Welcome,
Mindful writers,
Let's come into a seated position where we can be upright and alert but still relaxed,
Closing your eyes if it's comfortable for you,
If not just casting the gaze downward to minimize distraction and taking a moment to come into the body,
Noticing the feet on the floor,
Bottom on the cushion,
Maybe taking a moment to appreciate gravity holding us gently where we are,
Notice where the hands have landed,
Adjusting the posture a little if you need to,
To balance the head on top of the spine,
Dropping the shoulders down and away from the ears,
Relaxing the belly and let's begin with a few intentionally deeper breaths,
Taking a nice deep inhale and letting it go in your own time,
At your own pace,
Letting the exaggerated sensations of breathing bring your attention a little more deeply inward,
Really paying attention to this present moment,
The expansion and contraction of the ribcage,
The movement of air through the nose or over the lips,
Seeing if you can notice that moment where the inhale turns over and becomes exhale,
And then once you've taken those few deeper breaths,
Letting go of any control around the breathing and letting it find its natural rhythm,
Seeing if you can maintain that awareness that you cultivated when the breath was deeper,
Can you still stay focused on the sensations of breathing,
And then widening that awareness that we've cultivated to take in the body as a whole,
Noticing what other signals are coming to you from different parts of the body,
Doing our best to not engage with criticism or,
I don't know,
Expectations of what should be right now,
Instead just noticing,
And there's no wrong answer if you're feeling well-rested and healthy,
That's lovely,
Enjoy that,
But that's just one way of being,
One of many ways of being,
So odds are it might not be what you're feeling right now,
Maybe you're sleepy or cranky or anxious or excited,
The question we explore here is how are you and how do you know,
The how do you know part is most interesting to me,
What signals is your brain getting that tell you how you are,
And then just seeing if you can be with it,
Whatever the answer is,
And if for whatever reason you can't,
Then by all means open your eyes,
Move around,
But if you can,
Pay attention,
See if how you are shifts when you bring your attention to it,
And then I always like to take a moment for gratitude after checking in with the body,
Sending a little bit of thanks inward for all that the body does for us,
Even when things aren't perfect,
And you know how often are things perfect,
We can still be grateful that we're well enough to take this time for ourselves and our writing,
Just the act of sitting here and taking a few deep breaths,
It's kind of miraculous when you think about all the things that have to work for you to do that,
And then noticing if gratitude shifts your experience of the present moment at all,
It might not,
But if it does notice how it shifts,
Do you feel an opening,
Do you feel a lightning,
Do you experience gratitude as a more intellectual process,
Or as a felt sensation in your body,
And then we'll let go of the gratitude practice as well,
And let our attention shift to an anchor,
And we'll rest here for the duration of the meditation,
Focusing on either the breath,
Or a different physical sensation in the body,
Or the sounds in the room,
Whatever feels most comfortable to you today,
Right now,
Letting all other thoughts drift on by,
And also knowing that sooner or later our minds will wander,
That's perfectly normal,
It's what minds do,
Our goal here is to notice when they wander,
Then let those thoughts go,
Come back to the anchor,
Begin again,
Take a moment to check in,
Just notice if your mind has wandered,
If it has,
Come back to the anchor,
Refocus,
Begin again,
And in our last few moments here,
If you'd like to go ahead and bring to mind whatever it is you're writing today,
Just letting it float up into consciousness,
Preparing to transition from our more formal meditation into some focused writing time,
And as I ring the bell three times,
I invite you if you'd like to take one more deep breath before you open your eyes and get to work.
Happy writing my friends,
Until next time.
