Hi and welcome to your practice.
I'm pleased you're here.
In this gentle practice today,
We're going to use a technique called noting to help you to create some space and freedom in your mind and in your body.
Listen comfortably for this,
Whether that's sitting on the floor or maybe you choose to sit in a chair.
Notice your posture,
Making sure your spine is tall and straight.
Resting your hands gently in your lap or on your thighs and then settling in with a few rounds of deeper breath.
Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
Notice the body softening as you exhale,
Allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm,
Its natural flow.
And as best you can,
Feel the weight of your body connecting with the surface beneath you.
Enjoying this moment of pausing.
Notice how the body feels in this moment.
Scanning down from the top of your head,
All the way down to your toes,
Checking in with how you feel.
And as you scan through the body,
Notice areas of tension and areas of ease.
Notice the areas of your body where you feel comfortable and the areas of your body where you feel uncomfortable.
And if you find you've become distracted,
Just raise the corners of your mouth and half smile and then come back to scanning through the body.
And noticing the general mood that's present,
How you feel in your mind.
Without making a judgement,
Just noticing and becoming aware of how things are in the moment.
Noting and acknowledging.
Then becoming clear about why you are doing this practice today.
Setting your intention for your practice.
And maybe it's for yourself,
Or maybe it's for those around you.
Gently moving your awareness now and tuning into your breath.
Noticing the inhalation breath,
Noticing the exhalation breath.
No need to change or manipulate the breath in any way.
Knowing the natural flow of the breath in this moment.
And when you realise you're lost in thought,
Gently bring your awareness back to the breath.
Moving in to the sound of the breath.
Feel the breath at the nostrils as you breathe in and breathe out.
Then noting any distractions.
Maybe a thought arises,
Just notice a thought and then return to the breath.
Or maybe a sensation or an emotion comes into your consciousness.
Just notice feeling and then gently draw your awareness back to your breath.
Simply noting and acknowledging thoughts and feelings as they arise.
And keep coming back to the breath.
Aware of the body breathing.
And training the mind to pause rather than running off down a path of thinking.
Noticing what arises and gently refocusing on the breath.
Letting go of any focus now.
And let your mind think,
Let it wander,
Let it question,
Whatever it needs to do.
Bring your awareness back to your body.
Feel the weight of your body connecting with the surface beneath you.
Gently blinking your eyes open if you close them.
Pause for a moment and notice how you feel after your practice.
Maybe feeling a little bit more spacious now in your body.
And feeling a sense of freedom in your mind.
Thank you for joining me and I'll see you back here again soon.
