Hello,
Welcome to this meditation led by Claudia Silas,
A mindful movement and meditation teacher.
Today's practice is going to help you bring mindful awareness into your thinking.
This isn't so that we become over-consumed by our thoughts,
But it is going to help you create separation from your thinking,
And see that your thoughts are transient,
Not necessarily true,
And just part of the stories and internal monologues we create every day.
I want you to begin by finding a comfortable seated position,
Where you can have integrity through your spine,
And your shoulders and jaw are soft.
Just finding a sense of settling in,
Arriving at your seated position,
And if sitting isn't available for you,
You can of course lie down.
We're going to take a big breath in through the nose,
And let it go out through your mouth,
Just helping us with that sense of arriving.
Allowing your breath to return to normal,
Not changing it in any way.
I want you now to start mentally counting your breathing.
We're going to count the inhale and the exhale separately.
Your inhale is going to be a count of 1,
Exhale 2,
Inhale 3,
Exhale 4,
And so on until you reach 10.
When you reach 10,
You're going to come back round to start on another inhale at 1 again.
I just want you to have a go with that for the next few moments.
We're going to take a deep breath in through the nose,
And let it go out through your spine.
You may have already begun to notice that before you even reach 10,
Your mind is wandering off and thinking,
And that's absolutely fine.
But when the mind does wander away,
All you need to do is catch yourself in that moment,
And come back into counting at 1 again with your inhale.
Don't judge yourself if you get caught in thinking,
The moment of mindfulness is when you notice and come back.
.
It may be that today you're feeling very focused,
And your ability to count your breaths up to 10 without being interrupted by thoughts is quite easy.
But for many of us,
The habit of our mind is to wander off into thinking.
We're going to add some layers on now to the moments when we catch ourselves.
So the first thing we're going to do is add the label of either past,
Present or future,
When you notice that you've been caught in thinking.
You don't have to go any deeper into the thought,
But you're just creating a little bit of separation by labeling it as a past,
Present or future thought,
And then coming back to your breathing,
Counting,
Inhale 1,
Exhale 2.
I'm going to leave you with that now for a few moments to practice.
.
.
Okay,
And if you're finding this simple,
You can add another layer now onto this.
So this layer is going to be what type of thought you're having.
So perhaps it's planning,
Worrying,
Judging,
Dreaming or anything else,
But just labeling the thought to firstly past,
Present or future,
And then what kind of thought it is.
But if this feels like too much at this stage,
Please feel free to just stick to the first label.
.
And really don't worry if there are many thoughts and you're having to catch yourself many times.
This is a practice.
It's not about being perfect.
It's about learning and developing new skills in your ability to notice your thinking habits and create separation from them.
There is a final layer that you can add on whenever you catch yourself thinking.
So starting with past,
Present,
Future,
Then labeling what kind of thinking it is,
And then just seeing if there's some kind of emotion attached to the thought.
Perhaps it's anxiety,
Fear,
Happiness,
Boredom even,
Whatever it may be,
If that feels manageable for you,
Adding those three layers,
And I'll leave you with that now.
.
.
If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed,
Like,
Oh,
Gosh,
I'm having so many thoughts.
Just remember that it's the mind's habit to behave this way.
And what you're doing right now is creating more awareness and a little bit of separation instead of going into the storyline of the thought like you might ordinarily do.
.
.
Okay,
So just letting go of this now,
Letting go of counting,
Of labeling,
And pausing for a moment.
This kind of work requires quite a lot of mental energy,
So we're just going to spend a moment to check in with ourselves and what occurred throughout that process.
Maybe you noticed there was a pattern coming up,
Like you continually going into past thoughts,
Or worrying,
Or particular emotion as an undercurrent.
Maybe it's completely random.
Maybe you weren't thinking a lot.
Maybe some stuff came up from under the surface that was bubbling that you didn't quite know was there.
Maybe you caught yourself judging the practice itself,
Or how you're interacting with the practice.
Whatever it was,
Just taking a moment to recognize and acknowledge it.
.
Every time you engage in a practice like this,
You're just gaining more and more knowledge about yourself,
And gaining the ability to trust yourself more as you are more aware of your thinking.
It's really simple thought labeling,
And you can apply it throughout your day,
Whenever you catch yourself in a moment of being away from your present moment.
Just check in.
Where have I been?
Thinking about the past,
Present,
Future.
What am I thinking about?
Just labeling it.
You know,
Judgment,
Planning.
Is there some kind of emotional undercurrent to this?
That moment of pause is a moment of presence with yourself.
And once you're present,
Really knowing what's going on mentally,
Physically and emotionally,
You can act from a place of understanding,
And a place of stillness.
We're going to close the practice together,
But if you need to stay a little bit longer in stillness with yourself,
Please do.
Taking three slow breaths in through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
Big breath in.
Let it go.
Two more.
And a final clearing breath.
Thank you for your time and for practicing with me.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
