Present Moment Awareness Meditation

Take some time out from your day and enjoy this meditation to bring you back into the present moment.

Transcript

We're going to do a meditation now to help us feel more present and aware in this moment.

Because the present moment is where the joy and the peace are.

It's where our life is happening right now.

So sit up comfortably,

Nice and tall with your hands on your knees or in your lap.

Your feet can be firmly planted on the floor or you can sit cross legged,

Whatever is comfortable for you.

And I invite you to close your eyes and start taking some nice long deep breaths in and out of your nose.

Allow these nice long deep breaths to be cleansing,

Nourishing breaths.

Allowing you to truly connect with your body and your mind.

Signaling to yourself that this is the time to let go of anything no longer serving you.

Any stress,

Any worry and to simply be in this moment.

You can let your breath return to its natural rhythm,

Just moving in and out on its own,

Not really having to think about it much at all.

And I invite you to check in with your body in this moment.

How are you feeling right now?

Do you notice any sensations?

Any pains?

Any tingling?

Anything happening?

If so,

Simply bring your awareness to it for a moment.

Be with it.

And then come back to noticing your breath moving in and out all on its own.

And we'll take a moment now to relax your body from head to toe.

As I mentioned a part of your body,

You can rest your attention there and simply focus on relaxing that part of you.

Beginning with your face.

There's no need for any facial expression at all in meditation.

We allow our face to be totally relaxed.

Pay attention to your forehead and notice if it can unwrinkle or ungrinkle a bit.

Feel your eyes sink deeper into their sockets.

Invite your cheeks to relax.

We don't always think of cheeks as a place that we hold tension,

But it's sometimes amazing what we find there.

Feel them relax.

Notice how your jaw relaxes.

As you exhale,

Feel your shoulders fall away from your ears.

Just allow them to drop on the next exhale.

Your arms hang heavy and your fingertips relax in your lap or on your knees.

Your belly is nice and soft,

Filled with a sense of calm.

Your hips sink into the chair,

The cushion supporting you.

Your right leg relaxes all the way from hip to toe.

And then the left.

We'll do a short visualization exercise,

Which can help us really focus on the present moment.

It's very beautiful.

I invite you to turn your palms facing up.

Let them rest on your knees or in your lap facing up.

And I invite you to imagine a beautiful blue ribbon laying across your palms and heading out as far to the left as it can go into infinity and as far into the right as it can go into infinity in that direction.

Take a moment to really visualize this ribbon in your mind's eye.

Is it thick or thin?

Is it a deep blue or a light blue?

Is it shiny or matte?

Imagine the slight weight of it in your hands.

Now in your mind's eye,

Envision picking up with your right hand a pair of beautiful golden scissors.

You're going to use those scissors to cut the ribbon next to your left hand.

So you'll still be holding ribbon in your left hand,

But whatever is on the left hand side of your body is going to cut away.

Cut that ribbon and imagine that is the past falling away.

And now you're going to take the scissors in your left hand and you're going to cut the ribbon on the right side of your body,

Letting that fall and imagining the future falling away.

And what's left is the ribbon in your palms and what's in between across your lap.

That's all that's left.

That represents the present moment where we are right now.

Not worrying about the past,

Not worrying about the future,

Simply being in this moment.

And we'll continue our commitment to the present moment and present moment awareness by using a very simple but effective and beautiful mantra in our practice today.

This moment.

This moment.

On the inhale,

I invite you to silently repeat this.

And on the exhale,

Silently repeat moment.

Inhale this.

Exhale moment.

This moment.

This moment.

Continue silently using this beautiful mantra.

This on the inhale.

Moment on the exhale.

This on the inhale.

Moment on the exhale.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

If you notice your mind drifting into the past or the future,

Simply be aware of that and then bring yourself back to the mantra.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

This moment.

And you can let the mantra go.

I'm going to ring the bell to close the meditation,

But I invite you to sit with your eyes closed and take a moment to check in with your body again.

Does it feel different than it did in the beginning of the meditation?

Are you noticing the same sensations?

Or does your body feel more at peace and relaxed?

There's no right or wrong.

It's simply something to notice and become aware of.

Take a moment now and set an intention for your day or the rest of your day of how you feel and how you feel right now and how you feel right now.

And calm in your day.

And when you feel ready,

You can slowly open your eyes.

And thank you for meditating with me.

It's an honor to guide you today.

Thank you.

Reviews

Just what I needed

Really relaxing, nice pace and sound -it brought me back into the present moment.

Brief body scan followed by blue ribbon visualization and mantra. 🙏💚💜

Ali, this meditation is worth five stars. Absolutely beautiful. So effective too. Thank you and make more of these !

Loved this!! Simple and beautiful. Amazing way to start the day.

Perfect for this morning 😘

Love this visualization thank you.

Whenever I do a giuded meditation I consider it a successful experience when I can hold on to the present. The mantra was so simple and so helpful. And I especially loved the sound of the closing bell. It sounded like a layered tone. It was beautiful.

REALLY enjoyed this. 🙏

Good! Help me to concentrate in the present moment

Great, easy meditation with terrific background music!🕉

Beautiful....peaceful and relaxing. Thank you 🙏🏻

Very nice and soothing

Perfect! No details needed. Just perfect!

I liked the visualization.

This moment was lovely

Helped to get into “this moment” easily and effectively.

Very nice meditation, thank you!

Nice visualization with cutting of the ribbon to let go.