Find your comfortable sitting posture,
With a straight back but not stiff,
And take a deep breath in,
Breathing out and gently close your eyes,
Allowing your shoulders to loosen in,
Relaxing your face,
Your hands,
Your arms and your legs,
Allowing your feet to rest on the floor,
And you can rock from side to side a little to find your centre,
We can sometimes feel a little wobbly in life,
Particularly when we have challenging emotions,
And just the act of sitting,
Finding your centre can help you feel more grounded,
Stepping out of the busyness of life and back to the simplicity and stillness of this moment.
So really allow yourself to arrive here and now,
And to allow your mind to settle a little,
Focusing your attention on your breathing,
And you can choose if you want to focus at your nostrils,
Feeling the air entering and leaving,
Or down at your belly,
I'll leave it up to you,
And I mentioned that sometimes when our mind is particularly busy,
Shifting our awareness physically down to our centre,
To our belly rising and falling can help us move out of that busy mind,
So gently resting your attention on your breathing for a few moments,
And if your mind's gone for a wonder,
That's perfectly ok,
You know now that that's what our minds do,
And letting go of judging yourself,
Having done a few days of this course maybe there's an expectation that you should be doing this better now,
You should be more focused on your breath,
So letting that go,
Beginning again,
Using your beginners mind to start again in this moment,
And you can now allow your breathing to move into the background of your awareness,
And we're going to check in now with your emotions,
What's your emotional tone right now,
Are you sensing sadness,
Happiness,
Contentment,
Maybe some anger or frustration,
Maybe there's a calm,
Peaceful feeling,
Or you're sensing a worry,
Some pushing or pulling,
Or something else,
Or you might not notice any emotion at all,
And that's ok,
So letting go of trying to find something,
But rather just being aware of what's here now,
And noticing,
We're not searching for anything,
And also bearing in mind,
We have very limited words to describe emotions in the English language,
So maybe a word doesn't fit with how you feel,
So sitting in presence,
And if your attention is drawn to a particular feeling,
Allow yourself to move towards this feeling,
With a kindly curiosity,
Shining a light on that emotion,
As it could be a little hidden at first sight,
And noticing the intensity of that emotion,
Is it very strong right now,
Maybe it seems too much,
So as best you can,
Sitting and breathing with it,
Breathing with how you feel,
That felt sense,
Whatever it is,
Sadness,
A sense of happiness or peace,
Or that underlying fear,
A static just underneath the surface,
Where we don't quite feel we've arrived yet,
It can be a very gentle stream of the unknown,
Of not quite being able to let go and settle into this moment,
As if there's something you need to do first,
Or something is missing,
See if you can notice that too,
And this is your experience,
So feel free to also tune out my voice,
And be alongside whatever's here right now,
And now allowing that emotion to be there,
Without judging yourself,
Taking a nice deep breath in,
Breathing out,
And opening your eyes as we end this meditation.
