Whenever you're ready,
You can flutter your eyelids and perhaps close them if that feels comfortable for you.
Resting your upper eyelid softly on the lower eyelid.
Unless you prefer to keep a sliver of light,
Choosing to keep a little bit of light coming through.
To cultivate a sense of feeling awake and energized and at the same time going inwards.
Now for a moment,
I'd like you to pay attention to your seat.
Notice if you feel a sense of heaviness,
Perhaps the simple pull of gravity.
Explore the sensations in and around your sit bones,
The surface that you're sitting upon,
Your clothes.
Just noticing and taking in the sense of being supported and from that grounded base,
That sense of connection,
Imagine that the crown of your head is being pulled towards the sky,
Elongating your spine and so you're centered,
Grounded and you cultivate that sense of openness and energy.
And let's invite some refreshing breaths in and out before we start.
So exhaling all of your air,
Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale with a long slow sigh out.
Take a second deep,
Deep breath in through the nostrils,
Sip a little bit more air and release.
And take one third big breath in and imagine that this is the biggest,
Deepest breath that you've taken all day.
Sip a little bit more air until you're totally full and release with a big sigh out.
Noticing now how you feel in this moment.
As you probably remember,
I really like to start my sessions by directing a simple inner inquiry,
A mode of checking in,
Acknowledging where we're at.
So I invite you to ask yourself,
How am I feeling right now?
You can direct this inquiry towards the body as well.
You can ask,
How are you feeling at the moment?
And notice what comes up.
Let's play with one third question,
Continuing this line of inquiry with the body.
What do you need in this moment?
And letting this go,
Just putting a pin in it,
You can come back to these answers later on.
Let's choose,
Let's say an intention for today's practice.
So what is your intention for our time together?
What is your intention for meditating?
What is your deep intention for sitting here in this moment?
And once that's clear,
You can let it go and we will start with our practice.
So just becoming aware of the breath.
Start by noticing the inhalation and the exhalation.
And it may be at the belly and maybe in and around the chest area,
Or it could be at the nostrils,
Right at the very tip of your nose.
So these are some of the places that we can connect with the breath.
Let the breath be very natural and easy.
And when I say natural and easy,
Perhaps it doesn't feel easy in this moment.
Perhaps it's shallow,
Maybe it's even a little bit jagged.
So letting the mind noticing what is happening in this moment in the body by supporting the breath,
However you may be experiencing it by allowing it to be completely spontaneous.
Noticing if your mind feels settled or if watching your inhale and your exhale is difficult.
Remembering that the breath is essentially the language of the nervous system.
So with you becoming more intimate with its movement,
Its rhythm,
Its length,
It's like you have a more direct line of communication with that autonomous part of your being.
You have a more direct sense of your experience.
Concentrating wherever you will find the breath to be the clearest,
Or you could say even the sweetest.
Noticing the expansion that happens perhaps in and around the body as you take an inhale and the contraction or the release that follows when the air leaves the body with the exhale.
Toning in your power of focus and concentration,
Leaving your attention rest on the breath.
Following a full inhale from the first moment that the air comes into the body,
All the way through to the end of the exhale and noticing what is different.
Do you get a sense of energy when the air comes into the nostrils,
Through into the lungs,
Oxygenating your entire mind-body system?
What can you feel?
Resting your focused attention wherever the breath is the sweetest,
The clearest,
And practicing mindfulness every time you notice that your mind has gone off.
That's when we recommit.
We recommit,
We come back to the moment and we explore gently but with commitment and focus the present sensations of the breath.
Now after the first few minutes your mind may feel like it's becoming a little bit dull.
Perhaps you're finding a sense of release and relaxation that's verging on sleepiness and that's when we want to take a deeper breath in and let go with a big exhale.
Relaxing ourselves with a deeper breath in and out to come back and recommit.
The practice of mindfulness meditation involves being present and while relaxation may take part in the overall experience,
We seek to sharpen the mind.
This is a concentration workout and you're working out between the dull mind and the energized mind.
So whether you come in tired and sleepy or hyperactive,
Your breath can help you regulate and help you be as energized as you would like to be in this moment.
So noticing what you need right now.
Continuing to focus,
Imagining your attention being like a sensorial flashlight.
Being mindfully aware of the breath isn't the same as narrating what our breath is like or narrating our experience of breathing in and out.
I use the words sensorial flashlight because I'd like you to consider that you can place the energy of your mind's attention and rest it somewhere to truly feel every micro movement of aliveness that may be occurring moment to moment.
Wherever you've chosen to rest this attention,
Perhaps it's at the belly,
Maybe it's around the chest or perhaps it's around the nose,
Nostrils.
Or if you're like me,
Perhaps because you've done a lot of yoga,
You may notice your breath movements in your back body or even feel your whole body breathing right now.
So where can you feel your breath?
And challenge yourself a moment,
How long can you stay with your breath?
Can you stay with your breath and be truly present?
And when you notice that your mind has gone off and perhaps follow the shiny thought,
Can you meet yourself with kindness,
Without judgment,
And just come back to practice?
And if at any point you notice that you're striving to do your best here,
I'm going to invite you as well to see if you can let that sense of striving go and let yourself make it easy,
Let it be easy.
As you take in the sensations with the inhale and stay with them for the exhale,
Can you let this be easy?
In the last few moments of this meditation,
I'm going to invite you to check back in with yourself,
Perhaps check in with your body and ask yourself,
How am I doing right now?
And notice if anything feels different.
Again,
We're not trying to build a story,
But just noticed,
Is something different since that time when you checked in earlier?
And if so,
Make a note of it.
In practicing mindfulness meditation,
What we also do is we get a sense of our baseline.
So by practicing every day or as regularly as possible,
We get to understand where we're at.
And that's also one of the ways in which we then get to know when things are awry,
When we become agitated,
Upset.
We cultivate an intimate felt sense,
A direct line of communication through our breath and body that are sometimes faster to communicate than our conscious mind,
Our cognitive mind.
Checking back in as well with your intention,
Ask yourself,
Could this serve me beyond practice tonight?
Could this serve me beyond this practice into the rest of my day,
My week,
Or the year?
Thank you so much for practice.
Namaste.
