Welcome to this practice to help you arrive into the present moment and meet it just as it is,
Just as you are.
Finding a comfortable place to sit or lay down,
Closing the eyes if that feels comfortable,
Just looking at a point and just starting to tune into your senses.
This is one of the easiest ways to arrive into the present moment.
I'd like to start by tuning into sound.
So wherever you are,
Start listening for all the unique sounds around you,
In the distance,
Hearing with your right ear and your left ear.
This is where we practice non-judgment,
Hearing sounds for what they are,
Sound coming and going and bringing that awareness of sound into the room that you're in.
Hearing any little creaks or cracks,
Whether it's quiet or loud,
Just hearing sound.
Then bringing the awareness to your breath,
Just hearing the sound of your breath as it comes and goes.
No need to change or alter your breath,
Just noticing.
Ideally breathing in and out through your nose.
You might like to say to yourself here,
I give myself permission to relax and no matter the quality of your mind,
Whether it's racing or it's quiet,
Just meet it as it is.
Just noticing with curiosity and openness the thoughts that come and go.
And knowing that it's not possible for the mind to just stop thinking.
Our mind thinks like our heart beats.
But what we can do is just start to notice where our mind goes.
Is it taking us into the future?
Past?
Can you just bring it back to the moment?
To the sound?
To the breath?
Even if you have to do this every second or two,
This is the practice of noticing the mind wander and then just bringing it back with love and kindness,
No judgment.
And eventually with practice you might find that little gaps start to open up where the thoughts slow down.
You have a little moment of peace in between.
So let's just rest here for the next few minutes with your breath as your anchor,
As well as the sounds outside.
And if you need a little bit of extra help to focus,
You can bring a breath count into your practice.
Counting up to ten and as you breathe in and breathe out,
That's one.
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Two.
And see if you can make it to ten.
If you get distracted along the way,
You can just start again.
And with each breath,
Just see what you can soften.
See if you can soften the jaw,
The shoulders.
And with each inhale,
See if you can lengthen through the spine.
Maybe sitting a little taller,
Just feeling the spine lengthen if you're lying down.
If you're doing the breath count,
You can just gently bring that to a close.
And we're going to finish our practice the same way as we started,
Just by tuning into sound.
Sounds in the distance.
No matter how calm and quiet it may be outside,
Or stormy and windy.
Just knowing it's all perfect.
No downpour of rain can last all day.
And strong winds can't blow all night.
Nature always has a way of coming back to centre.
And just like nature,
By slowing down our mind,
Tuning into our breath in the present moment,
We can come back to our centre.
From this place of calm and clarity,
We can re-enter the day,
Renewed,
Refreshed.
Maybe feeling a little lighter than we did before.
When you're ready,
You can just start to wriggle the fingers and the toes.
You might like to stretch the arms overhead.
Gently opening the eyes.
Looking around the room that you're in or out the window.
And remember that this is where the true practice of meditation and mindfulness begins.
It's not really what we do when we're sitting down practising.
It's how we can take that into our everyday life after.
So when you stand up,
See if you can stand up slowly with awareness of your body.
And perhaps as you walk back into your day,
Doing it with a little bit more presence,
A little bit more awareness.
Wishing you a beautiful day.
Thank you for joining me and I hope to see you again soon.
Bye.
