Today we are going to focus on cultivating the quality of equanimity.
So finding a comfortable posture for meditation,
Whether that's in a chair with the thighs parallel to the floor,
Feet planted on the ground,
Or sitting in a cross-legged position on the ground with the sit bones and the knees propped up.
Just allow the spine to be tall and free and relaxed.
We'll begin this meditation by coming into the body and really beginning this first step of turning inward with closing the eyes.
So preparing in any way that you need to to close down the eyes and allow the body to begin to soften,
Releasing tension from the face,
The jaw,
The forehead,
And down the neck and to the shoulders,
The chest,
The abdomen,
The hips,
All the way down to the feet.
It's helpful doing a full body scan and just noticing the bodily sensations that you're experiencing today.
Are you hot?
Are you cold?
Are you tense or are you relaxed without trying to change what you notice?
Just simply turning your awareness,
This power of the brain to focus.
And now turning your awareness to the breath as it comes in and as it comes out of the body.
Just see if you can notice the feeling of air as it passes in and out of the nostrils over that small patch of skin above the upper lip.
In this act and in this art of meditation,
We're fine tuning our awareness.
We're training our ability to focus on ever more subtle sensations happening in the body.
It can be challenging to focus intently on something so subtle as the air passing in and out of the nostrils.
It takes a still mind,
A balanced center.
So do not worry if the mind wanders.
Over and over again,
Gently call it back to the object of focus.
And eventually the brain will learn this quality of equanimity,
Of balance that so easily translate into focused attention and stillness.
Gently calling the mind back to the breath,
To the air as it moves in and moves out,
To the body as it expands and it contracts.
And in this way,
Meditation serves as a very special type of mirror.
It shows us how we really are,
How we really feel and not as we want things to be or as we think they should be.
We can see things for how they really are.
Come back to the breath now.
And on this quest to equanimity and balance,
We can think of meditation as a science,
An experiment even,
An experiment with observing our own minds.
And like a scientist,
We don't change that which we are studying.
We simply observe and receive feedback.
To observe the mind,
The fluctuations of mind,
The thoughts that come in and out and the breath from this place of detached observation.
And simply noticing without judgment or stories,
We notice that we might naturally fall into this place.
We just naturally find ourselves in this place of equanimity.
Yes,
When we resolve to be still in our bodies,
We find that there's so much movement within.
When we resolve to be still,
We become more receptive,
More in tune with the realms of the subtle,
From the pulsating,
Vibrating sensations of our body which is alive,
To the movement of thoughts in and out of the mind.
Yes,
This contrast becomes clear when we still the body.
In a similar way,
When we come into silence,
Only then can we really hear.
The quieter we become,
The more we hear.
And the more we practice emptying ourselves,
Emptying ourselves of hatred,
Of anger,
Of chaos,
Of confusion,
The more we become empty of these things that are not really us.
The emptier we become from anxieties and worries,
The fuller our lives can be,
The fuller we become of bliss,
Of contentment,
Of santosha,
The fuller we become of this quality of equanimity,
Of balance,
Of ease.
Taking a final few moments of this meditation to notice how you feel,
How this stillness has impacted you.
And maybe it's not clear yet,
But it will be.
And to feel gratitude for yourself for committing to training the mind,
To focusing the mind,
To focusing awareness.
And from this,
We can birth equanimity and we can become less reactive in our lives.
We can stay in our center,
Taking one more long,
Deep inhale through the nose,
Sigh it out on the exhalation,
Releasing any air that's left in the lungs and carrying this sense of equanimity and balance and non-reactivity with you into the rest of your day and into your week.
And when you're ready,
You can slowly begin to blink the eyes open and have a wonderful rest of your day.
