Hi,
Hello and welcome to this recording.
I'm Christoph and I'll be your guide.
I'm very grateful and very happy that you are here.
Thank you for joining me in this meditation.
I invite you to get as comfortable as you can,
But I'm going to ask you to keep your eyes open for a moment.
I'd like you to relax and bring yourself fully here to the now,
To this sacred moment,
Your moment,
Without closing your eyes.
So in fact,
Your senses are heightened in that you have visual information coming at you,
Sounds,
Things you can feel,
Maybe the touch of your body against the chair or on your bed.
But whilst you keep your eyes open,
Notice how relatively easy it is to be in this moment and to still yourself and to relax.
So just stay in this space with this awareness and this presence in this moment,
With your eyes wide open until we continue.
So I'm just going to give you a few moments to practice this presence with eyes wide open.
And it's important to practice this because mindfulness and mindful living is far more than simply sitting down and meditating.
It is about being able to cultivate stability and groundedness and presence in everyday life.
And it may not always be possible for you to close your eyes when you are in a public space,
For example.
So learning how to cultivate stability and calmness,
Even with your eyes open,
Is of tremendous value.
You see you've been doing this with me now for a few moments and you did so successfully.
And now as a little reward,
I'm going to invite you to close your eyes gently and relax your eyes as we ease ourselves into the more familiar type of meditation.
And if you feel comfortable doing so,
Why not place one hand on your chest and the other on your lower belly.
This beautiful moment of connecting with your body.
We live in our minds so very often,
Worrying,
Thinking,
Planning.
But what about the body?
Simply by placing our hands on our bodies,
We reconnect with it more mindfully.
It's like a closed circuit.
It's a loop between the mind and the body and the body and the mind.
I'm going to give you a few moments to enjoy this connection.
Did you know that in many Asian languages the word for heart and mind is the same?
They have known all along that mind and body are so interconnected.
They are one.
Just enjoy this stillness that you are allowing yourself to experience after another busy day.
And even if it was physically a fairly relaxed day,
Maybe you had a very brain intensive day,
Or vice versa.
Now is your time to unwind and be mindfully present in this moment,
The only moment that matters.
And notice your breath which makes the chest rise and fall and your belly expand and then fall back.
And without changing the way you are breathing,
Just bring your attention and your curiosity a little bit more to the breath.
Where can you feel it?
Are you breathing through your nose or your mouth?
Perhaps a combination of both.
Where do you feel?
Where do you experience your breath the most?
Usually a little bit cooler on the in-breath and then warmer on the out-breath.
Mindfulness of breath is the bicep curl of your mindfulness practice.
When you go to the gym,
You need to work on those biceps if you want to gain the strength required to do so many of the other activities and exercises.
So it's fairly basic,
But it is so important.
I'm going to give you a few more moments to spend some time with that precious breath of yours.
And if your mind wanders,
Which it tends to do,
Gently bring it back to the now moment,
Back to your breath,
Back to here and now,
Without judging your thinking,
But with respect and gratitude for your active mind.
Scientists have discovered that we nearly spend 50% of the time thinking about the past or the future.
That's nearly half of the time that we are not in the now moment.
It's extraordinary when you think about that.
There is a collection of parts of our brains called the default mode network,
Where our brains spend the vast majority of the time generating thoughts about the past or the future,
Never the now moment.
And as you can imagine,
Most of our thoughts about the past and the future are likely to be not so pleasant thoughts,
Quite anxious thoughts,
Quite stressful thoughts.
And because our default mode network is so very busy all day,
Every day,
There is another part of our brain that is being overstimulated.
And that part is called the amygdala.
And the amygdala is responsible for sending us into a fight or flight mode.
It makes us feel very hyper nervous,
Very anxious,
Panicky.
But when we practice mindfulness meditation,
For example,
When we practice mindfulness of breath,
As we are doing now,
You bring your attention to the breath,
You down regulate the default mode network,
And you activate the direct experience network instead.
And when you down regulate your default mode network,
You significantly turn down your amygdala activation as well.
And this is why mindfulness has been scientifically proven to make you feel calmer,
Less anxious,
Less stressed,
Less panicky,
And more grounded and centered and in control instead.
So trust that this simple act of focusing on your breath benefits your brain immensely.
And therefore,
You benefit immensely.
I'm going to give you a few moments to really enjoy this piece of insight and know that you contribute to your well being with this practice.
So apart from the breath,
You can also call on your senses to keep you in the present moment.
Because when you try to identify what you can hear and feel and see and touch,
For example,
Smell even in those moments,
In those very important moments,
You activate your direct experience network.
And you turn all the chatter in your mind right down for those moments.
And the more you practice,
The more you are able to begin to control the chatter in your mind.
And you become more friendly with your mind.
And you become more optimistic,
Because you will feel more in control,
More empowered.
And it's time for you to feel more empowered again.
It is time for you to invite the positive again.
One day at a time,
My granddad used to say,
And he was right.
One day at a time,
One moment at a time,
One breath at a time.
And I'm going to close today's practice with a few words from the well-loved loving kindness meditation.
And you can repeat these words internally,
Feeling them with your whole mind and body.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I ride the waves of my life.
May I live in peace,
No matter what I am given.
And given the state of the world,
Why not expand this beautiful energy much further afield to friends,
Family,
Communities,
Near and far.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we ride the waves of our lives.
May we live in peace,
No matter what we are given.
And just stay in this glorious energy for a few more moments.
And let's take a really deep breath in.
And out.
And one more time.
And when you hear the bells gently open your eyes and bring yourself back to the room.
Thank you so much for joining me in this practice tonight.
I really appreciate your interest in my work,
Your continued support.
For now,
I'm going to ask you to take good care of yourself,
Love yourself,
I love you,
And I hope to see you again on another session.
Namaste.
