Welcome!
This is the first of a series of meditations on being present now.
I am Italian and I speak English as a second language.
So if my accent and my lexical and grammatical errors do not interfere with your mindfulness practice then I do really hope that you can find some hints or insights here on the art of being present.
If my accent is interfering too much with your comprehension then I'm sorry but maybe my meditations are not good for you.
We will go from the 15 minutes of this meditation to about 30 minutes of the 10th and last meditation.
So we will progressively add minutes to the meditation that will then go deeper and deeper.
To start bring your attention to your breath.
Find a comfortable position.
It's better if your back is straight,
Upright but without any tension.
So find a way to be relaxed.
Shoulders are relaxed.
And start to follow your breath.
Simply follow your breath the way it is.
If it is necessary you can take a few deep breaths.
Breathing in you take a long deep breath.
And breathing out you take a long deep breath.
This helps to relax and let go of any tension that's in the body and the mind right now.
You can even feel the sound of your breath in the nose and the mouth like resonating inside.
Just pay attention to this sound of your breath while the air is coming in and the air is going out.
And while you are breathing out let go of all the tensions that you are holding on to in your body and your mind.
You can use the out breath to let go,
To let everything go.
See if you are already relaxed,
Calm,
Just keep following your breath.
Keep your mind,
Your attention,
Your wise attention on the movement of the breath in your body.
Relax your chest,
Expanding and contracting.
Feel your abdomen rising and falling.
Feel the movement of the breath inside your body.
The air is coming in and the air is going out and you can feel it maybe at the nose and the nostrils or you may feel it better in the chest or in your belly.
Just keep your mind there in that place where you can feel your breath better,
Either at the nostrils or in the chest or in the abdomen.
We are simply training our mind to stay still.
But the breath is a process,
It's not something that's still.
So we are training our mind to be still on a moving process.
It means that the mind is still,
Moment by moment it is still on something that's moving.
So we follow this movement right now as it is happening in this very moment.
If I need I can take a deep breath according to the need of my body and my mind right now.
I take a deep breath and I feel it.
I keep my mind on this breathing in and breathing out as it is happening right now.
Before any thought,
Before any thinking about the breath,
About the now,
About me,
About the moment,
No thinking.
And if I become aware of a thought,
If I am thinking I just let the thought go away.
Thoughts come and go all the time.
It's the nature of our mind.
There's no wrong or right here.
Thoughts,
Thinking is happening all the time in the mind.
But I can get lost in my thinking or I can see my thoughts rising and then going away.
Thoughts arrive,
Maybe they develop themselves a little bit.
I get caught up into thinking a little bit.
Maybe a memory or judging or fantasy or planning,
Whatever it is,
As soon as I realize I am thinking I can let go.
I can drop the thinking.
It's like I'm holding onto a tooth.
It's like I'm holding it.
I just open my hand and let it go.
And to train the mind to go back to the present moment,
I'm using the breath.
The breath is my anchor so that I can keep my mind here.
Now on what's happening right now in this very moment in my body.
The rising and falling of the abdomen,
The chest moving up and down or the air at the nostrils.
Inhale and exhale.
And while I'm exhaling,
I can also let go.
Let go of the tensions in the jaw,
In the eyebrows,
In the forehead,
In the shoulders,
In the neck.
Let go of all the tensions in the body and the mind.
And then I gently and slowly go back to follow the breath.
The movement of the breath that's like a wave coming and going.
And I'm just following it.
I'm just keeping my mind on this process which is happening inside myself right now.
If it feels like I cannot really follow my breath,
I can move my attention to the body.
I can feel the buttocks pressing against the chair or the cushion where I'm sitting.
I feel the pressure of the buttocks on the cushion,
The contact,
How's the surface?
Is it hard or soft?
I can feel my legs,
My hands,
Maybe they are warm or they are cold,
They are pressing on my legs or they are in my lap.
I can shift my attention from the breath to the body.
As long as I keep my mind here on what's happening right now in my body,
It's good.
It means I'm here.
I'm not lost into ideas,
Judgments,
Thoughts,
But I'm here.
I'm in my body as it is right now.
We're not aiming at anything.
We're not trying to be better or to be different from what we are.
We're just training ourselves to be here,
Present to what we are right now in this very moment.
Before we end,
Now you can gently,
Slowly open your eyes,
But before moving,
We can stay still a little longer just to feel ourselves.
How am I?
Am I restless?
Am I tired?
Do I feel heavy?
Or do I feel light?
I feel calm.
It doesn't really matter how I'm feeling right now.
What matters is my awareness.
What we're trying to train to make stronger is our awareness of ourselves.
We will train that in the next sessions,
So I hope to have you here also in the second and subsequent sessions in order to train more and more this human ability that every human being has.
The ability to be present,
The ability to be at ease with oneself.
