Let's begin by finding a nice comfortable posture,
Whether it's sitting,
Standing,
Lying down.
A posture that allows you to be upright and to be strong and in integrity,
And also at the same time comfortable,
Relaxed and at ease.
Finding a balance between effort and ease,
Stiram and sukham.
And so just taking a moment to find that posture for you,
Where are the knees,
Where are the hips,
Where is the back,
Where is the neck,
Where are the hands.
Not needing to sit in any particular posture,
Just one that's comfortable for you and allows you to really sink in and drop in.
And then we'll begin by just really arriving.
And so closing down the veil of the eyes.
And as you do that,
Just notice the attention start to turn inwards and the softness start to coat the mind.
Just noticing any part of your body that's in contact with either a chair or a cushion or the floor.
Just taking your attention to those parts of the body.
Having a strong sense of place,
Knowing that you're here.
And then just taking your attention to the breath,
Wherever it's easiest to detect in the body.
Maybe the touch of the air,
The nostrils or the upper lip,
The rising of the chest,
The rising and falling of the stomach.
Just noticing where it's easiest to detect.
And then inviting the breath into a soft and supple stomach.
Taking a couple of deep,
Long breaths in through the nostrils,
Down to the stomach,
Back up and back out the nostrils.
And so we're going to use our time together to spend time just meeting our feelings as they are and just accepting ourselves as we are without needing to coat anything and ideology or philosophy or meaning,
Without needing to analyze anything.
And so as we journey towards this place of acceptance,
We'll also be developing the tools and capacity to be able to do this in our daily lives.
Using this sitting in meditation as a training ground to develop the tools of the mind and the attention and awareness so that we can constantly guide ourselves back home,
Guide ourselves back to presence,
Back to wholeness and acceptance.
As we tend to suppress our emotions that are perceivably not pleasurable or desirable because they can be perceived as not being productive or not being allowed in certain environments or simply being wrong.
But our emotional body produces these emotions as signals and signs to show us the way back home to alignment,
Integrity and balance.
And so listening into them and allowing them to teach us and guide us is crucial on this journey.
And so let's spend some time in this sitting journeying back to that place and along the way learning the tools and capacity to be able to do that beyond this sitting.
Just deepening the breath a little more and connecting back to the breath of the navel space just below the belly button.
And just asking yourself in this moment,
How am I feeling now?
Just noticing the first thing that comes to the body and the mind.
Also noticing the natural tendency for the mind to then want to coat those feelings or emotions with some sense of meaning or philosophical or spiritual ideal.
Just noticing that tendency and then for now let's practice those simply meeting our emotions as they are without needing to coat them or dress them up.
And so notice the tendency and then just ask yourself again how am I feeling now?
And as we start to ask this question moment to moment we start to notice and be with the emotions and our emotional body as it changes.
As it goes through waves and morphs from one state to another we can be present with it as we ask ourselves how am I feeling now and as we meet our feelings as they are.
And so in your mind's eye just start to bring to the mind and to the body someone that you love dearly.
Just imagining this person standing in front of you and you're looking into their eyes.
Just noticing the colors of their pupils and allowing their eyes to become more real,
More vivid and more alive.
Maybe a gentle smile to your mouth and a gentle smile to theirs.
What is it that you love so dearly about this person?
What are you most grateful for about this person?
And is bringing to mind and body a strong or maybe most recent memory with this person?
Is filling out as many details as you can,
Where you were,
The smells in the air,
The colors,
The season,
Who else was around,
What you were doing.
And just remembering and taking yourself back to feeling connected with this person you love.
And now asking yourself in your body in this present moment how am I feeling?
And again noticing the tendency for the mind to coat the feeling with thought and meaning and sense and philosophy.
Once you've noticed the tendency just thank it and then come back to meeting the feeling as it is in its fullness in this moment.
And then on your next exhale just let that image and feeling washed to the side and disconnecting back to the breath,
The navel.
And taking a couple of slow mindful deep breaths in through the nostrils down the spine into the stomach,
Back up the spine and back out the nostrils.
And just bringing a gentle smile to the eyes,
To the mouth,
To the shoulders.
One more time asking yourself how am I feeling now?
Meeting the feeling,
Acknowledging the tendency.
And then when you're ready take a deep breath in,
Bring the shoulders up towards the ears,
Exhale out through the mouth,
Letting the shoulders drop back down to where gravity wants to place them.
And slowly blinking open your eyes.
