So taking a moment now to find a comfortable meditation position.
Sitting upright,
But also remaining relaxed,
Not straining.
You can lay down if that feels more accessible for you.
Closing the eyes and starting with a few deep breaths in whatever way feels most comfortable and comforting for you.
First breathing into the nose and letting it out with a sigh through the mouth and taking a few deep breaths just like that on your own and then settling in,
Letting go of influence over the breath.
As you start to connect with your inner child,
Perhaps visualizing and imagining a moment where you as a young person were overcome with joy,
With a big smile on your face,
Having fun in their most playful light state.
So connecting with this image,
Connecting with this feeling,
Allowing the wonder,
The childlike curiosity,
The joy to seep into your body in this present moment and letting go of the visual,
But maintaining a sentiment so you start to arrive into the senses here.
First with sound and opening your ears to the environment of sound around you and really bringing in this childlike curiosity.
This beginner's mind as if you were that child that you connected with,
Seeing things,
Experiencing things,
In this case,
Hearing things for the first time,
Just allowing sounds to come to you one at a time.
Hearing my voice,
Maybe other sounds that come through in the recording,
Noticing the sounds in the room that you're in,
Just welcoming each and every sound as if it's the first time that you're hearing,
Smiling,
Smiling with your ears.
Now shifting into the body,
Getting a sense of the body sitting here,
Laying here,
And again bringing this childlike curiosity.
You start to explore the sensations,
The felt sensations of the body in this moment.
Shifting down to your feet,
Maybe wiggling your toes a little bit to bring some attention and awareness downward.
Scanning your feet,
Getting to know the shape,
The temperature,
And any other sensations that might be present,
Soreness,
Ease,
Or anything else,
Just welcoming it all.
We're going to gently scan up through the body,
Bringing this non-judgmental awareness in the same way that we as young children have no preconceived notions of the world around us.
We have no judgment.
We can see things objectively.
We can see things with full acceptance.
And so bringing that accepting,
Unconditionally accepting energy to the sensations of your feet,
Moving up through the shins and the calves,
Through the knees,
The upper legs,
Hips,
Stomach and low back,
Solar plexus and mid back,
Chest and upper back,
Shoulders,
Upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
The wrists,
Hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips,
Wiggling your fingers a little bringing a little play into your awareness,
Smile across your face,
Moving back up the arms back up to the neck now,
Back of the neck and throat and the front coming up to the back of the head,
Wrapping around to the face,
Softening the jaw,
Feeling the cheeks,
Nose,
The eyes and the forehead,
Moving up to the scalp,
Top of the head,
And then just gently expanding that spotlight of awareness to encompass the whole body sitting here,
Breathing,
Not needing to control anything,
But just observing,
Just noticing and being with and starting to focus more intently on the breath.
Noticing where you feel the sensations of the in and the out breath.
Clearly,
Maybe that's in the expansion and contraction of the diaphragm and the stomach.
If it's helpful,
You can put a hand on your stomach to connect with that motion.
Maybe up by the nostrils,
Noticing the cool air coming in with each breath,
And the slightly warmer air going out with each out breath.
We're just starting to connect with this rhythm,
Maintaining this non judgment,
This childlike curiosity,
Really letting yourself soak into the novelty of each new breath.
Having never breathed in this moment,
This breath until now,
And allowing your attention to anchor into each cycle of breath.
And if you get distracted,
If you get shaken off the breath,
Perhaps pulled by thoughts or an itch or whatever else comes up in that moment,
Instead of getting down on yourself in the same way that as a child,
You may have fallen,
Scraped your knees,
Cried and upset,
And then gotten back up and gotten right back to it without personalizing or judging yourself.
Before there were concepts of good and bad.
Before the voice of self criticism had been developed,
There was ease in recovery,
Resiliency and returning.
And so anytime you get lost from the anchor of the breath in the body,
Instead of judging or beating yourself up for not being a good meditator or not doing it right,
It's bringing that same childlike resiliency and just noticing,
Oh,
Let's come back to the breath and beginning again.
I'm going to let you stay here for a few moments on your own and gently guiding you back as necessary.
This breath,
This moment,
Brand new.
And if you've lost track of the breath in the body,
Just knowing that that is okay,
Not needing to make it into something bigger than it is.
Just coming back,
Coming back home,
The breath to this moment,
To yourself,
To the ease of your inner child.
One breath at a time.
Now,
Wherever you are,
Letting go of the breath,
And just allowing yourself to rest in awareness,
Rest in the present moment.
Allowing your attention to open,
To be wide,
And connecting with this sense that on the other side of this moment is the unknown.
Connecting with in the same way that as a child before we have all these responsibilities and plans and worries.
The day is something to wonder on.
The future is wondrous and exciting and unknown.
And so just letting any picture of the future good or bad that you might have dissolve for a moment.
As you arrive into this present moment,
On the frontier of something wondrous,
Not knowing what it is not needing to know what it is,
But just resting in this sense of awe,
Resting in the sense of wonder and curiosity,
And letting it be completely enough to just be here in this moment.
Not to have it all figured out.
Not to know every little detail about what you're going to do the rest of the day or the rest of your life.
Just resting here.
Now,
Starting to arrive back into space around you.
Noticing sounds again.
Maybe noticing what light spills through closed eyelids.
Feeling your body here.
Breathing in your own time slowly opening your eyes.
And just taking a moment to really appreciate the freshness of vision.
As you look around having slowed down and connected with these qualities of the inner child.
Just noticing the novelty,
The newness of how everything is received by your eyes.
Looking around as if observing for the first time truly observing for the first time,
The objects in your environment,
Taking a moment to allow the qualities that we cultivated in this meditation to simmer the beginner's mind,
Curiosity,
The non judgment,
The resiliency,
And the wonder.
Knowing that while as children,
These qualities were most pure,
They still exist within you,
They are still part of your home in yourself.
And having turned to them,
They are now more available for you in your daily lives.
So as you move forward through your day,
Calling on these qualities to support your awareness,
To support your creativity,
To support your connection,
To support your challenge.
Lots of love.
Have a beautiful night.
