This guided sitting meditation will help you to learn to stop doing and to simply be.
Taking time to pause and to look within yourself with mindfulness and equanimity.
Give yourself permission to make the transition now from the usual mode of doing to a mode of non-doing just for the next few moments.
Simply be.
Find your way into a comfortable seated position.
Allow your spine to be tall and straight,
Head and neck aligned,
Hands resting in your lap or on your thighs.
Feel the connection with the chair or the earth beneath you.
Relax your jaw,
Release your shoulders,
Close your eyes if that feels good or you can maintain a soft gaze.
See and feel your body arriving into stillness.
As you allow your body to become still,
Bring your attention to the breath.
Become aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves your body.
No need to try to change or manipulate the breath in any way.
As best you can,
Being aware of the breath and observing the sensations and the feelings associated with the breath.
Noticing the journey of the breath as it travels deep into your chest or belly.
Feeling the body as it expands gently as you inhale.
Feeling the body soften as you exhale.
Being totally present in each moment with each breath without anticipation or expectation.
Simply being with your breath and wanders off into thoughts,
Memories of the past,
Memories of the future,
Without judging yourself.
Bring your attention back to the breath,
Riding the waves of your breathing,
Fully conscious of the duration of each breath for a moment,
From moment to moment.
Every time you realise your mind's wandered,
Smile to yourself and gently bring your awareness back to the present.
Back to the moment to moment observing of the flow of the breath.
Using your breath to help you to tune in to a state of relaxed,
Focused awareness and stillness.
As you observe your breath,
You may become aware of the sensations in your body.
As you maintain awareness of your breath,
As best you can,
Expand the field of your awareness so that it includes a sense of your body exactly where it is.
Feeling the body from head to toe and as you do,
Becoming aware of all the sensations in your body.
Being present with whatever feelings and sensations come up in any moment with non-judgmental awareness,
Without reacting to them,
Without attaching to them or resisting them.
Just being fully present,
Fully aware of whatever you're experiencing in this moment.
If your mind wanders,
Gently refocus,
Bring it back to your breathing and your body.
Sitting and being,
Being fully present with yourself moment by moment,
Allowing your field of awareness to expand,
To include thoughts as they move through your mind.
Letting your breath and sense of your body be in the background and allowing the thinking process itself to be the focus of your awareness,
Rather than following individual thoughts and getting involved in the stories and going from one thought to the next.
As best you can,
Simply see each thought as it comes up in your mind as a thought and letting the thoughts just come and go.
Witnessing thoughts,
Observing thoughts without judgment,
Whatever they are,
Just observing them as events in the field of your consciousness.
As they come into your awareness and they come and go.
If you notice that you're following the content,
Then use the breath and the sense of your body to anchor you and stabilize you in the present.
Thoughts can take any form.
Sometimes the content is neutral.
Sometimes it has an emotional charge.
Just let these thoughts come and go.
The same process applies for any worries,
Concerns,
Or preoccupations.
Observing the thought without following it or resisting it.
Noticing that from moment to moment,
New thoughts rise and fall.
Take an easy breath in and an easy breath out.
As we bring this meditation to a close,
Give yourself credit for having spent this time nourishing and nurturing yourself in a deep way by dwelling in this state of non-doing,
In this state of being.
For having purposefully made time for yourself to simply be with who you are.
Notice the connection with the chair or the earth beneath you now.
Bringing some movement back into your body,
Gently blinking your eyes open if you close them.
And as you move back into the world,
Allow the benefits of this practice to expand into every aspect of your life.
Thank you for joining me and I'll see you back here again soon.
