Hi and welcome,
It's Mar and I will be guiding you today in this session which is designed for those who are new or newish to the practice of meditation.
Maybe you've dabbled with meditation in the past or you've been curious about beginning a practice.
Either way,
You are so welcome and I'm really glad you've taken the time to offer yourself some nourishment,
A pause amidst the chaos.
A few things before we begin,
I've structured this session to start with a little overview,
Then we'll drop into the practice and I'll let you know when the session has come to a close.
The type of meditation I'm guiding you in today is rooted in mindfulness,
The practice of pausing and noticing what our experience is right now and as best we can not judging it,
Not making it bad or wrong but just bringing a sense of okayness to it like okay that's just what's going on for me right now.
So if what shows up is boredom or frustration or pain,
Either physical or mental,
We don't need to make any of it wrong,
We just make a part of the meditation.
We recognize the humanness and see if instead of turning on ourselves we can bring a little compassion,
Yeah,
A little kindness and what you'll probably notice also is just how much the mind wanders.
Spoiler alert,
It's a lot.
And again there's no judgment,
It's a big ask for a mind that's used to being busy,
Being on all the time,
Thinking,
Planning,
Worrying,
To pause and to focus so it makes sense that it naturally wanders off again and again.
Each time you realize your attention has wandered off,
Simply return it gently but firmly,
Calling it back to focus on your breath or on my voice.
And remember that the very fact that you have caught the mind wandering means that you have become aware and that's a win,
That's a high five moment.
And as ever,
You are the one who is in control of you so if for whatever reason you find that the practice is not right for you in some way,
There's no pressure to continue,
Simply turn it off.
To begin,
I invite you to sit or to lie down and allow the spine to be long and somewhat straight.
Without forcing a posture,
It's important to be comfortable.
If it feels okay for you today,
Closing over the eyes to help draw awareness in.
And if that doesn't feel right,
Simply lowering the gaze,
Looking down past the cheeks,
Again minimizing outside distractions.
Start to get a feel for where you make contact with the surface beneath you.
If you're on a chair,
Noticing the feeling of where your thighs and your bum touch the surface,
Your feet flat on the floor.
If you're lying down,
Feeling the whole surface beneath,
Make contact along the length of your body.
And as best as possible,
Not getting up in the head about this,
Not thinking but dropping down into really feeling this contact.
Physically feeling the sensations of touch now.
How,
Without looking at yourself,
Do you know that you are touching a surface?
So what does that feel like?
How does it feel?
Knowing that there's no aim or goal here,
We're just starting to focus our awareness by drawing it into the body and into the sense of touch.
You're doing great.
Stay with the focus on sensations and now call it onto your breath.
So feeling into the sense of breathing.
Noticing your breath arriving in your body.
Maybe you can feel the cool air in the nose.
Maybe you're aware of the little subtle movement in your chest and then your belly as the breath makes a full cycle through the body and then leaves again.
You don't need to change the breath or to do anything different.
Just continue to feel it.
Feel a new breath arrive.
Follow its journey down into the chest and belly and all the way back out again.
And when the mind drifts off,
Just noticing and returning it to the breath.
No big deal.
No judgment needed.
Now bringing awareness back onto the sense of touch again.
So calling awareness to anywhere that your body meets the surface beneath you.
No thinking required but instead physically feeling into the contact.
Your feet,
Legs,
Back.
Feeling into your hands.
Maybe they're resting on your lap or belly.
Noticing the sense of touch they make on whatever surface they rest.
And now coming back to the breath once more.
Again feeling into the air.
The movement in the chest and belly.
Staying with the full breath as it arrives traveled down and leaves again.
Knowing that our breath is our anchor to presence we can only ever breathe right now.
So if ever in life things feel overwhelming,
If the mind feels too busy remember that the breath is always here and ready to welcome us home.
Beginning to bring awareness to sounds now.
Sounds around you.
Inside the room.
Outside and further afield.
Start to become aware of your environment.
And beginning to make very subtle movements in the body now.
Little stretches,
Neck movements.
Anything that feels good and feels like bringing life and awakeness back into the body.
And in your own time gently blinking the eyes open as we draw the practice to a close.
So take a little moment to look around.
To notice the room that you're in.
To notice how you're feeling in the body,
In the mind.
And thanking yourself for gifting yourself this time,
This space.
Well done.
I look forward to connecting with you again.
Namaste.
