So we're going to begin by finding a comfortable position.
So sitting in an alert and a relaxed posture,
Knowing that it's okay to move at any time during this meditation.
I invite you now to close your eyes,
Or you can leave your eyes open with a soft gaze in front of you on the floor.
Let's just have a quick check in with what's going on inside the mind and inside the body.
And in particular,
Notice whether or not you're here,
Whether or not you're present right now.
Are you focused on today's practice,
Or have you maybe got other things running through your mind?
What can help is setting an intention to just drop everything for the next five minutes and simply be present.
There's nothing that you need to figure out,
There's nothing that you need to do right now.
You've got the rest of the day to plan and think and make whatever effort you need to make.
So let's start off today by taking a few deliberate deep breaths.
So in through the nose,
And out through the mouth.
In through the nose,
And out through the mouth.
With each in-breath,
We're feeling the lungs and the chest and the stomach expanding.
With each out-breath,
We're allowing the body to become heavy,
Sinking deeper into the cushion or into the chair.
We expand on the in-breath,
And we relax more deeply on the out-breath.
Breathing in,
And breathing out.
Taking one more full breath in,
And a full breath out.
Now we're allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm.
We're just noticing that we don't have to do anything or make any effort to breathe.
The body knows exactly what to do.
So we allow the breath to soften,
We stick to a natural breath,
And we want the breath to feel effortless.
So just pause for a moment and notice that fact.
Notice that the body can breathe by itself without any effort from you.
Using the breath as the place to return to when we get lost or distracted.
So each time we get lost or distracted,
We simply bring our attention back to the feeling of the breath.
So the mind is going to wander.
It's what the mind is designed to do.
So each time we notice that we're distracted in thought,
We simply come back to the breath gently and patiently.
With each in-breath we're feeling the lungs and the chest and the stomach expanding.
With each out-breath we're allowing the body to become heavy,
Sinking deeper into the cushion or into the chair.
We expand on the in-breath and we relax more deeply on the out-breath.
Bringing our attention now back to the body.
So we're going to feel our body connected to the ground or to the chair or to the cushion.
And we're just noticing how the body's feeling right now.
Does it feel differently in any way to five minutes ago?
We're just noticing.
Keeping our eyes closed,
We're bringing our attention now to sounds inside the room and sounds outside the room.
Gently wiggling our fingers and toes.
And when you're ready,
Slowly opening the eyes in your own time,
Having a little stretch and congratulating yourself for having taken time to look after yourself over these last five minutes.
So I hope that you're feeling a bit more centered,
Maybe a bit more relaxed.
And even if there are lots of thoughts running around the mind,
Don't worry about that.
It's perfectly normal.
Mindfulness is going to take practice and the more we do it,
The better the results will be.
If you can,
Try and do this short meditation each day.
And I'll see you at class this Friday.
