Hello,
This is Amy Ruthie,
And this is a meditation to help you practice being in silence and becoming more comfortable with being in silence.
Our worlds are very noisy,
With construction,
Traffic noise,
Dogs barking,
TV on,
Radio on.
Our auditory systems rarely get a break,
So this meditation will help you allow your auditory system to take a break.
So start by getting as comfortable as you can in a quiet place preferably,
And begin to notice your breath.
Noticing your inhale and your exhale as the air moves in and out of your body.
Now shift your attention to the nose and notice how the air moves in through your nose as you inhale and back out through your nose as you exhale,
Focusing specifically on the nose right now as you breathe.
Now moving your awareness down the pathway to the sinus cavities,
Noticing air as it moves in and out of your sinus cavities.
Noticing the gentle flow of air in and out of your sinuses.
Now moving down farther to the throat area,
Noticing air as it passes through your throat and back out as you exhale.
Now shifting attention to the area of your collarbones,
Noticing as they expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale.
Just noticing,
Just witnessing the movement of your collarbones as you inhale and exhale.
Now bringing your attention to your chest and noticing how your chest expands and contracts as you inhale and exhale.
Just noticing expansion and contraction as you breathe.
And now bringing your attention to the bottom of your ribcage and noticing how that area of your body expands as you inhale and contracts as you exhale.
Bringing your awareness to the bottom of your ribcage as you breathe.
And now shifting your awareness to your belly,
Noticing your belly as it rises and falls as you inhale and exhale.
Just noticing your belly here,
The movement of your belly.
And in a moment,
We'll shift to imagining that whole pathway from the nose all the way down to the belly as the air moves in to your body and back out of your body.
Imagine the entire pathway,
We'll move to that in just a moment.
And as you're doing this,
I'll leave you in silence for a few minutes.
I believe that the best antidote for our very noisy world and our overstimulated auditory system is to sit in silence sometimes.
And please remember that as you move on to this part of the meditation,
Your mind will wander away.
And that's okay.
It's expected.
It's very normal.
And as that happens,
As you notice your mind wandering away,
Try to very lovingly bring it back to watching your breath as it moves in from your nose all the way down to your belly and back out.
So I'll leave you here for some time to practice that in silence.
And in a moment,
We'll bring our awareness back to our bodies.
And if you want more time in silence,
Please feel free to push pause on this meditation and then press play when you're ready for me to guide you back.
Now coming back to your body and coming back to your natural rhythm of breath and noticing the points of your body that are making contact with the surface beneath you.
Noticing the sounds around you in the environment.
Noticing the touch of air on your skin and the smells around you.
Coming back to the room and we'll conclude this meditation by chanting Aum,
The hymn of the universe,
One time together.
Inhale deeply,
Aum.
And thank you so much for practicing being in silence with me today.
And I hope you'll return to this meditation anytime you need some quiet time,
Some time in silence,
And maybe a little help getting you there.
Namaste.
