
Deepening your breath,
Becoming aware of your body,
Slowly starting to take yourself out of the meditation,
Keeping your eyes closed,
Perhaps bringing some movement into your body,
Stretching or twisting,
And as you do this,
Tuning back in to your body,
Offering your body some more compassion,
Offering your body acknowledgement for being here today,
And taking as long as you need,
Noticing any sensations that this acknowledgement and self-compassion bring up for you,
And perhaps even anchoring yourself in those sensations if you wish,
Setting your intentions to carry them forward for the rest of your day,
There's absolutely no rush,
No rush at all,
Only when you're ready,
Very slowly opening your eyes,
Thank you so much for joining me,
My name's Kevin James.
