Good morning.
I hope you had a restful sleep last night.
If not,
Then hopefully this short meditation will help you to settle your mind so that you can rest in the stillness for a bit and allow your mind to calm before your day starts.
So go ahead and find yourself a comfortable place to be seated.
Feel free to support your back if needed.
And although it's helpful to have your back straight,
You can be relaxed and natural,
Allowing your spine to be flexible if needed.
The morning time is when your energy is most at rest and receptive.
A window of opportunity to enjoy before your mind and body gets entangled with all the goings-on in the day.
In the meditation,
I'll give you some guidance and then leave some spaces of silence for you to really deepen into your own experience and notice what is unfolding for you.
So enjoy it.
Let's begin with a few deep and long,
Slow breaths to encourage the parasympathetic system and help you relax.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and breathe a long,
Slow breath out through your mouth,
As if you're breathing out through a fine straw.
The out-breath extending out and noticing your body relax as you breathe out.
You can do that on your own for a bit in your own time,
Taking a deep breath in through the nose and breathing a long,
Slow breath out through the mouth,
Through a fine straw,
Feeling your body relax down each time,
Gradually resting and gradually settling.
And now just breathe naturally and really notice how that breath feels in your body.
Notice the feelings and sensation of your belly,
Ribs and lungs expanding and contracting as you breathe,
Seeing if you can let yourself really be inquisitive of all the feelings and sensations you notice as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
If you get pulled out of center by a distraction,
You don't need to judge yourself or stop it or change it in any way.
Just let the thought do what it needs to do,
Let it move through like a cloud in the sky and gently bring your awareness back to your breath,
Back into your body,
Resting again on the feelings and sensations of your belly,
Lungs and ribs,
Rising and falling as you breathe.
Notice how as you breathe out,
Your body relaxes.
If you want to,
You can extend the out-breath out a little and really let yourself follow that,
Enjoying and taking comfort in how your body and mind relaxes each time you breathe out.
Letting all the muscles in your face and neck and shoulders relax,
Relax down,
Resting in the calm,
Resting in the peace of the moment.
You might find that you can really rest in the space of calm for some time or you might find that you notice it just for a moment before you get pulled out by thoughts about your day ahead or yesterday.
If that's happening,
That's okay,
That's the natural ebb and flow of life.
All you need to do each time you notice it is gently let go of the distraction and gently bring your awareness back to your breath as an anchor.
Feeling it almost draw your awareness back into your center and back into your body.
Then again just noticing the feelings and sensations in your body as you breathe,
Noticing and following the relaxation as you breathe out.
Gradually resting back into the inner calm and quiet.
Each time you notice moments of calm,
Even if they're small,
You could almost feel your whole body release and let go,
Allowing yourself to deepen into that calm.
Resting in the quiet,
Inner spaciousness that's there for you.
So as the meditation comes towards an end,
Take a few moments to notice how you feel,
Both in your body and your mind.
I hope that the meditation was able to bring you a sense of inner calm before the turbulence of the day begins to rumble.
Remember that inner space of calm goes everywhere with you.
So if you need it during the day,
You could take some time to rest,
Breathe and be in your body again.
I wish you a lovely,
Calm and peaceful day ahead.
Thank you.
