Mindful meditation.
For this meditation,
You can lie down or sit on a chair or a meditation cushion.
Close your eyes and let your body settle,
Slowing down the breath.
Feel the contact of your body on the floor or the chair,
And the weight of your hand resting on your legs or next to you.
Move your attention to your breath.
Observe the natural movement happening in your body.
Notice how your belly expands as you breathe in and contracts as you breathe out.
Observe your breath as if it was the very first time you realized you were breathing.
Observe everything that is happening,
The mechanics,
What part is moving,
What is your body feeling in your nose,
In your lungs.
Observe your breath with a childlike curiosity.
And as you sit with your breath,
As you notice the rhythm of your breath settling down,
Picture your mind as a big blue sky.
And every time a thought comes to your mind,
Or daydreaming,
Planning,
Or a physical sensation,
Pain,
Discomfort,
Anything that comes and take your awareness away from your breath,
Picture this as the cloud in the sky.
And notice that it's there,
You can't even name it.
Oh,
This is daydreaming,
This is planning,
This is pain in my foot.
Notice it,
Name it,
And let it go.
Watch the cloud drift away with the wind and come back to your breath,
To the movement of your breath in your body.
Your breath is your safe space where you can go back to anytime when you need to be calm,
To recenter,
To refocus.
Just come to your breath and to your body.
Don't try to change the way you breathe,
Just observe what is naturally happening.
Every time you're distracted,
You think about something,
You lose track of your breath,
That's okay,
It happens.
Your brain is a machine made to think,
So it will think,
So when it happens,
Acknowledge that it happens,
Label it,
Name it,
And let it go.
Let the cloud drift away and disappear in the blue sky.
Maybe you're upset by something that happened during the day,
Maybe you're excited or tired,
Maybe your body's in pain,
Maybe your feet are painful and numb.
All of that,
That's fine,
This is normal,
Whatever you're doing right now,
You are doing just fine.
Notice what is happening,
Name it,
And let that cloud go to come back to your breath.
Breathing is such a natural thing,
Something happens,
Even when you're not aware of it.
It's a vital function of your body,
It's such a powerful function of your body,
And yet it's so simple,
So hard to notice sometimes.
But when you come back to your breath,
Try to observe,
How is it?
Is it different to how you were breathing last time?
Is it deep or shallow?
Is it long or short?
Every thought,
Every distraction is just another cloud in your bright blue sky that is here now,
But as you let go of it,
Will drift away.
Now,
Come back to your physical sensation.
Come back to your body,
And the contacts of your feet on the floor,
And the chair you're sitting on.
Come back to the noise around you,
Inside the room,
Outside the room,
Come back to your surrounding,
The sound of your own breath.
Maybe you can feel the contact of your clothes against your skin.
And as you come back to this present moment,
Remember that this space of the breath and letting go of the thoughts is available to you at any time when you did it.
And when you're ready,
At your own time,
You can open your eyes.
