Welcome to this short meditation with me Charlotte Watts.
This focus is on acceptance and offers you help when you may feel you need to come down out of a quick stress response,
Need some space to find some perspective,
Some focus.
And if you need a segue into sitting for a longer time and feeling able to be with the flow,
The silence with yourself.
So either sitting comfortably rising up through your spine or laying down feeling fully supported and comfortable.
Bring your hands onto your belly placing them in a way that feels intuitively right.
Fingers soft.
If you can,
Hands a little apart from each other so there's room to feel your breath in your belly.
In no way do your hands feel like they're holding in restraining your belly.
Rather they're simply receiving the feelings of movements of the breath.
Following the motion,
The tide,
The rhythm,
The swelling and the falling away of the belly.
Feeling the belly rise naturally as you inhale,
Soften inwards as you exhale.
And through this stepping back and simply observing what is.
Starting to allow the breath space to open up to feel that each breath goes right to its natural end point.
Maybe even starting to notice natural pauses between the inhalation and the exhalation.
Natural pause between out breath and in breath.
Nothing forced.
Simply a still point.
Inevitably having the patience to accept.
The breath continues and stepping away from any expectation of how this might be.
Letting everything simply unfold as it is.
Noticing the ever changing nature of the breath.
If you've been feeling stressed it might feel natural to take a deeper inhalation and allow a fuller deep exhalation.
Even allowing a sigh out.
An ah sound can be useful to make space around the jaw.
Space between the back teeth.
Letting your breath move,
Flow.
Simply as happens.
Is there any preoccupations,
Anything that's felt it's taken over you?
You can start to move to one side.
You can start to notice that our thoughts are not us.
But placing them slightly away,
Not needing to push.
Still noticing they're there but becoming more and more fascinated with the breath.
Feeling as we breathe in,
Breathe out.
Whole body involved in the process.
That this is ultimately more fascinating,
More deep,
More true than any thoughts or preoccupations that might have taken us up,
Taken us out of the present moment for a time.
Drawing ourselves back over and over again to the breath if we feel that thoughts or mind fluctuations pull us away again.
But continually shepherding back to the breath.
So in this way we're feeling a sense of acceptance.
Acceptance for how we are right now.
Acceptance that thoughts come and go.
The brain chatters.
But much of the time that's not a reflection of the truths.
It's very easy for us to make up stories,
Get caught up in them.
But if we follow the rhythm of the breath,
We can easily draw ourselves back in breath by breath,
Moment to moment.
To feeling that rhythm under our hands.
Accepting that this is true.
We are able to let go of anything that is ready to be let go of.
Following your breath.
Either staying to sit or lie for a few minutes more or longer if you have the time.
Starting to come out now if this is the end of your practice.
Very kindly drawing yourself out.
Gently opening your eyes but retaining that connection with your breath in your belly.
That depth of absorption in the here and now.
Namaste.
