Welcome to today's guided meditation,
Where we'll work with visualization to detach from thoughts and learn to shift naturally through these thoughts as they rise and fall throughout our consciousness.
Start today's practice in a seated position,
Learning for yourself a comfortable seated pose,
Where you allow each vertebrae on your spine to stack naturally on top of each other like stones by a river.
Allow your shoulders to be down and away from your ears,
Maintaining a nice open chest so your breath has a channel to naturally come and naturally go.
Take a moment to settle in before our meditation begins,
Softening your breath,
Relieving any tension,
Parking any thoughts or focus just for a moment,
Just allowing yourself 3-5 minutes to pause the duties from today.
Thoughts are a part of every human's experience,
You don't need to push them away in order to practice,
But just allow yourself a moment to pause these thoughts as you listen to where your mind naturally comes and goes.
Learning to bring your mind back from its thoughts into this presence takes practice and time.
How do you let go of thoughts once they've pulled you in?
This exercise offers you one way to unhook yourself from these thoughts and simply let them be,
Without punishing the thoughts away or denying their presence.
Become aware of our thinking mind while remaining unattached.
As you've settled into this seated position,
Eyes closed,
Notice the energy in your body and mind as it is in this moment.
As you come into this practice in this period of mindfulness,
You may notice the energy of your day resting heavy,
Settling onto your body and your mind.
Your mind may be active,
Your body may feel worked up,
Or you may even notice a bit of lingering anxiety.
Think of yourself as a shaken snow globe,
With all the energy swirling around.
Yet as you take the time to rest,
The little snowflakes begin to fall gently towards the ground.
Think of yourself as a snow globe,
And every snowflake as a thought.
This way,
Watch as each and every snowflake falls to the ground,
As you allow your body to rest in stillness.
Do not force yourself to calm down,
Just allow it to happen naturally,
Slowly,
And organically noticing these thoughts simmer down.
For a minute or so,
Bring your attention back to the breath in your body.
Choose one spot where it is easy to feel your breath,
Maybe the center of your chest,
Your abdomen,
Your shoulders,
Or that sensation of air as it comes and goes from your nose.
Take a moment to observe the physical sensation of your body breathing,
Observing the breath for a moment,
Bringing your mind back each time that it wanders.
Staying with this snow globe visualization,
As the thoughts begin to rise,
Observe as they slowly settle back down.
After a couple of minutes,
Focusing on your breath,
Open your awareness to include your thoughts in your gentle mental state.
Instead of returning to the breath when the mind wanders,
Allow yourself to notice what the mind is doing.
Allow yourself to witness these individual snowflakes as they work their way towards the ground.
You may notice yourself planning,
Fantasizing or figuring out,
Or even replaying past experiences.
Whatever you observe the mind doing,
Simply let it be.
When you recognize a thought,
What happens?
Try not to encourage the thought,
But don't push it away either.
Just notice what happens,
Observing and recognizing each thought.
Allow it to be,
Allow each thought to rise and to fall,
Just like the snowflakes in the snow globe,
And allow it to go on its own as more time settles.
See if you can watch the passing of these thoughts as it follows its natural trajectory to rise and to fall away as it leaves the mind.
Return to the breath and patiently wait until another thought arises.
Again repeating this process,
Notice the thought,
Watch the thought,
And again come back to the breath.
Continue with mindfulness of the breath and the thoughts as they rise,
They fall,
They rise,
And they fall away.
The moment you catch yourself or notice yourself caught or lost within these thoughts,
Your mind has wandered away for some time.
Gently smile to yourself,
Gently come back to that visualization of the snow globe,
And how the thought itself will settle down and disappear.
Any self-judgment around this or frustration arises,
Notice that just as you would with any other thought,
It will simply come and go.
This is all a gentle practice.
At any moment,
You can always return to your breath for a few moments to ground yourself back into this practice and to shift any awareness away from these thoughts as they rise and as they fall.
As you continue to watch these thoughts,
With your eyes closed and your body still,
Gently smile to yourself.
Take a moment to gather your awareness,
To gather your focus.
Say to yourself,
I am not these thoughts,
They are just the snowflakes passing within the snow globe that is my existence.
Softly smile to yourself and guide your awareness and focus back to your breath.
Finishing this guided meditation is simply taking three deep breaths,
Allowing any lingering thoughts or tension from the meditation to dissipate with each exhale you take.
Knowing that any experience that you received throughout this meditation was exactly as it needed to be for you today.
The goal was not a silent mind,
But to witness the thoughts that arose and fall.
Knowing there is no right or wrong way for you to have achieved or practiced this meditation.
So thanking yourself for dedicating time to witness yourself,
To observe your thoughts.
You softly bow,
Ending the practice of the day.
Thank you for sitting through this guided meditation with me.
