Welcome to a guided meditation designed to ease the mind and calm the body.
Take some time to arrive in this moment,
Giving yourself full permission to set aside everything that you've been doing and thinking about up until now and fully commit to being here.
Begin to deepen your breath and over the next few deep breaths if comfortable you can close down the eyes,
Drawing the attention inwards.
Now guide your awareness to the body and set yourself up to be as comfortable as possible.
You may be cross-legged on the floor with a cushion under the hips or feeling into the support of a chair,
Feet grounded on the floor,
Hip distance apart.
Your spine is long,
Shoulders relaxed,
Chin gently tucked towards your chest.
Your face is soft.
Finding a comfortable resting place for your hands.
We'll now go through a quick check-in.
Ask yourself how the body feels today.
What's going on in the mind?
Is there an underlying emotion that you're feeling that you can find a word for?
How are your energy levels?
Try your best to acknowledge and accept where you are without the need to push anything away or getting caught up in it.
By doing this,
You become the observer,
The witness,
Simply letting things be as they are.
Throughout this meditation,
Feel free to move and fine-tune your position.
There's no need to be rigid or stay in an awkward position.
Allow this time to be easeful and natural.
Take some deep belly breaths,
Breathing deeply into the lower belly and rolling the breath up like a wave to the top of the chest.
Just as slowly and smoothly like a wave,
The breath leaves the body.
Repeat this nice deep breath a few more times.
With every breath in,
Feeling a sense of aliveness and expansion.
With every breath out and emptying and letting go.
Be here with your breath for another few moments.
Today's practice will explore using the mantra,
So Hum,
As a way to settle and focus the mind.
So Hum was offered by the ancient yogis and translates to I am that.
You can use So Hum to invite a sense of presence and awareness into your experience.
Using repetitive sounds gives our busy minds a point of focus and encourages the relaxation response.
Let's start on the next inhale,
Softly whispering so in your head and hum on the exhale.
See if you can fill the whole in breath with the word so and stretch out the word hum so it fills the out breath.
Continue to breathe slowly and consciously,
Pairing each breath with the mantra.
Try your best to put aside whether you find this practice enjoyable or frustrating or anywhere in between and instead refocus one breath at a time using the words so on every inhale and hum on every exhale.
This will help to anchor the mind.
And if you find your mind becoming distracted with other things and you lose connection with the breath and mantra,
Take a moment to pause,
Congratulate yourself for noticing and simply pick up where you left off,
Softly pairing the word so with the inhale and hum with the exhale.
I'll leave you in silence now so you can fully connect and explore this practice.
I'll return in a few minutes to guide you back out.
Take cute breaths.
You you you you you you you you you let go of the mantra now your breath returning to its natural rhythm notice how your body and mind are feeling following some time in meditation absorbing any final sensations of calm and clarity for the next few moments you you you and gently wriggle the fingers and toes bringing some energy and movement back to the body before you open your eyes you may like to move and stretch taking as much time as you need to opening the eyes back up and taking in the scene around you this meditation is now complete you you
