This meditation is based on something my favourite yoga instructor once said.
He said,
One of the by-products of my yoga practice is that I've stopped trying to be happy and instead I focus on being content.
This gave me a bit of a light bulb moment and quite unmindfully,
Instead of focusing on the yoga,
I started to think about all of the emotions that we associate with happiness.
Feeling excited and joyful and glad.
But all these emotions are fleeting.
They come and go.
That's their nature.
We can't feel them 24-7,
That's just not realistic.
And it's part of being human to experience all sorts of other emotions as well.
But what we can feel all of the time,
With practice,
Is a sense of being content.
And that's what we're practicing whenever we meditate.
We're training ourselves to feel content.
So I thought we'd emphasise this in our meditation today.
By practising being content with just following our breath.
To help,
We'll silently say to ourselves,
In,
When we're breathing in,
And out,
When we're breathing out.
That's it.
Just following your breath in and out.
And when your mind wonders,
Because it will,
That's what minds do,
You gently remind yourself you're content with just following your breath.
Going back to labelling your breathing in and breathing out.
I find adding the words in and out like this really helpful when my mind is particularly frantic.
When I'm struggling to be content with just my breath.
Because the labels give you something extra to focus on.
So let's get ready.
Sit nice and comfortably.
Rest your hands wherever they want to rest and close your eyes.
Or keep a nice soft gaze.
Just to close down your visual field.
Let's start by taking three deep breaths.
I like to start this way just to get in touch with my breathing.
Remind myself it's there almost.
So first deep breath in.
Filling your lungs completely.
And letting it go out.
Two more in your own time.
Now let your breath settle back to normal and start following your breath in and out.
Silently saying the words in your head.
In.
Out.
I'll do it too and I'll add some guidance as we go along.
If your mind wanders off that's completely normal.
See if you can let go of whatever it was you were thinking.
And gently bring your focus back to your breathing in and out.
Feeling a sense of being content with just following your breathing.
Nothing else to think about.
Nowhere else to be.
Right now we're practicing being content with just following our breathing in and out.
Each time you realize your mind has wandered you might want to use some extra words to help you feel content with your breathing again.
Because this isn't easy.
We're so used to constantly thinking about the past or the future or searching for joy or satisfaction or something more emotionally.
So each time you notice your mind wandering you could say to yourself I'm content with what I'm doing right now or I'm content with paying attention to my breathing.
Well,
That's it.
If you've wandered off reminding yourself it's okay just to focus on now just your breathing.
You're not scolding yourself it's just a gentle reminder that you can be content with following your breathing.
You We're practicing being content with what's here now and the more we practice this the more it will spill over into our everyday lives.
Feeling content with whatever's going on during the ups and downs,
Content with what you already have or what you're already experiencing.
The same yoga instructor I mentioned shared his favorite quote by the author Wayne Dyer.
It goes,
When you change the way you look at things what you look at changes.
So as we get near to the end of this practice can you take away a sense of looking at things a bit differently through a lens of being content rather than searching for anything more?
Just reflect on that for the last few moments.
Okay let's take three deep breaths now to let go of the practice completely and suck in anything that felt good with your in breath.
I'll do it too so first deep breath in and out,
Second deep breath completely letting go on the out breath and last deep breath in and out.
When you're ready you can open your eyes.
Well done,
Take your time to ease into your next activity today and see if you can look through that lens of being content.
