We'll begin this meditation by finding a comfortable seat,
Allowing your spine to be tall and free.
The muscles are relaxed.
And just take a moment here to try and find stillness in the body,
Getting out any twitches or final movements that you may need.
Begin to focus on the breath whenever you're ready,
Allowing the shoulders to melt away from the ears,
Perhaps a slight tuck in the chin to allow the cervical spine,
The neck to elongate.
And covering your whole body now in awareness from the very top of the head all the way down to the feet,
Noticing each point with which your body is contacting the earth or the chair,
The floor below you.
The face is soft,
The jaw relaxed,
Tongue relaxed,
Eyebrows relaxed.
See if you can let the skin on your scalp release.
And taking a quick scan of the body,
Noticing any places that you might feel tension,
Perhaps in the shoulders,
The back,
The belly,
Just notice and see if you can breathe into these spaces and relax a little bit further,
Knowing that over the course of the short meditation,
The mind wanders,
And it often will,
To just gently call it back to the sensations in the body,
To the breath,
Then focusing on having mindful awareness of the present moment and how you are right now.
Begin to expand our focus of this meditation with a series of questions,
Allowing the answers to bubble up from within,
Perhaps in the form of sensation in the body,
Tingling,
Twitching,
The urge to move,
Just notice.
Perhaps the answers will come up in emotion or perhaps the answers will come in stories or thoughts of the mind,
And just notice these two,
Allowing the breath to continue deepening,
Noticing where there's tension in the body and releasing it even more,
And asking the question,
How are you right now in this moment?
How are you right now in this moment?
Turning the senses inward now.
In yoga,
We call this pratyahara pratyahara,
Withdrawal of the senses from the external world into our internal world.
How are you right now in this moment?
Where am I feeling tension in my life?
Where am I still feeling tension in my life?
Do I feel tension in my relationships,
My job,
My family,
My relationship with self?
Where do you still feel tension in your life?
What do I need in this moment to release tension?
What do I need in this moment to release the tension still present in my life?
Breathe in here and release the tension.
Letting the breath deepen even more,
Welcoming whatever comes,
Just noticing,
Calling the mind back if it decides to run away.
And finally,
What do I know in my gut to be true about my life right now?
What do I know in my gut to be true about my life right now?
Perhaps now placing one hand on the heart,
One hand on the belly,
Feeling into these two energetic centers of the body and asking for the final time,
What do I know in my heart,
In my gut to be true about my life as it is right now?
Taking one last final inhale,
Feeling into these spaces of your body,
Feeling into your mind,
And exhale.
If you'd like to,
You can gather your hands at heart center,
Palms facing one another,
Coming into a sense of gratitude for yourself for taking this time to dive deep,
To inquire about how you really are,
And resolving to take these insights and let them feed the rest of your day,
Your week,
Your year.
And remember that by checking in with ourselves,
We can clear away the distractions.
We can clear away what's not true for us and find what is true for us.
And in doing so,
We can act from this place,
From this place of truth and calm.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes and begin to come out of meditation and have a beautiful rest of your day.
