A very warm welcome to this practice.
I'm Christophe and I'm delighted that you are here.
And I invite you now to settle into a comfortable and yet an awake alert posture.
And it is equally fine of course for you to stand and to move during this practice.
The purpose of a posture is to support our focus.
The eyes can be open or closed.
And you're very welcome to use my guidance,
My voice,
Or follow your own guidance and your own inner voice.
And use this time as your time to practice.
And if at any time things become somewhat uncomfortable for you or too uncomfortable,
Feeling free to pause the practice or stop the practice altogether.
And something that can be really helpful as we move into the practice is to settle on what is called an anchor.
Something to focus on.
We know that the mind will wander.
That's fine,
That is not a mistake,
That's to be expected.
And an anchor can be a quick access point back to the now moment.
And so that can be your breath,
For example.
It can be the touch of your feet making contact with the floor or the touch of your hands resting in your lap.
It can be a sound in your environment.
It could also be a mental image.
Taking a few moments now to choose an anchor to take into your practice with you today.
If the mind is particularly restless in this moment,
The sense of the whole body as your anchor can be helpful and supportive.
And in fact that's where I would like to invite you now to focus on this sense of the whole body sitting here or standing or lying.
Getting a real felt sense of the body taking up space wherever you are in this moment.
Perhaps even getting a sense of the boundary between the body and the space around it through the skin.
Perhaps becoming aware of the gentle contact of air on your skin.
Arriving here.
An intentional pause from the thinking and doing.
Arriving into this being mode instead.
With an invitation now to,
If this feels acceptable to you in this moment,
To become aware of sensations of breath movement in your body.
And this could be the nostrils or the lips,
For example.
Maybe the rising and falling of your chest or the belly.
Maybe the sides of the body.
Making gentle contact with your arms,
For example.
Or perhaps another place in the body for you.
And if you are choosing not to practice with the breath,
The invitation here would be to become aware of the feet making contact with the ground or your hands resting in your lap or on the bed.
Noticing sensations,
Be that of breath movements or in the feet or in the hands.
This is not a task.
Something to achieve.
This is the invitation to practice.
Becoming aware.
The breath,
The hands or the feet,
Or perhaps all three.
And you're very welcome to take a deeper breath or two,
Or simply to carry on breathing as you are,
Following the natural rhythm of your breath in this moment.
And you're equally welcome to wiggle fingers and toes for a few moments,
If that's helpful.
As a gentle reminder of where the hands and the feet are in this moment,
Keeping us gently grounded,
Centred.
The mind will wander many times.
Let it.
That may not be the usual instruction you'll hear in a mindfulness meditation practice,
But we can let the mind wander,
Because it's going to anyway.
The invitation is to notice it as soon as is possible for you.
Perhaps noticing where it went.
Where it was drawn to.
Maybe noticing if that awareness,
That realisation of this moment of distraction comes with a certain emotion or sensation in the body.
Or a thought.
Perhaps a criticism.
Perhaps a gladness.
It's all welcome here.
It's all a part of the practice.
It's all a part of becoming aware.
So the mind wandering can be here.
Then gently,
Gently bringing the mind back,
Your awareness back to your anchor point,
The breath,
The feet,
The hands,
Whatever you are working with today.
This gently being with the breath,
The hands or the feet.
With an invitation now to gently expand your awareness around sensations of breath movement or around the feet and the hands.
Expanding the awareness into the whole body.
Once more getting a felt sense of your whole body in this space,
In this moment.
And then from here,
An opportunity now to spend some time observing,
Noticing thoughts as thoughts.
As mental events popping up,
Staying for a while and then disappearing again.
As best we can,
Noticing this process.
Not so much the content of the thoughts,
But the process of this spontaneous activation of the brain.
All happening within the container of the mind.
Like clouds in the sky,
Arriving,
Lingering,
Morphing.
With your anchor or anchors always readily available to help you return to the present moment or support you when certain thoughts are perhaps more challenging to be with.
Observing.
Being with.
Noticing the flux,
The ongoing,
Coming and going of thoughts,
Mental activity.
Whilst also being aware of the stillness,
The relative stillness of your body in this moment.
The sense of being undisturbed,
No matter what the thoughts.
Observing.
Noticing.
Noticing.
This showing up to practice in this way is an incredibly kind thing to do.
So we're not just observing by simply paying attention.
We are infusing a kindliness into all this.
We observe thoughts with a sense of kindness,
A sense of curiosity,
Compassion even.
Allowing these thoughts to be here.
We don't have to like them,
We don't have to take action.
We simply notice their presence.
And their impermanence,
Their coming and going.
With a gentle invitation now to let go of observing thoughts.
And intentionally becoming aware once more of the whole body.
Gently letting the attention cascade down into the whole body.
Noticing sensations at the points of contact between the body and the chair,
The floor,
The mat.
Perhaps a sense of pressure,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Coolness,
Whatever is here.
And you may wish to intentionally reconnect with the breath.
Perhaps taking a few deeper,
More conscious breaths as we gently begin to bring the practice to a close.
And you may also wish to express a few words of gratitude to yourself for having practiced,
For showing up.
For holding space for yourself.
And I want to thank you for your presence and for your kindness in showing up.
So gently beginning to draw the practice to a close.
Perhaps wriggling fingers or toes.
Inviting gentle movement into the body.
Gently allowing the eyes to open if they were closed.
Taking in shapes and colors around you,
Sources of light.
Perhaps taking some of this groundedness and calmness even with you into the next part of your day.
Thank you for your practice.
Bye for now.
