Sit comfortably with your feet planted on the floor and your hands resting gently in your lap or with your legs crossed and your hands gently resting on your legs.
Close your eyes or you can gaze softly downward.
And take a couple moments to settle into the space,
Into the room.
Relax your body,
Chest lifted to breathe easily.
In an alert and upright posture but not one that's uncomfortable.
And if during this practice you need to shift your position,
Feel free to do so mindfully.
If you want to open your eyes,
Do so then close them again and return to the meditation.
Begin by taking three long slow deep breaths.
Breathing slowly and deeply through your nostrils and exhaling slowly and fully through your nostrils.
This sends a signal to your body to relax even more deeply.
Now return to your natural breathing.
There's no need to control or regulate your breath in any way.
Just let it be natural,
A natural easy breath.
And bring your awareness to your breath,
Your inhale and the exhale.
And during this practice your breath might speed up,
Slow down,
Get shallower or deeper.
There's no need to try to control it.
Simply be aware of its sensations.
If you notice thoughts,
There's no need to try to push them away.
Notice them and if you begin to attach to one and get lost in a story or thinking about a conversation that didn't go the way you wanted or how you didn't say what you intended to say,
Say to your thought,
Thanks for sharing and return to your inhale and exhale.
Or label the thought thinking and come back to your point of focus.
Doesn't matter how many times you have to refocus your attention back to your breath.
This is the practice.
You're doing it correctly.
Be kind to yourself.
Each time you're drawn away from the breath,
Come back,
Lean in closer.
Tune into the texture of each breath.
And when you notice you're caught up in an emotion,
Envy,
Anger,
Misunderstood,
Label it and come back to the breath.
Notice the cool air on the inhale and the warm air on the exhale.
And when you notice you're caught up in an emotion,
Envy,
Anger,
Misunderstood,
Label it and come back to the breath.
Now,
Move your attention to where you feel the breath most clearly.
It could be at your nose,
The back of your throat,
Your chest,
Or your belly rising and falling.
Rest your attention where you feel the breath most clearly.
There's no need to try too hard.
Welcome everything.
And when you notice you're attached to a distraction or pushing it away,
Label it thinking or emotion.
Say thank you for sharing and come back to your breath.
There's nowhere you need to be except right here with your breath,
Present in this breath in this moment.
If you're feeling a sense of fogginess or heaviness,
Sleepiness,
Come back to the immediacy of each inhale and exhale.
You can open your eyes for a moment and then close them again and come back to your breath.
There's no need to try too hard.
Now,
Move your attention to your body.
Do a quick scan of your body from your feet to your head.
And pay attention to any pleasant sensations throughout the body.
And rather than wanting more of that which feels pleasant,
See if you can let the mind be with the sensation and let it run its course.
Here we go.
Now move your attention to an uncomfortable or unpleasant sensation.
And rather than trying to change it or fight against it or heal it or figure out why it's happening in the body,
Choose to be with it instead.
Be with the sensation as it is and maybe it changes.
Now move your attention to the neutral parts of the body that you don't pay much attention to,
Like the back of the knee.
And rest your attention on this sensation.
If you notice yourself caught up in a thought or noise or other distraction,
Label it and come back to your point of focus.
You can always begin again and keep coming back.
Welcome all the sounds you hear as noise is never a barrier to meditation.
Now bring your attention back to your breath.
If you notice yourself caught up in a thought or a physical sensation or another distraction,
Label it,
Thinking,
And come back to your breath.
This is a practice.
Be kind to yourself.
With your eyes still closed,
Let go of the breath and sit in the stillness.
It's very important to come out of meditation slowly as this is your integration period and there's no rush.
With your eyes closed,
Stretch out into the space.
Circle your wrists,
Your head.
And when you're ready,
Blink your eyes open and notice the shapes and colors and objects around you.
And when you're ready,
Move slowly back into activity.
