Before you start the meditation,
Make sure that you're seated comfortably or lying down,
Whatever's most comfortable for you.
And really try to make sure that your body is relaxed and soft.
And start by taking three slow,
Deep breaths,
Filling your belly,
Filling your chest to full,
Full capacity.
And then slowly exhaling,
Not rushing the breath,
And making sure that you're exhaling all of the air before taking your next breath.
So you're breathing in very slowly,
Filling your belly,
Filling your chest,
And then breathing out slowly,
Making sure to get all of the air out.
And when you've done three breaths,
Just return your breath to its natural state.
You don't have to do anything special with your breath or work at it in any way.
And then take one hand and place it on your belly,
And just notice your breath moving in this area.
You're just noticing the breath rising up with each in-breath,
And then noticing your belly falling back with each out-breath.
For the next while,
There's nothing to do or to figure out,
Nothing to plan.
You're just sitting or lying here peacefully,
Noticing your breath.
And your mind is going to come in with thoughts.
That is to be expected.
That's just the nature of our minds.
So the aim isn't to not think,
But to just try to notice our thinking and return our attention to our breath,
To the moment.
So if you find yourself going off into thought,
Just gently escort your attention back to your breath,
Back to the sensation of your belly rising and falling.
You're just noticing your breath rising up and falling back.
See if you can really follow your breath coming into your body,
Filling your belly,
Filling your chest,
Maybe even filling your throat,
And then follow its movement out of your body.
And again,
If you notice your mind is drifted off into thought,
Sort of a virtual reality that we can go into most of the time,
Just use your breath as an anchor,
Keeping you here in the moment.
So long as you're following your breath,
It's a guarantee that you're staying here in this moment,
Not in the past,
Not in the future,
But right here.
And now try taking that same hand that's on your belly and moving it up onto your chest,
Into the middle of your chest,
Or wherever is comfortable,
And just notice your breath in that area.
It might have a different quality to it,
Maybe more of a lifting,
A gentle lifting with each in-breath and a falling back with each out-breath.
You might even be able to sense your heart beating somewhere in the background.
You might even be able to sense the breath in your whole body.
You might feel a subtle expansion in your entire body with each breath.
So you could widen your awareness and just notice your whole body breathing with each breath.
Again,
If your mind has gone off into thought,
You can even just label that thinking.
Just use the word thinking for any thought that's happening.
Use the word thinking inside as a cue.
Okay,
Thinking,
And that's your cue to come back to this moment,
To your breath,
Whether you're on an in-breath or on an out-breath.
And now,
Shifting away from the breath,
You can move your hand to your side,
And instead of focusing on your breath,
Bring your attention to sounds,
Sounds around you,
Sounds in your room,
Sounds outside of the room that you're in.
You're just noticing all the sounds around you,
Whether they're very subtle,
Quiet sounds or louder sounds.
You're not thinking too much about the sounds or getting too involved with them.
You're just noticing them come and go,
Increase in volume or decrease in volume.
You might even notice the spaces in between the sounds.
You might even be able to notice the sound of your own breath or the sound of my voice.
It's almost like you're hearing an orchestra and you're noticing all the different instruments,
The ones in the foreground and the ones in the background.
And again,
If your mind drifts off into thought,
Which it will do,
Just gently bring your attention back to the sounds around you,
Without judgment.
That's all I have for this presentation.
And when you hear the sound of the bell,
You can use that as a cue to gently come out of the meditation,
Maybe by wiggling your toes and fingers a little bit.
And just know that you can always come back to this meditation anytime as a way of coming out of your mind,
Out of your thoughts,
And into the moment.
And maybe even take a moment to thank yourself for your meditation practice today.
