I'm going to share with you a brief meditation on noting.
Come into your seat.
You can be on a chair or sitting cross-legged.
We're going to calm down the body by using the breath.
So feel your seat on the chair or on the ground.
Feel your sit bones.
And as if you could take a breath up through the spine,
Starting at the base,
Breathing up into the lower back,
The mid-back,
The upper back,
All the way to the top of the head,
Pausing.
And then as you release the breath back down,
Your spine relaxing,
Your shoulders and your entire body,
Every single muscle as you release the breath from the base of your spine and into your chair.
Feel your body relaxing into the seat,
Into the ground,
And all the places where your body touches the earth,
Feeling settled.
Bring your attention back to the base of your spine.
If you haven't already,
Choose whether to open your eyes or close your eyes.
We're going to breathe up through the base of the spine again to the top of the head.
And then as you breathe out,
Slowly tilt the chin just slightly so you can get a nice straight spine.
Breathe your shoulders up and back and down,
Again,
Relaxing as you release the breath and the body into the seat,
Feeling yourself relaxing and releasing any tension.
We'll take one more breath like that,
Starting at the base of the spine,
Up through the lower back,
The mid-back,
The upper back,
To the top of the head.
This time noticing if there are any thoughts,
And as you breathe out,
Try and release them just like balloons floating in the sky,
Feeling your breath come down and watching the balloons of thought float away.
Feeling settled in your seat,
Grounded,
Relaxed,
And open.
We're going to start to bring your attention to our breath.
And as we do,
Feel the breath coming in through your nose,
Cool,
And out through your nose.
Feel the warmth.
And to settle the mind a little bit and make this slightly easier,
We're going to do a practice called noting.
All noting is,
Is adding a word to your breath.
So as you breathe in,
You say in,
And as you breathe out,
You say to yourself out.
You can do it this,
In,
Out.
In,
Out.
You on your own,
Gently saying in and out with your own breath.
And if you're bothered by any thoughts coming in,
Because that's what thoughts will do,
Remember just trying to release them.
Your thoughts are like balloons,
If you hold on to them,
They're up there.
Just give them a smile and let them go.
And come back to the breath.
In,
Out.
In,
Out.
And again,
If you have any thoughts,
Just returning,
Remembering that this is a practice,
Your mind makes thoughts,
Just like balloons.
Let them go and float up into the sky.
And come back to the noting of your breath.
In,
Out.
In,
Out.
In,
Out.
Practice on your own.
And again,
If you're noticing any thoughts,
Remember the practice of treating them just like balloons.
Noticing that you're grabbing onto the string and releasing them.
Watching them float up into the sky of your mind.
And returning to your seat,
To your breath,
To the noting.
In and out.
Again,
Noting if there are any thoughts.
Letting them go and watching them float away.
And bringing your mind back to the breath.
Noticing in and out.
In and out.
And waking up.
And returning,
Coming back to now.
Smiling and appreciating your practice for today.
