Okay welcome to your practice for today,
Just arriving at your seats or laying down if you prefer.
While you're getting yourself comfortable just take a moment to really feel grateful to yourself for carving out some time for your mindfulness meditation practice for today.
Giving yourself that pause to reflect,
To tune in and just to really be here now.
So just allowing your body to soften without being controlling or rigid about it.
Lengthen your spine as much as possible.
Allow your jaw and your tongue to soften and if you'd like to just allow the eyes to close softly.
Can you invite your awareness to the space that you're in?
Noticing sounds or smells or textures.
So and drawing your awareness a bit closer to feeling into your body.
Noticing the support of the ground.
Invite that inquiry inside your body and notice any areas of tension or clinging that you can unravel and invite space.
You can unravel and invite space.
Bring your awareness towards your breath and without control just watching the body breathe itself.
Notice the soft rise and fall of your belly or your chest as you breathe or wherever you feel the most sensation as you inhale and exhale.
And just inquire within yourself as to how you're feeling right now.
You might not be able to give it a real name or a reason as to why that emotion or thought is here.
Can you just sit with it?
If you can't give it a name can you give it a feeling?
And just allow it to be there without needing to investigate as to why it's there.
So as we sit here some more thoughts or emotions may arise and let them.
But just rest in the knowing that that thought or that emotion is flowing through you but it's not part of you so you do have the ability to detach yourself from it.
Some might find it helpful to give it a name.
Something simple as such like thinking.
Or planning or some other name that you feel is appropriate for the emotion or the thought that's coming up for you moment to moment.
Sometimes we when we do give it that generalized name it's like putting it on a shelf.
It's loosening the strings that tie us to that emotion or label.
Which can feel a little bit lighter.
And sometimes when we're moving through some really complex emotions that like to feel and sometimes when we're moving through some really complex emotions that like to tangle themselves around us.
Layer by layer it offers a little bit of separation.
So we accept that the emotion is there.
We also allow ourselves to be a little bit free from it.
So just sitting here for the next couple of minutes allowing your body to breathe itself and watching that breath come in and out.
And watching your mind drift off into emotion into planning into memory.
Shelving that thought and coming back to your breathing.
So so so You now start to just scan through your body.
If there are still emotions present see if you can find where they sit in your body.
Do they feel heavy or do they feel light?
Just scanning using that kind of detective inquiry into where within your body you feel is holding that thought or that emotion.
And without needing to control it just sit there and watch it.
What does it feel like?
Now for the last minute of our practice today just drop your awareness and hang out with your breathing.
Watching your breath come and go.
Just sitting here with the breath like it's the most important place in the entire world to be.
And whenever you're ready start to feel it into your body again.
If you'd like to make some small movements of the body do that.
Become aware of the room you're in again.
And if during that practice you felt something came up for you or if there was a real strong presence of an emotion or a complex idea there you might find it helpful to start to write it down now.
Just writing your thoughts down can sometimes help wrap your head around it or help release it as well.
If you haven't already just start to open your eyes and I will sit with you again very soon.
