See if you can imagine the empty space as like the platform of a train station that is your mind.
So in this meditation you will settle into the platform,
Then you'll notice yourself step on many different trains,
And then what you'll do is simply and gently step back onto the platform before the train takes off.
Or you might just have to get off at the next stop if you're already sort of down the way on the train.
And you can go ahead and resettle yourself in the seat here.
Notice if you feel unsettled at all in any part of your body and see if you can just rest into your seat,
Into a stable base,
Allow gravity to find that position for you.
If your eyes aren't closed you can go ahead and close them now.
You can feel into all of the muscles of the face,
And the jaw,
And the mouth,
And the nose,
Muscles of the eyes and behind the eyes,
The forehead.
And notice if anything is tight or rigid and you can just allow that to soften.
Feeling down into your neck and your shoulders,
If those are tight at all you can just loosen them down into your chest,
Your stomach.
Feeling if there's any tension there,
If there's any tightness at baseline in your stomach.
Sometimes we hold anxiety there.
Let's see if you can just let it go completely.
And down through your legs,
Down through your calves and your shins,
Into your feet and the connection between your feet and the floor.
And now just get a whole sense of your body and space.
Nothing else to do but to just be here as a person in this moment.
And again you're here in this empty space and imagine this platform of the train station.
This is your mind in empty space.
And then you constantly have all of these different trains that are taking off.
Different sensations,
Different thoughts.
Those might be especially appealing to step onto.
You can just imagine all of these trains that are taking off everywhere in every direction.
And here you are in the middle of the platform.
And so in this meditation you're just going to notice yourself stepping onto these trains.
Notice once you have whatever it might be,
Oh here's a thought about what I'm going to be doing later.
Here's a sensation in my back.
Here's an urge to itch.
Here's a sound that's coming out from the hallway outside in the room.
These are all different trains.
So you can sort of put them all on the same playing field.
And you'll just notice yourself step onto any of these trains and then step back onto the platform.
No judgment needed for stepping on.
It's totally fine.
And what you can do is use an anchor for the platform.
And so we can use the breath.
That's a really useful one to help you be able to step back off.
And so you can connect with the breath now.
You can take a few deep intentional breaths.
And see if you can follow the breath all the way through.
So all the way through on the in breath.
The gap between breaths.
And then all the way through on the out breath.
Like it's one continuous wave and you can just keep following this more and more closely and more and more deeply into this empty space.
Into the platform.
There's always something to pay attention to about the breath.
And you might find a very particular spot to focus on the breath.
I find the tip of the nostrils to be a really good focus because it's very precise.
And so you can just focus all of your awareness on the sensations of the breath right at the tip of the nostrils.
The air cool when it comes in.
And then warm as it leaves.
And so here's your anchor for the empty space platform.
And for the next minute or so I want you to focus all of your awareness just on this sensation of the breath at the tip of the nostrils.
And then just be aware of whenever your mind is not there.
Notice whatever train that you've taken.
Maybe even how far down the tracks you've gone or whether the doors are still open and you've just barely stepped on.
And you can just notice that and step back onto the platform coming back to the sensations of the breath.
And you might notice whatever train you're on right now.
And then you can just pause and come back to the platform.
Following the breath all the way in and all the way out like one continuous wave that can go deeper and deeper.
Alright and you can take a few more intentional deep breaths.
Breathing out,
Breathing everything out.
Breathing out everything from earlier in the day in the past week on the out breath.
And then again just coming back into just here with me on the in breath.
Alright how was that for you?
You can use it at any time.
Not just in formal practice but especially when you're out in the world and you feel reactive.
You can notice the train that you stepped on and then imagine this platform of more empty space,
More perspective and you can just step back off the train.
And as you do this more and more you can step off the train earlier and earlier and then it becomes so much more easy to reset.
If you catch it early on as opposed to being way down this train of reactivity and then it's almost impossible to get off.
And I will see you next time.
Have a great day.
