Take a moment to get yourself into a comfortable seated position with your back straight and your feet on the floor or cross-legged.
If your feet are on the floor,
Make sure that they're really fully supported.
So if you're short like me,
You might want to put a pillow under them.
Allow yourself to feel fully supported in your seat,
Fully held in this moment.
Bring your attention to your breath,
Just feeling how it naturally fills up the lungs and then effortlessly moves out of the body.
This happens all day on its own.
Dropping your attention from the mind down into the body,
Like a leaf when dropping off a branch gently cascades down to the ground.
Allow your attention to cascade down into the body with that kind of gentleness.
Allowing yourself to really feel the body.
If it feels any constriction or tension anywhere,
Just invite it to release if it wishes.
You can check in if there's any tension in the face or the jaw.
Allowing that relaxation to cascade downwards into the neck and shoulders like a gentle waterfall.
Allowing your attention to drop all the way down to the lower half of the body,
From below the waist all the way down to your feet and toes.
We never really think about our toes during the day.
Staying in the lower half of our body just keeps us grounded into this moment.
Allow yourself to feel into the back part of your body,
Your back and spine.
We're often just focused on moving forward in life,
So we're leading from our chest at this slight angle forward into the future.
It's just an invitation to open up the back body,
Take note of it and just gently rest back.
There's nothing to do,
Just to be here right now.
In meditation,
We're not here to stop or change our thoughts.
We're only here to observe the thoughts that are dancing across our mind.
You can imagine sitting at the cinema together and just watching those thoughts dance across the screen in front of you with a little bit of distance.
Not holding on to the story or the drama carried by the emotions that our thoughts usually have with them.
Also just with some distance,
Observing the emotion,
Not getting caught up or merged into it.
We're simply here to witness what's happening in each moment with a little bit of distance.
If you ever get lost in the drama or the story of the thoughts or merged with the emotions,
Just gently return to your breath.
Feeling once again how effortlessly it all happens.
If there's any noise or sounds in the space where you're meditating,
You can just allow those to be part of it as well.
Nothing to do,
Nothing to act on.
Meditation is just making this commitment to be still during this time.
Again,
If you ever get lost in a thought or an emotion,
Just gently bring yourself back to your breath.
Nothing's gone wrong.
The mind is simply doing what it does.
Keeping your attention in the lower half of the body just helps you stay grounded in this present moment.
There's no such thing as a good or bad meditation.
It's like when you go to the gym and lift weights.
Just the act of lifting them works those muscles and we're building those inner muscles within us.
Allow your breath to deepen,
Taking a deep breath into the stomach cavity so that it moves a little bit out of the body and then twice as long exhale out through the mouth.
Repeat this breath a couple of times at your own pace.
When we breathe this way into our stomach cavity,
There's nerves down in our stomach that activate the parasympathetic nervous system bringing us calm.
It's available to you anytime,
Anyplace.
Start wiggling your fingers and toes,
Your body gently allowing it to stretch in any way that feels good.
