Welcome to this guided mindfulness meditation.
Today we'll be practicing mindfulness meditation,
Counting our exhalations.
This is an excellent,
Excellent mindfulness practice,
Which will create for you an anchor to anchor you in the present moment amidst what's ever arising in your consciousness,
In your world,
To help you create awareness and to help you create the concentration you'll need again to stand your ground in the face of the many distractions and challenges of daily life.
This meditation can be done in any posture,
Whether lying down or sitting,
Sitting on the floor,
Sitting in a chair,
And it can even be done standing or walking.
I highly recommend lying down for this meditation.
It's a great way to begin.
It's a great way to enter a deep meditative state with bodily awareness while releasing stress and accumulated tightness,
Tension,
Anxiety from the body.
So choose a posture and take it now.
Your posture should be as comfortable as possible.
If you're sitting or standing,
Your eyes should be fully closed,
Your head facing forward,
And your posture should be relaxed yet alert and upright.
If you're sitting,
You might imagine a thread attached to the top of your head pulling gently up,
Slightly elongating the spine up.
Your attitude during the meditation should be one of openness,
Receptivity,
Curiosity,
And concentration,
Focused on the current moment,
Focused on your breathing,
And with a kind of curiosity to see in a non-judging way what might arise during this time.
Whatever arises,
It's a learning opportunity.
Whatever arises must have needed to arise,
And so we greet it with a welcome and some curiosity.
Our intention for our practice should be to be fully in the present moment so that whatever transformation is in store for us can happen.
So we'll be out of the way for that process.
So let's take our posture and get started.
This will be a 20-minute meditation,
And we're going to be counting the exhalations from 1 to 5.
As you count your exhalations,
Any time you find that you've lost count or you've gone off into actively thinking about something,
Simply drop your line of thought,
Return to your breath,
Inhaling and exhaling one.
If you never get to five,
That's fine.
The important thing is to keep practicing the awareness of your breathing and of your counting,
Coming back over and over again to your breath.
We're going to practice Dantian breathing for this meditation.
If you're not familiar with it,
I would suggest you listen to my guided meditation on Dantian or Zen breathing.
It's called.
The Dantian is the core,
Energetic core of the body located right below the belly button,
And I want you to be breathing in and out of that Dantian spot during the meditation,
Letting the lower belly rise and fall with each breath cycle.
And your breath should be gentle,
Normal,
Uncontrived,
Not trying to breathe slower than normally or more deeply than normally,
But breathing in your normal manner.
Gentle,
Easy rhythm of your breath.
It will naturally slow down and deepen as you slow down and deepen.
So we're not trying to force any changes.
We're allowing the changes to come through a natural process.
So in your posture now,
And we'll begin with a couple breaths,
Breathing in and on the exhale,
Relaxing,
Arriving fully right here,
Right now.
Just being in your posture.
Just feeling the points of contact of your body with chair or floor.
Just breathing,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Anticipating how good you're going to feel at the end of this time.
And just being,
Just being,
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go,
No one to be except yourself.
But a rare opportunity to just breathe and be yourself.
So we breathe in and let's begin our practice now,
Counting our exhalations,
One through five.
This will be 20 minutes.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And remembering to come back to your practice if your thoughts come in,
If you find you've drifted away,
It's coming back to your practice.
So,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And returning to your breath over and over,
Becoming incredibly intimately aware of every moment in the breath cycle.
Coming in,
Counting one.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
One,
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Three,
Four.
One,
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Four.
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Four.
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Four.
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Four.
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