Hello,
My friend.
We are going to do a little meditation with an emphasis on practice.
How we do one thing is how we do just about everything.
And when we are meditating,
The simple act of paying attention can really illustrate the ways in which we approach everything in our life.
And one of the things that we can typically get hooked on in a meditation practice is fixating on the outcome,
Wanting desperately the peace and the calm that were promised out of meditation to come immediately.
And we can bring our orientation to outcomes and the destination into what is meant to be a practice.
And so as we practice here,
I'm going to guide you back to the present moment and an attitude of really appreciating the process,
This breath,
This moment,
And the joy of practice over the fixation on what we're trying to get out of it.
So I invite you to find a comfortable meditation position,
Close your eyes,
And start with a few deep breaths,
Breathing into the nose and letting it out through the mouth,
Relaxing the shoulders,
Breathing into the nose,
Letting it out through the mouth,
Relaxing the jaw.
One more big deep breath just like that into the nose,
Relaxing the belly,
Letting go of the breath,
And starting to arrive into a really receptive awareness,
Spend so much of our daily lives doing,
Trying,
Controlling,
Seeing if you can release that inclination for this practice as you just open to what's here,
Arriving into the sensory experience of the body sitting here,
Laying here,
Standing here,
Getting a sense of what it feels like to be in a body,
Getting curious,
And dropping the judgment as much as possible,
Just noticing the sensations objectively without needing to add a story or judge them as good or bad,
Noticing what it feels like to be here in a body,
Noticing the shape of the body,
Noticing the temperature of the body,
And bringing a really light and playful attitude to what you're exploring and experiencing here.
There's no right or wrong way to do this,
Getting to know the sensation of gravity,
Feeling yourself planted in your seat,
Feeling the contact between your feet and your legs and your bottom and your back and whatever's beneath you,
A chair or the ground,
Noticing the boundaries between your body and the world around you,
And feeling how gravity holds you gently yet firmly in place,
And starting to relax into this feeling of being here,
Arriving into this present moment through the body,
And now starting to notice your breath,
Again bringing in curiosity,
What's happening here,
What does it feel like to breathe?
If it's helpful,
You can put a hand on your stomach just to connect more intimately with the movement of the belly and diaphragm,
Just starting to notice the waves of breath,
The movement on the inhale,
And the movement on the exhale,
And there's nowhere to go here.
There's nowhere to be,
There's nothing to do.
You're just receiving the movement of the breath,
Noticing what it feels like to inhale,
Noticing what it feels like to exhale.
In contrast to those first deep breaths that we took,
We're not trying to breathe,
We're letting the body breathe on its own and just observing.
If it's helpful,
You can add a little note.
As you breathe in,
You can whisper inwardly to yourself,
Breathing in,
And as you breathe out,
You can whisper breathing out.
Just staying with each half breath,
Each full cycle of breath,
One at a time,
This breath,
This moment,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And when you notice that you've gotten distracted,
Which we do,
And you will,
And you probably have,
This is the moment where we're really going to respect the practice.
It's so easy in those moments where we realize that we've lost track of the breath to beat ourselves up,
To expect perfection,
To want to be quiet of mind already for our thoughts to go away.
And in this moment,
We can look at it as a failure,
We can look at it in ourselves critically,
Or we can look at it as a part of the practice,
As an opportunity upon realizing that we've lost track of the breath that we were following.
Herein lies the progress.
Just noticing is the practice at work.
And so when you notice that you've lost track and you've gotten caught up in a thought or an itch or a sound or whatever,
Just really gently,
Playfully,
Perhaps saying to yourself,
Oh,
I've lost track.
And coming back to this breath,
And this moment,
And just beginning again.
The same way in which perhaps practicing shooting free throws,
You miss,
And you miss,
And you miss,
And then you make one,
And then you make two,
And then you miss again.
It's okay,
We're just taking it one shot at a time,
One breath at a time.
And just resetting each time we miss.
Coming back to this breath,
Feeling the sensations in the belly and the diaphragm.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And as soon as you notice that you've drifted off with this attitude towards accepting the ups and downs of practice,
Just gently coming back to the breath,
Accepting that you've drifted off and starting again.
Not needing to be perfect,
But just doing your best and letting that be enough.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
This breath,
This moment.
Checking in and noticing where your attention is,
Coming back to the breath if you've missed a shot,
So to speak,
And just being okay with that.
Being okay even if there are thoughts rummaging around and the mind is busy or the body is agitated.
Gonna let that be the case and still choose to focus our attention with each in-breath,
With each out-breath,
To the best of our ability.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Checking in one more time,
Noticing if you've drifted off and just starting again with this next breath.
And now opening your attention up to include still the breath,
But also the body again.
Feeling the body here.
Feeling the shape and gravity,
Temperature,
Whatever sensations are most clear to you.
And as you're ready,
You can open your eyes,
Start to come back into the world around you.
Seeing if you can maintain even just a 10,
20% attention on the breath and body as you start to integrate the sensations of sight and environment,
The world around you.
And embedded in your relationship to breath as we just practice is,
Yeah,
This orientation towards life as practice,
Towards life as a journey to be present with rather than a destination to obsess over.
And seeing if you can carry this attitude into your daily life and start to notice the ways in which you may expect perfection out of yourself,
Expect each moment to be a certain way,
To crave to be somewhere else,
Or to reach a certain outcome.
And seeing if you can settle yourself into the present moment,
Into a recognition of the process and an appreciation for the journey of practicing,
Whatever it is you may be applying yourself to,
Just finding a joy in the trials and tribulations of living,
Breathing,
Doing,
Creating,
Knowing and trusting that you're enough just as you are,
That you are a simultaneously a masterpiece and a work in progress.
Let that be enough and have fun with it.
Lots of love.
Have a beautiful now and a beautiful day.
