Start by getting comfortable,
Finding a position that leaves you feeling awake,
Alert,
And relaxed.
And now feeling what it feels like to be in your chair or laying down,
Whatever you're doing.
Feeling the point of contact on your body,
Feeling the effect of gravity.
And you can start by,
With your eyes closed,
Seeing as you can to turn your eyes toward your forehead,
As though you were trying to look at your forehead with your eyelids still closed.
Now beginning with three deep breaths very slowly,
And a prolonged exhalation,
Just really breathing out very slowly.
Now just feeling what it's like to be here right now.
Where is sensation most apparent in your body?
Or is it focused on the movement of thought?
Is it possible to bring your attention back to your breath where it's most apparent?
That might be the movement of air through your nostrils or your chest rising and falling or your belly going up and down.
And if you can soften your belly so that it does inflate and deflate as you breathe,
That helps you relax more.
Just softening,
Softening the eyes,
Letting all those little muscles let go,
Ever softer,
Letting the eyebrows become very smooth,
Letting the jaw unhinge,
Drop down,
Relaxing your tongue all the way down to its root,
Relaxing your throat open,
Relaxing all the muscles around your neck,
Letting your shoulders release,
Dropping down,
Moving back,
Opening the chest,
And letting your shoulders again release,
Falling away from the neck,
Feeling the arms become heavier,
Allowing the chest to release and stay open,
Letting the back let go and soften from the upper back through the middle to the lower back,
Letting everything unlock,
Untangle,
Loosen,
Soften.
And now moving to the front and making sure the abdomen is nice and soft as well,
Allowing that belly to move as you breathe like a baby.
Babies don't just breathe,
They breathe with their belly moving up and down,
Undefended,
Aiding in their softness and their flexibility.
And we can do that too.
So relaxing now through the buttocks,
Through the pelvis,
Through the thighs,
Letting everything become ever softer and heavier,
Moving through the calves,
Releasing,
Letting go.
Through the feet and maybe as you move through the feet,
You feel for sensation there,
For aliveness from the inside out,
Whatever sensations are present,
Any tingling,
Temperature,
Pressure,
Whatever might be there.
And you might bring your attention to your hands and feel aliveness from the inside out of your hands.
Again,
Whatever is present,
Vibrating,
You might even feel your pulse through the tips of your fingertips,
Deepening attention.
Now bringing your attention to your heart,
The space around your heart.
You might even put a hand on your heart and ask silently to yourself what's most important to you in this moment?
What would you like to experience in this moment?
Not holding yourself outside of that experience,
Allowing at least little tastes of what you want to show up in this here now moment.
That might be peace.
That might be a quieter mind.
That might be physical pain to dissipate or be gone.
Whatever it is,
Without pushing,
Focus on what it is that matters to you and then let it go.
Come into this more still space as though before you sat down or laid down to meditate,
It was like being in water that had mixed up all the sediment and it was hard to see.
And now being where you are quietly,
The sediment is gradually dropping to the bottom and you see more clearly,
Less distracted by all the movement of thought,
Able to see what you couldn't see or sense what you couldn't sense when the mind was very busy.
And if the mind is still busy,
See if you can allow that,
Allowing the mind to be exactly as it is.
If it's a little bit quieter,
If thoughts are moving more slowly,
That's okay.
If thoughts are rapid firing and you're having trouble even hearing what I'm saying,
Being distracted by your mind,
That's also okay.
Absolutely normal.
The more often you notice that you're lost in thought,
The more often you have the opportunity to come back to now.
The reality of now can be felt through the senses.
What is now?
What do you feel physically right now?
What sensations are most apparent?
Can you feel the movement of your breath?
Can you feel the contact points of your body making connection with the chair beneath you or the bed or sofa beneath you or floor beneath you?
What can you hear in this moment?
What is the easiest to hear in this moment?
And what are the most far off distant sounds?
Can you listen for those and hear those?
The mind demands a lot of our attention,
But attention can be placed elsewhere.
Sometimes the mind is like a ping pong match in China,
Very fast,
Very loud,
Gripping,
Nerve-wracking,
Sometimes very scary,
But often it's just imagination,
Most often,
And the reality is felt in this moment.
And when the sediment falls and we see more clearly with less noise of thinking,
We see the moment more for what it is.
We can sense it with our senses.
We can find peace in the mundane in this breath,
In this breath,
In this breath.
