Hello and welcome to this morning's Stoic meditation.
In life we may sometimes find ourselves procrastinating,
Finding reasons for putting off projects and plans.
In his book on meditations Marcus Aurelius wrote,
Just take the first step,
No one can stop you from that.
Stoics believe in focusing on effort instead of outcome,
So for this practice we will be spending some time grounding and focusing our attention towards manageable helpful actions for this day.
So when you're ready,
Getting into your meditation position,
This can be whatever feels right for you and take a moment now to feel into your body.
Relax your shoulders,
Your neck,
Gently close off your eyes,
Release your jaw and we'll begin now with three deep mindful breaths.
So breathing in and letting go and breathing in and releasing and last time breathing in and letting go.
Let's begin now by just turning our attention to our breath.
Just let your attention gently rest here.
If you feel your mind wandering with thoughts for the day ahead,
Know that everything the day has to hold will still be there for you.
We'll just spend a few more moments in stillness here with the breath.
Now I would like to invite you to gently draw your attention onto a project or task that you're working on and consider the next step you need to take.
Try not to let your attention wander.
Or plan too far on.
Just keep your attention on the next step.
Now take a moment to notice how you feel.
And just let that be.
Now take a moment to notice your effort.
Can you relax a little more?
Can you release a little more tension?
And bring your attention back to that next step.
And when you hear the bell you can allow yourself to open your eyes,
Taking the focus and calm with you into whatever you're working on today.
Now take a moment to notice how you feel.
