This is a short meditation for when you have an overactive mind.
Maybe there's a particular thought that's going round and round your head or maybe you notice a general sense of busyness in your mind and a busy mind can seem all stirred up like muddy water.
But when we sit in meditation we can allow this mud to settle and everything becomes a little clearer and we feel less caught up in it as if we're taking a step back from everything going on and all those things that our mind deems to be very important.
So finding your comfortable meditation posture.
Sitting on a chair or cushion or a sofa.
If you're sitting on a chair you can sit tall and dignified with a sense of uplift but not too stiff.
Have your feet resting on the floor,
Your hands on your lap in any way that's comfortable and taking a nice deep breath in all the way down into your belly,
Breathing out and gently close your eyes.
Just scan through your body and relax any areas of tightness or tension.
So for this meditation see what it's like to let go of effort.
We're so used to trying to achieve something,
Making something happen.
You can be curious about what it's like to sit back and notice your experience.
So to allow your mind and body to settle begin by focusing on your breath.
Bring your attention to your breathing at your nose,
Feeling the air moving in and out of your nostrils,
Feeling the cool air coming in and the warm air going out and as you do this allowing thoughts to come and go and if you notice your mind is pulled away by thinking,
Just notice that's happened and gently come back to your breathing.
Whether it's an in-breath or an out-breath and to soften this practice a little bit more rather than intentionally focusing on your breath just feel your breath with your senses almost as if you're being breathed and you're just noticing this happen.
So moving your awareness to the part of your nose where you feel your breath and continue to do this and sooner or later,
Usually sooner,
Our minds wander off into thoughts.
If this has happened that's okay,
It's perfectly normal but when we have a particular worry or a story going around our head maybe from 10 or 20 years ago,
All those thoughts about the future about what might happen today,
The rest of the week or this year,
We can easily get pulled into these thoughts and start feeding them with more stories.
So we actually have a choice here instead of going with the narrative of the story when we notice there's a thought you can simply label it give a label that fits with the overall feel of that thought so maybe judging,
Worrying,
Planning,
Old record playing from 10 years ago or just thinking,
Then leave that thought alone and come back to your breath and this is a real act of kindness towards yourself as our thoughts can take us to all kinds of places but we don't actually need to follow them.
So each time your mind wanders off into thoughts,
Notice that's happened,
Give it a label and then gently but firmly return to your breath and doing this can take the charge out of thoughts soften them a little bit and allow us to settle down with more clarity,
A sense of calm and stability.
So continuing to feel your breath at your nose and each and every time you notice your mind has wandered,
Give that thought a label and return to your breathing and again if your mind has wandered off it's perfectly okay,
Let go of judging yourself in fact you can congratulate yourself for noticing give that thought a label and come back to your breath and your awareness is actually there before that thought appears and you're also aware after that thought has gone it's a very strange thing but you're actually the awareness underneath thinking so we're not actually our thoughts we're aware of them and we can choose which ones we want to invest in and which ones to leave alone,
Those ones that don't serve us and now as we come to the end of this meditation just notice how you are right now,
Noticing any judgments that you should feel calmer right now or your mind should be quieter just notice where you're at.
Meditation takes a bit of practice too and of course we're different every day,
Sometimes you'll find a deep sense of calm during meditation and other times things don't settle down as much and that's just the nature of being a human being so now taking a deep breath in all the way down into your belly,
Breathing out and gently open your eyes as we end this meditation
