Weekend Mindfulness

I recorded this meditation for you during a live "Calm with Christoph" mindfulness event on a Sunday night. In this practice, I share the importance of a Beginner's Mind and Non-Striving to help you settle into our meditation time together. We then explore the value of bringing kind attention to whatever wants to be acknowledged so we can still ourselves even further. This is a beautifully relaxing and yet empowering meditation to process the week gone by and welcome the week ahead.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this recording.

I'm Christoph and I'll be your guide.

And if it feels safe and comfortable to do so,

You may want to close your eyes or let your eyes rest.

You could also simply lower your gaze or focus on a point on the wall,

For example,

Or the ceiling,

Whatever's comfortable.

And for many of us,

If not all of us,

It has been a rather busy week on all different levels.

And it's good to build in moments of self-care,

Like this one,

Where we can purposefully take time out to still our minds and let the body rest and soak up some new and fresh energy.

And as ever,

My meditations are not a way of escaping to some fantasy world,

But rather to help us be more grounded in our actual world.

And that doesn't mean it can't be relaxing.

But relaxation is a byproduct,

Not a goal.

And one of the foundational attitudes of mindfulness meditation is non-striving.

It sounds a little bit contradictory at first.

Chris,

Why non-striving?

Aren't we striving to relax or to get to a point of relaxation?

What if the invitation of mindfulness meditation was to not strive to get anywhere in particular,

But to just arrive here,

This moment,

And then be with what unfolds for you during the meditation?

Don't you have enough,

Often self-imposed,

Pressure throughout the week?

Were you not striving enough already throughout your week?

And life in general,

That you want to strive some more during your meditation practice.

So the invitation is to not strive.

And everyone is here today for a different reason,

With a different intention.

And whatever it may be,

I invite you to,

In this moment,

Bring what is called a beginner's mind to the practice.

And that is not to disregard your meditation experience,

But to simply invite you to be here as if you are meditating for the first time.

Cultivating a sense of curiosity for this moment.

Non-striving and a beginner's mind.

How wonderful.

And we're going to carry the energy of those concepts forward into today's practice.

Let's do a gentle and kind check-in with ourselves.

How am I feeling right now?

No right or wrong,

As ever.

And even if you have a pretty good feeling of how you are feeling right now,

How you are doing,

If you can try to just kind of go one meter below surface level,

So to speak,

And see what is there.

How are you feeling under your skin?

How are you really doing?

I just found myself taking a really deep breath in and out,

And you may want to do that too,

If that is helpful,

A few deep breaths.

Mm.

Checking in with your body as well.

In particular with the points of contact between the body and your bed or the couch or your chair.

So if your feet are touching the floor,

For example,

Becoming aware of that contact with the floor.

Are your shoulders touching the back of your chair?

Or the duvet cover on the bed,

And so forth,

Scanning up and down the body,

Becoming aware of the points of contact between the body and the furniture.

And this is also an invitation to relax just that little bit more.

Usually we carry a lot of tension in the shoulders and the neck,

So maybe you want to kind of check in.

How am I doing there?

Can I relax my shoulder blades just a little bit more?

Can I soften my neck?

Is my jaw clenched?

Can I relax my mouth a little bit more?

How about my tongue?

How about your knees?

As you check up and down the body,

Notice how in those moments when you really let your awareness rest in those different parts of the body,

Your attention is usually not somewhere else.

It is not dwelling in the past or the future.

It is simply resting with the body parts you are focusing on in those moments.

So I'm going to give you a few moments to practice that,

Scanning up and down the body with as little judgment as possible.

I was going to say without judgment,

But that is perhaps too much striving.

So with as little judgment as possible,

Scanning up and down the body,

Being with your body.

It has carried you everywhere you went this week.

And yet most of the time we live in our heads and we often forget about the body.

So let's reconnect with it.

And one more time.

Inking And after a while it is very normal for the mind to begin to wander.

And I would like you to find your own way to say to your mind,

Hey,

I noticed that you were in your own world,

Thank you.

But I would like to come back to my body now.

Back to the now moment.

I am safe and thanks for the protection,

But I am safe,

I've got this.

And some of you will be very calm right now and others will be finding it challenging to still that mind.

No right or wrong,

No meditation Olympics.

Just kindness towards ourselves,

Kind attention towards the body,

Towards this moment,

Towards the mind,

Kind attention.

And I'm just going to go with what my intuition is telling me to share with you,

But I,

As I was speaking those words,

I felt that some people might be thinking I am not worthy of this relaxation,

I am not worthy of my mind not racing,

It should be busy,

I should be doing this,

I have to be doing that,

Etc.

Etc.

And I'm not here to dispute that with you,

But I'm here to bring your awareness to that shouting from the mind.

And that the very principle of becoming aware of that shouting is the mindfulness practice.

So it's great.

Allow your mind to shout and bring kind awareness to it.

Kind awareness.

Interesting,

My mind is doing this.

I have a spot on my leg,

Interesting.

End of story.

My mind is cast to something negative someone said to me today.

Kind attention without being dragged down by it.

That happened.

End of story.

So much to do next week.

Stress,

Interesting.

Thank your mind.

Kind attention,

End of story.

So over the next few moments and minutes,

See what signals your body and your mind send you and bring kind attention to it.

Yay.

You you noticing this stillness a source of great comfort for some and then perhaps a source of great discomfort for others say something Chris next hurry up No,

Whatever silence provokes in you kind attention kind attention you you you and noticing what else is here for you in this moment you It could be sounds it could be sensations you things you can smell perhaps becoming more and more aware again of the environment and gently transitioning from the mind and the body into the external world by using our senses but without the striving simply allowing input to come your way a gentle tuning into whatever is present right now I'm very much here but I'm also tuning into the plane flying overhead the incense in the room and some people in the street and I'm also aware of my hand resting on my chest connecting myself with the external world whilst feeling grounded and safe you and dare I ask what this practice has now done to your mind where has your mind taken you in these last 30 seconds alone because of tuning into your senses far far away or did you manage to simply connect to what is around you right now again kind attention oh wow my mind really went off into a very different direction I heard one thing and I started thinking about that I smelled that and oh my goodness I started thinking about that where you were doesn't matter so much as realizing that your mind drifted off that is the mindfulness practice the awareness with kind attention and then bringing it back to the now and now gently resting in silence until you hear the sound of the bells and perhaps setting a kind intention for how you can take some of this calm energy with you into the rest of your day and into the new week so so so so so so gently opening the eyes if they were closed and maybe wiggling your fingers and your toes you may want to do a gentle stretch if that's comfortable so everyone thank you very much for your practice tonight I really appreciate you being here and if you have any questions you know where I am and I look forward to being with you again this time next week I love you namaste you

Reviews

Calming, centering, empowering. Thank you.

A wonderful practice at week’s end, for arriving at stillness through non-striving and self kindness. Beautiful. Much gratitude, Christoph. 🙏

This is the perfect way to start the weekend off mindfully and get into the right gear.

Thank you! A perfect weekend release and contemplation. I felt the boundary of my guard up and releasing it! Excellent.