Find a quiet place in which to take a comfortable seat.
Sit up tall and close your eyes.
Breathe patiently and fully,
Yet gently and quietly,
In and out through the nose.
And give yourself permission to do nothing.
Give yourself permission to embrace this moment of stillness,
In which there is nothing at all that needs to be done,
Other than staying here,
Relatively still,
And watching the breath.
As you watch the breath with an easy,
Relaxed,
And spacious mind,
Place some small amount of attention on what else the mind or the body is feeling.
Notice your own discomfort in simply being present,
In doing nothing.
Notice if the mind would rather run off towards the future,
To a to-do list,
Or notice if the mind would rather busy itself with reviewing the past or thinking.
And each time you notice,
Acknowledge the pull of movement,
Of distraction.
Give your mind permission to rest.
Help the mind settle in.
Be at peace.
Be still.
By guiding towards awareness of body and breath,
Without thinking of breath,
Present with breath.
Without thinking of body,
Present with body.
Feel into breath and body.
As you let the mind rest back,
Allow the mind to feel spacious,
Open,
And at ease.
Allow the mind to drop into joy,
The bliss of no longer needing to do,
The bliss of simply being.
The not doing includes no longer fighting against the movement of the mind or the rising of the thoughts.
Allow this too to simply be.
Chase nothing.
Distractions will arise,
But there's nothing to do.
Just notice,
Acknowledge,
And love.
In this spacious presence with the body and with the breath,
Feel into this conscious moment,
The relative quiet,
The relative stillness.
Recognize its beauty with your whole body,
The freedom in just resting back,
The spaciousness and stillness.
Give yourself permission to stay right here for as long as you'd like.
There is nowhere to go,
Nothing to do,
And nothing more sacred or more worthy than this.
Just watching,
Noticing,
Being present with your body and with your breath.
Give yourself permission to be still.
When you're ready to come out of this practice,
Come out gently,
Allowing yourself to slowly return to doing and appreciate the time that you took to be.
