Welcome to the Community Mindfulness Project 30-minute appreciation meditation.
For information on what appreciation meditation is and why we do it,
We recommend that you listen to our nine-minute introduction to appreciation description.
So now let's get started with this guided meditation.
We'll start with the sound of the bell,
And we invite you just to listen to the bell and hold your attention on it for as long as you can hear it.
So we'll take some time now just to fully arrive in our practice.
Perhaps taking a posture that allows us to be alert but relaxed.
And if we're seated,
Perhaps picturing a string attached to the top of the head,
Tucking gently upwards,
Allowing the spine to be nice and straight,
Allowing the weight to be balanced evenly on either side of the spine.
Perhaps allowing the sternum to be raised slightly with the shoulders tucked back a bit and the shoulder blades sliding down the back,
Allowing for a real sense of dignity and openness.
We'll start by bringing our attention down into the body,
Connecting mind and body,
And inviting in some relaxation.
So starting with the muscles in the forehead,
Maybe between the eyes and around the eyes,
Allowing the forehead to be expansive and the eye area to really relax.
Sometimes it might be helpful to kind of scrunch up the eyes a bit and then let them go.
Moving down to the muscles along the jaw and around the mouth,
Maybe playing with keeping the lips closed but the jaw open slightly,
Maybe with the tongue touching the back of the top teeth or the top of the mouth.
Continuing down into the area of the neck and the shoulders,
Just inviting in a looseness there,
Maybe a letting go.
Moving down into the lower back,
The abdomen,
Allowing the belly to be soft and round.
Down into the seat and the legs and the feet,
Noticing the support of whatever's beneath us and trusting in that support.
Letting go of any muscular activity that's not serving us right now.
When you're ready,
At your own pace,
Taking three deep belly expanding breaths,
Paying close attention to what it feels like to breathe this deeply all the way on the inhalation and the exhalation for each of the three breaths at your own pace.
And when you're ready,
Just allowing the breath to return to its own natural rhythm,
Whatever that might be in this moment.
And if it's hard sometimes to let go of that inclination to control the breath,
Maybe after an exhale,
Waiting to take the next inhale until the body really asks for it,
Sort of approaching that with some curiosity.
Now placing and holding the attention on the sensations that arise from breathing,
Either around the abdomen or maybe just under the nose,
Between the nose and the mouth,
The sense of the air coming into and leaving the body.
And placing your bare attention on those sensations that arise from the breath.
Oh,
My goodness.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Allowing ourselves to be open to the full character of this person.
Maybe not just the part that challenges us.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
