Welcome to this mindfulness meditation.
Please find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed,
Turning off or silence any distractions
and find a comfortable seated position and softly close down your eyes if it is comfortable.
If you need to move at any point during this meditation,
Please feel free to do so,
Just
be sure to move mindfully.
We will start by relaxing our mind and body by taking three deep breaths.
So on your next inhale,
Take a long,
Slow,
Deep inhale.
Feel your belly expand,
Your chest and shoulders rise.
And as you exhale,
Your chest and shoulders lower,
Your stomach contracts.
Taking another long,
Slow,
Deep inhale,
Stomach expands,
Chest and shoulders rise.
And a complete exhale,
Chest and shoulders lower,
Stomach contracts.
And one more deep inhale as your body expands.
And one more complete,
Full exhale,
Allowing any stress and tension to drift away.
And return back to your natural breath,
Just breathing naturally in and out of your nose.
Taking your attention to the top of your head now,
As you relax the top of your head,
Softening
into your face,
Unclenching your jaw,
Allowing your tongue to rest away from the roof of
your mouth,
Relaxing into your throat and your neck.
Your shoulders become heavy,
Resting away from your ears.
Continuing that relaxation down into your upper arms,
Your forearms,
All the way to
your hands and your fingers,
Relaxing into your chest and upper back,
Your lower back,
Allowing your stomach to become heavy,
To sit naturally.
There's no need to hold any tension in your stomach now,
Just allow it to rest.
Continuing that relaxation down into your hips,
Your upper legs,
Your lower legs,
Your
feet and your toes,
And just return your attention back to your breath now,
As you breathe naturally
in and out of your nose.
You don't need to control the breath at any point here.
Just allow it to be natural,
And just allow your gentle attention to observe the breath
as it enters and leaves your body.
I want you to visualize,
To imagine or feel that you are at a beautiful secluded beach.
There is no one else around.
There's beautiful white sand,
And you can feel your feet on top of this beautiful sand.
The ocean is nice and calm.
It is still,
It's beautiful,
Beautiful blue ocean.
There is a beautiful blue sky.
The temperature is just right for you.
And you begin to walk in the sand,
This soft beautiful white sand beneath your feet,
And
you are walking closer to the ocean.
You can hear the ocean gently washing up against the shore.
It is calm,
It is still.
And you begin to walk into the ocean now.
The water is beautiful and clear,
And it's the perfect temperature for you.
And as you walk into this ocean,
You begin to float.
The ocean effortlessly holds your body and carries you,
As you lie on your back on the
ocean,
Just drifting effortlessly.
As you look up at the sky,
The beautiful clear blue sky,
You are feeling relaxed.
You are feeling calm.
You are feeling held and secure.
And as you are drifting on the ocean,
You are feeling weightless,
You are feeling supported.
If there is anything that comes to mind,
If there are any thoughts,
Any feelings or emotions
that are coming up for you,
That is okay.
You can accept that you are having these thoughts or feelings,
And just observe them.
Just observe them for what they are,
Without going into a story about them,
Without judging
whether you like them or not,
And without trying to avoid them,
Or to create other thoughts
and feelings that aren't there.
Just simply be a witness to what rises,
And whatever thoughts or feelings or emotions
you are having right now,
You can put one label on them,
Whatever label that is,
Whether
it is a thought of sadness or anger,
Or whether it is a feeling or an emotion.
Just simply attach one label to this,
Without going into a story,
Without judging.
And as you lie here,
In the calm,
Beautiful,
Clear water that is supporting your body,
As you look up to the clear blue sky,
You start to see a cloud drifting by in the sky.
And this cloud is your thought,
Or it is your feeling.
Just simply observe it.
You can place your word into this cloud if you wish,
And just watch this cloud as it
drifts through the sky.
And this is just your thought,
Or your feeling that is drifting through you.
It is there,
It is having its life,
But it will pass,
It will pass through you,
Just
like this cloud will pass through the sky.
And as this cloud passes over you,
And goes further into the distance in the sky,
Becoming
smaller and smaller,
So does your thought,
Or so does your feeling,
It is still there.
You don't need to avoid,
You don't need to go into a story,
You don't need to judge.
Simply allow yourself to have this thought,
Or this feeling,
Let it drift through you,
Just as this cloud drifts through the sky.
And as this cloud gets further and further away,
So does your thought,
Or feeling.
It has less power over you,
It has less control,
And it slowly drifts away,
Drifts away from
your mind,
Drifts away from your body.
And as you continue to be held and supported by this beautiful clear ocean,
Floating effortlessly
as you look up to the sky,
If there are any more thoughts or feelings that are arising
for you now,
Just simply let them be,
Let them have their life.
And with each thought and with each feeling,
You can see a cloud passing over you in the
sky,
And you can place each of these thoughts or each of these feelings into each cloud,
And just watch them in the sky.
Just watch them gently float by,
Momentarily having their life,
Just as the thought or
the feeling momentarily has its life in you,
And just allow these to drift away.
Drifting away just as the clouds drift through the sky,
Getting further and further away
out of your vision,
Just as your thoughts and your feelings drift away from you.
And just continue to practice this.
Just be kind to yourself.
If you do go into a story,
Or if you do start to judge,
That is okay.
Don't be hard on yourself.
Just be kind on yourself,
And when you can,
Just turn your attention back to observing
these thoughts and feelings,
And just allowing them to be,
And allowing them to go.
If your attention has drifted off into a story,
Or to an external sound,
That is okay.
Just return your attention back to the meditation.
You can take your attention back to your breath now,
As you breathe in and out of your body
naturally,
Just bringing your attention back to the present moment,
Anchoring yourself
in the here and now.
If you did go into a story about any of your thoughts or feelings,
And if you did judge,
Or if they did have too much power and dominance over you,
That is okay.
That is perfectly fine,
And that is perfectly normal.
This meditation is just a practice,
A practice of mindfulness that we bring to our thoughts
and our feelings.
And like any other practice,
It takes time,
And over time we can slowly detach from allowing
our thoughts and our feelings to control us.
And the more that we are able to observe them,
Observing them from a distance,
The less power
they have over us,
The less control they have over us,
And we can regain control back
in our life.
We will always have thoughts,
We will always have feelings,
But this practice just lets
us observe them,
Without being controlled by them.
Keeping your eyes closed,
You can begin to listen to the sounds that are around you,
Starting to get a sense of your surroundings.
You can begin to stretch out into the space around you,
Starting off by moving your hands
and your feet,
And very slowly,
Starting off gazing down at the floor,
You can begin to
open your eyes,
Taking your time coming back around.
Thank you for meditating with me.
