Hello,
And welcome back to this guided meditation.
I invite you to take your seat.
Find an upright,
Dignified posture,
One that you can maintain for about 10 minutes.
Once you've adjusted your seat,
Notice your body becoming still.
And as we turn our attention to the breath,
I'd like to have you do a simple breathing exercise to become grounded in this practice.
Take your right hand and the thumb of your right hand,
And gently close your right nostril.
And now take three slow in-breaths and out-breaths through your left nostril only.
And once you have completed those three breaths,
Release your right nostril by releasing your thumb and take your ring finger of your right hand and gently close down your left nostril.
And now take three slow deep breaths through your right nostril only.
Now gently rest your hands in your lap or on your thighs,
Wherever it is most comfortable.
And notice where you feel the sensation of your breath the most strongly.
In your abdomen,
Or your chest,
Or your nostrils.
And bring your attention to the breath as your body breathes in and out.
Don't try to force the breath at this point.
Simply allow your body to breathe as it always has,
And just become aware of your body breathing.
Now if your mind has wandered,
Whether or not you're thinking thoughts,
Or hearing sounds,
Or feeling sensations,
Simply label all of those as thinking.
And gently escort your attention back to your breath.
If you find it easier to pay attention to your breath,
You can try counting your breaths.
And after every in-breath and out-breath,
Count one.
And after the next in-breath and out-breath,
Count two,
Up to three.
And then begin again back at one.
Now for these next few moments,
Take your attention away from the breath for a moment and turn your attention openly to awareness of your mind,
Your sounds,
Your feelings,
Smells,
Any sense object that you notice.
Bring it to your mind's awareness.
Don't follow it or create a storyline.
But simply watch as each of these thoughts,
Emotions,
Feelings,
And sensations,
Like a cloudy day rolling across the sky in front of you,
And simply watch with open awareness and see what's going on inside of your mind.
Sometimes it can be almost frightening or scary when you become aware of all of the thoughts that are passing through your mind at any one moment in time.
So now let's bring our attention back to the breath and simply focus on each in-breath and each out-breath,
Wherever you notice it most strongly.
Now gently rest your attention and let me talk to you about how we can go as a river.
Like a river,
The water is always moving.
It's moving in one direction,
Forward or downstream.
Like the water,
Our lives move forward.
We age,
We change,
And we move in the river that we call life.
At times,
We may spend time ruminating about the past.
It can be like trying to paddle or swim back up river against the current.
It can be exhausting,
And we try and try and try,
But life keeps moving forward.
We keep moving downstream,
And in this process,
We miss out on the present.
We become unaware of the birds and the trees along the bank,
Or the beautiful beaches,
Or those with whom we are traveling.
All of our energy was wasted on trying to relive the past.
Maybe we try to fortune tell or worry about the future.
We spend our time and energy worrying about what might be or could happen.
Once again,
We are absent from the here and now.
Life can be complicated.
There are turbulent rapids and forks in the river.
We may at times be able to choose to go right or left,
While at other times,
The decision is at the mercy of the river.
This allows us to live the journey that we call life.
So like a river,
Try not to waste energy swimming upstream or expend energy worrying about what may be downstream.
Rather,
Spend your time in the here and now.
Live in the present moment and take in all of the beauty that surrounds you.
