Welcome to today's meditation.
A lot has been said about surrender and acceptance of what is,
And some has also been said about our ability to affect change.
And sometimes it seems counterintuitive that we can both surrender and realize change at the same time.
It comes to life for me when I was in graduate school and my professor told me,
You know,
Claire,
There are no original thoughts.
You must actually cite most every concept that you state in this paper.
Well,
That was a big aha moment for me.
What good am I?
Am I important if I don't have anything new to offer the world?
Well,
By our very existence,
We are offering something new.
And we know in our mindfulness practices and our meditation that the beginner's mind reveals the newness of every single moment and every single breath.
And so today as we sit,
We'll just peel away layers together and surrender to what is.
And that way we will change our view.
We'll see reality unencumbered by the drama or stories we tell ourselves.
Welcome.
Find yourself in a comfortable position,
Can be seated or laying down.
I invite you to remove your glasses or untuck a shirt or or just get really comfortable so that we are not encumbered by any silly nagging sensation.
And so assume the posture that's best for deep and clean,
Unobstructed breathing.
Allow those shoulders to melt away from your ears.
Take a moment and notice any tension in your body.
Can you let go of a muscle in your hand or shoulder or something else that's contracted,
Surrendering to the position that you chose for this opportunity of stillness and surrender?
The best way to notice what is is to rely upon our five senses.
That's the data coming in to our human experience.
The challenge is to do that without judgment.
To prepare,
Let's take a long,
Deep inhale through the nose with your lips closed and your jaw relaxed.
Exhale through the nose,
Noticing the gift of this time together.
Inhaling again through the nose.
Maybe the shoulders will rise up off your back and then exhaling,
Allowing a little more surrender to the furniture,
The pillow,
The seat below you.
Breathing in deeply and exhaling,
Drawing our attention to our ability to hear.
What are the softest sounds in the room without striving to figure out what they are?
Allow your ears to do their job,
Allowing and surrendering to the noise that just is.
And then allow whatever you identified to just settle in,
Breathing in deeply and allowing it to be.
Noticing next the sensation of your eyes.
If your eyes are closed,
You may notice the color of your eyelids.
If you prefer to pop your eyes open just a bit,
Seeing what you see.
Carefully not jumping to identify and attach or form an opinion about what you see,
Just taking it in,
Noticing,
Surrendering,
Trusting you are safe.
You are well.
Breathing in once again deeply and noticing the temperature of the air as it comes in through your nose and as it exits your nose.
It is said that our olfactory sense,
Our sense of smell can conjure the most vibrant memories.
So this is the one we must be careful not to trail off in thought or story.
What is the smell in the room?
Paint,
Carpet,
A dusty vent system from your HVAC or nothing.
It is in the breathing that we know we have our sense of smell.
Noticing and letting go of our sense of smell.
Noticing next our sense of taste again without judgment.
What's there?
If anything,
What's there?
Allowing your tongue to relax,
Swallow if you need to,
Relax your jaw.
Maybe there's no taste in this moment and that's okay.
Surrendering to what is noticing that sense noticing that sense of touch.
If your hands are palms face down,
You might sense into the feel of your clothing or perhaps of the other hand,
The sensation of skin to skin,
Hand to hand,
Just noticing it,
A sense of touch.
And that makes for the fifth sense would be an integration of what is now.
Breathing in deeply to your surroundings,
Taking in and knowing the data is there.
Surrendering with a smile to our existence,
Our very life.
Knowing where we are,
How we are,
And that we are so perfect.
This moment is perfect and fresh and beautiful.
And further,
What is beautiful is you offer this time to just be surrendering to the information our senses provide and then trusting that the next breath will come,
Life will unfold,
And we can trust that we are present in the very moment of now.
Because we hear what we hear,
We see what we see,
We smell,
Taste,
And feel into the moments as that just as they are.
What magnificence.
Just breathe and allow and surrender.
Can you relax just a little more in the posture you've chosen?
Can you manage a small smile or a big grin as you greet a new moment,
A new day,
A new breath?
And it is in the surrender that we experience what is new.
There are no original thoughts.
There are original experiences.
And change comes when you notice it.
Continuing to breathe deeply,
Surrendering and allowing this moment to continue to unfold.
