Welcome to this breathing and relaxation meditation by Right Brain Liaisons.
The following meditation can help to calm and relax your mind,
To come into the present moment and feel centered within yourself.
Find a comfortable position,
Sitting in a chair,
Lying down or perhaps even standing up.
Allow your back to be relatively straight,
Yet also relaxed.
Let your arms and legs rest easy,
And if you like,
Gently closing your eyes or keeping them open with a soft gaze if you prefer.
And take a moment to really feel how your body is resting on the surfaces below you.
Notice your body being held,
Supported by the chair,
The floor and even the earth beneath,
Holding you up.
Feel how gravity gently holds your body here,
And really allow your body to sink down and relax into the surfaces below you.
And begin to notice the different sounds that you can hear,
Both the near and the far sounds.
Notice how they appear,
They stay for a while and change,
And then they disappear.
And notice how you are aware of the exact moment sounds come and go,
But you have no control over their coming or going.
Instead,
See if you can relax back and simply observe how sounds come and go.
And as you pay attention to the different sounds that you hear in a very casual way,
Whenever you notice your mind wandering,
You might just give it a mental label,
Something like,
Ah,
Thinking,
Thinking,
Or planning,
Planning,
Memory,
Memory.
And whenever you're ready,
Gently bring your attention back to being fully aware of the different sounds that you hear.
And as you continue listening to sounds,
Begin to also feel the natural flow of your breath.
And notice how your body is breathing without you needing to think about it or control it in any way.
Splitting your attention effortlessly on listening and sensing your breathing.
And letting the sounds move into the background of your attention now,
And gently bringing your whole focus to the feeling of breathing.
Noticing how it feels to breathe air in and out of your body.
As you breathe in,
You might feel your belly,
Your chest,
Like a balloon,
Gently inflating,
Opening and expanding.
And as you breathe out,
Noticing the natural feeling of releasing,
Deflating,
Letting go and softening.
And letting this easy,
Casual breath awareness bring attention to your inner body and how that is feeling at the moment.
And you might allow a sense of sinking down to begin to flow through your muscles,
Letting a relaxation,
A natural sinking down in the muscles in your forehead.
Letting go of tension or tightness here.
Feeling a sinking down through the muscles around your eyes,
Your ears and your jaw.
And allowing or tuning into a sense of sinking down through the muscles in your neck and your shoulders.
Allowing the support below you to completely support your weight as it sinks down with relaxation.
Sensing a relaxing,
A releasing,
A letting go in the muscles in your chest and your belly.
Sinking down,
Relaxation spreading through your back.
Perhaps feeling a heaviness,
A sinking down,
A relaxation flowing through the muscles in your legs.
Perhaps even sensing a letting go of anything that is no longer serving you,
Releasing it,
Letting it go down into the earth.
And gently bringing your attention back to the feeling of breathing whenever you're ready.
And beginning to notice the natural pause or letting there be just a little gap where your breath turns around.
Noticing that little space at the end of your in-breath where your breath turns around and becomes your out-breath.
And beginning to notice that little gap,
That space at the end of your out-breath where your breath turns around and becomes your next in-breath.
And letting this be really effortless,
No need to force or control your breath in any way.
Just keep bringing this gentle attention to that little gap between the end of one breath and the beginning of the next.
Gently accentuating that little pause,
That little gap between breaths.
Finding a rhythm that feels comfortable and natural for you.
Bringing conscious awareness to these little gaps between breaths.
And noticing in these moments of pause,
These spaces between breaths,
Little moments of stillness there.
It's like the gentle waves lapping up onto the beach.
There's a little lull,
A little moment of stillness in the water before the wave then moves back out to the ocean.
And again a short pause before the next wave gently flows up onto the beach.
A short pause before the wave turns around and flows back out to the ocean.
So you might see if you can let your breath reflect this very gentle and natural movement of the tide.
This natural rhythm and the short pauses between the inflow and the outflow,
And between the outflow and the inflow.
And just focusing a little more on these pauses,
These tiny gaps,
These moments of stillness between inflow and outflow.
And notice that in these moments of stillness in your breath,
There is a moment of stillness in your mind as well.
These moments of stillness where your mind is free of thought.
Still,
Silent,
Spacious,
Open,
Calm,
Clear.
See if you can dive your focus into these moments of stillness and spaciousness in the little gap between breaths.
And notice the stillness and spaciousness in your mind.
This stillness of mind is a moment of touching pure awareness.
Your presence,
Your calm,
Clear center,
Naturally free of thought,
Free of movement,
Feeling or sensation.
A glimpse,
A moment of pure peace.
And this peace is not a moment that comes and goes,
But is the ever-present background upon which the changing present moment of movement and sound and feeling,
Thought,
Come and go.
And whenever you find your mind wanders away,
As it always does,
Try not to fight with your mind.
Try not to criticize or judge yourself.
Simply acknowledge that your mind has wandered.
Perhaps naming where it is that it wandered off to.
Ah,
Thinking,
Thinking.
Judging,
Judging.
Or whatever seems appropriate.
The moment you realize you are not present,
You are present once again.
And with that presence,
You can choose to redirect your attention back to that little gap between breaths and to the stillness and space in your mind.
The more you recognize this inner,
Spacious stillness,
The presence of awareness,
The awareness of your being,
The more this calm clarity infuses out into your day.
So see if you can take this inner stillness with you out into the rest of your day,
Staying connected to it as you go about your daily tasks and activities.
Feel again how your body is resting on the chair or the cushions or the floor beneath you.
Notice again the different sounds that you can hear,
Sounds near you and those further away.
And bringing to mind a mental picture of where you are,
The space and the objects around you.
And really taking your time to gradually return,
To reawaken and to come back to full alertness.
Perhaps taking a moment to process your meditation,
Noticing how you are feeling now,
Having contacted that inner stillness that always resides beneath the surface of your experience.
Bringing some gentle movement back into your body,
Opening your eyes if they're closed,
And giving yourself a few moments to fully reawaken before continuing on with your day.
