Good morning from the beautiful island of Jamaica,
My home away from home,
The Jamaica Inn.
I love the mindfulness of the Jamaican people.
They're in the moment,
They move through life slowly,
There's no race,
And they're very happy,
Present people.
Often when we are unhappy,
It's because we're not truly here in the moment,
So when I notice difficult emotions or thoughts,
I quickly check in and I ask,
Am I here?
And normally my answer is no,
I'm worrying about a what-if of the future,
And my mind is ruminating in the past,
But it is only in the present moment that we know true peace,
And we can move out of our heads and into the body connected to our breath,
Then we are truly present.
Body is always in the present moment,
Body here,
Breath here,
But the mind is often somewhere else.
So let's practice present moment awareness,
And we can do that by focusing on our breath.
So allowing yourself to sit up tall,
Maybe rolling the shoulders up and back a few times away from the ears,
Allow the eyes to gently close or gaze down,
And let's start with three cleansing breaths.
You may hear birds and the ocean sounds.
Use the sounds throughout this practice to help you stay here in Jamaica with me.
Let the bird sounds remind you,
Almost like a bell,
To come back.
So let's begin inhaling through the nose,
Exhaling,
Signing it out,
Letting everything go.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
Deep breath in.
And now just bring all of your awareness to the breath.
Breath awareness.
See if you can almost attach the mind to the breath.
Just begin to follow it.
Following it all the way in,
All the way out.
That's your only job right now.
Just breathe and feel the breath.
Hear the sounds of the ocean and the birds,
Nature.
Unclench the teeth.
With each breath,
Try to just feel the breath.
How does it feel to breathe in this moment?
What moves in the body when you breathe?
That's all we're doing.
We're feeling our breath.
We're noticing our breath.
We're noticing thoughts pop up,
Memories,
Emotions.
We're going to have awareness of them.
We're going to notice and just gently let them go.
It's just what the brain does.
We don't have to go down the rabbit hole of each thought.
The brain will try to pull you back in.
Your job is to let the breath win,
To stay with the breath and not the brain.
Human,
Truly connected,
Truly here in this moment.
Now let's notice the body.
Feel your seat on the floor or chair.
Notice if the spine is still tall.
Feel the rise and fall of each breath.
Inhaling lungs,
Ribs,
Belly expand,
Fill up.
Exhaling,
Everything in the body relaxes.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Have you ever noticed how good it feels just to breathe?
How lucky we are just to breathe.
So maybe let's bring in gratitude this morning.
Right now I'm having gratitude for this beautiful island.
I feel so at home and at peace.
This island is so healing,
So grateful I get to come.
I'm grateful for the Sun literally rising before my eyes.
It's emerging over the ocean.
I'm sitting over the water.
When I'm here,
In this moment,
With all of my senses,
My body,
My breath is here,
My mind is here too,
My heart is here.
I'm fully connected,
Fully present.
It's through the practice of awareness.
That's really all mindfulness is,
Is awareness.
Awareness of this life,
This beauty,
Of this world.
How lucky we are to be here together in this moment.
So let's take three more deep breaths.
Breathing deeply in through the nose.
And maybe you begin to bring small movements into the body.
Maybe just wiggling the fingers,
Beginning to open the eyes.
Maybe subtle twists and stretches,
Just waking the body up.
I'll leave you with this quote from a very amazing Jamaican.
You may have heard of him,
Bob Marley.
He said,
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our mind.
How true is that?
Only we can do this work for ourselves.
Sending you so much love from Jamaica.
Thanks for listening.
Have an amazing day.
Thanks for practicing with me this morning.
