So let's start by finding a comfortable position.
So sitting in an alert and a relaxed position and knowing that it's okay to move at any time during this meditation.
So 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.
Starting off by taking a few deliberate deep breaths breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Allowing our bodies to become still we're becoming aware of the breath as it enters the body and when it leaves the body.
The cool air coming in through the nostrils,
The lungs and the chest and the stomach expanding and then the warm air leaving the nostrils on the out-breath and the body relaxing and softening a little.
Taking one more full breath in and a full breath out.
And now allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm.
And again we're noticing that we don't have to do anything or make any effort to breathe.
The body knows exactly what to do.
We're using the breath as the place to return to when we get lost or distracted so we can look at our figure.
So now if we are in a place where there is enough to breathe then we open the toes again by taking one other deep breath in and letting the air through along with the systematicallyottle principle.
We're using the breath as the place to return to when we get lost or distracted.
So we can look at the breath as a kind of mindfulness anchor.
So something that's anchoring us into the present moment.
And the mind will get distracted.
It's what the mind does.
And when it gets carried away on a train of thought,
So thinking about the day,
Planning the week ahead,
We gently and we quietly come back to the breath without giving ourselves a hard time.
We patiently come back to the breath and we just pick up where we left off.
Breathing in and breathing out.
And allowing our attention now to shift from the breath and letting our attention move into thinking and thoughts.
During this meditation,
We're seeing thoughts not as distractions,
But instead we're bringing our awareness to the thinking process itself.
Thoughts appear out of nowhere.
They're the creation of a mind that wants to be kept busy at all times.
What we're doing today is practicing stepping back and looking at our thoughts rather than from our thoughts.
Each time a thought arises,
We're making a conscious effort to observe it.
So we take a moment to hold it in our consciousness with curiosity.
And noticing that we don't have to go searching out thoughts.
All we do is we notice them when they appear.
Often by labeling the thoughts,
We can reduce the temptation to get carried away by them.
So perhaps we're choosing to acknowledge the thought by silently saying in our minds,
Thinking or planning or fantasizing or worrying.
And then once we've labeled the thought,
We gently and quietly come back to the anchor of the breath.
And noticing whether we're adding stories or adding extra commentary to our thoughts or are we just allowing the thought to enter into our consciousness,
Stay a while and then leave.
Our intention is to remain calmly present with our thoughts and we're exploring any reactions to those thoughts.
You may have noticed over the last few minutes just how many thoughts you have and just how easy it is to get caught up in them,
To believe in them,
To react to them.
You might have even noticed that the more emotion that's attached to the thought,
The easier it is to get caught up in that thought.
We give so much importance to our thoughts.
We believe that every thought that pops into our head is worth taking seriously,
But that's just habit.
The more time we spend observing our thoughts,
The easier it becomes to discern important thoughts worth worrying about from unimportant thoughts that we can just let go.
And as we approach the end of our practice,
We'll take a few more breaths,
Feeling the body once again connected to the ground or to the chair and just noticing how the body's feeling right now.
Does it feel differently in any way?
We're just noticing.
And as we approach the end of our practice,
Wiggling our fingers and toes and bringing our attention back to the room,
Noticing how the mind is feeling right now and is the mind perhaps calmer or maybe it's a bit busier?
Over time,
You're going to begin noticing when you get carried away in thought in everyday life and you'll be able to more skillfully bring yourself back to the present,
To whatever it is that you're doing at the time in the same way that you practice bringing yourself back to the breath with meditation and opening your eyes if you haven't already done so.
