Hello,
My name is Aaron,
And welcome to this short meditation on quieting down the mind and taking yourself back to center.
So before we start with the meditation,
Let's take a moment to set up our posture.
So we want our spine to be able to be straight and self-supported.
Ideally,
We can cross our legs like this.
It helps to sit up on a block or a cushion.
I'm sitting up on a little block here.
When we elevate our hips higher than our knees,
This just keeps the circulation moving in the right direction.
Then we want to have our belly nice and relaxed,
Our shoulder blades are together down the back,
Opening up our chest so we can breathe nice and easily here.
We want our chin to be slightly tucked just to lengthen out our cervical spine.
The jaw is nice and relaxed and the tongue touches the upper palate behind the teeth.
This just creates an energy loop which is said to keep the energy within the body.
Eyes can be softly open or just come to a close.
And then just take a few breaths to arrive into your practice here.
Relaxing the belly and breathing deep down into the belly.
Drawing out the inhales and drawing out the exhales.
And taking a moment to just notice how you're showing up to this practice.
First of all,
Checking in with the physical body.
How is your physical body showing up today?
Are you feeling calm,
Energized?
Or maybe a little bit more restless or sleepy.
Checking in with the mind,
Is it feeling quiet and still?
Or maybe a little bit agitated.
There's no right or wrong answers here.
Just noticing.
And finally checking in with the breath.
Noticing whether your breath is coming in nice and slow and deep.
Or maybe a little bit shorter into the upper part of the chest.
Just observe,
No need to modify anything.
And then we're going to take a moment to draw our attention towards this tiny piece of skin between our upper lip and our nose.
We're going to try to feel our breath in this area.
If you struggle to feel any sensation there,
It can help to maybe lick your finger and just put a little bit of spit underneath the nostrils.
This makes it easier to feel.
If you don't need to do that,
You can just feel the sensations as they are.
Just noticing the cool dry air as it comes in on the inhale.
And the warm moist air as it goes out on the exhale.
Allow yourself just to get very curious about your own breath.
Noticing all the sensations in this tiny little area at the tip of your nose.
Try to bring your mind to this tiny point and rest it there.
We use this point as our anchor.
So if you find your mind starts to drift,
If you start to get caught in thoughts or in feelings,
Then every time you've noticed your mind has drifted,
Just in the same way that you would guide a small child by the hand who's wandered off the path,
You just bring your mind back to the present moment and to these sensations at the tip of your nose.
There's no need to resist whatever comes up.
Everything is okay.
We allow it all.
The important thing is just not to get caught up in it.
So if your mind is busy,
That's completely okay.
Let's see if you can just detach from the thoughts themselves and become the silent witness behind the thoughts.
Just watch the thoughts.
Watch the craziness of the mind.
Without identifying with any of it.
If it helps,
You can allow yourself to imagine your mind like the sky.
And all of these thoughts and feelings are like clouds that pass through the sky.
So the clouds come and the clouds go,
But the underlying quality of the sky can never be affected by the clouds.
And such is your mind.
Your mind is this vast,
Clear,
Bright emptiness.
Just like the sky.
And we know when we use this metaphor,
We can really integrate this.
That we can never be touched or we can never be really affected.
By what goes on with our thoughts.
We know that we are not these thoughts.
These thought-forms are simply passing apparitions in this beautiful,
Clear,
Blue sky that is our mind.
We know that all of these thoughts,
All of these sensations are impermanent.
They arise and then they pass away.
Just like everything else in this big,
Beautiful universe.
That we are so fortunate to call home.
So see if you can just allow your mind to rest as this sky.
The witness of all the clouds,
Of all the thoughts that pass through.
But knowing that those clouds are not us.
See if you can sit back as the observer.
For the next minute or two here in silence.
And feel free to stay here for as long as feels good in this state as a witness,
As the observer.
Or if you would like to start to bring this meditation to a close,
Just start to bring the consciousness,
The awareness back inside the body.
Inhabiting your body.
And locating yourself in the space around you.
Taking your time to gently resurface.
And whenever you're ready,
You can allow the eyes to gently open here and arrive back into the space.
Thank you so much for joining me for this short meditation,
And I hope to see you for another one soon.
