In this meditation,
We are practicing sitting in stillness for 10 minutes.
We are practicing befriending discomfort of the physical kind.
So first we'll set up the body in a way that supports stillness and awareness.
Coming into our comfortable seat before we find that stillness.
If you're sitting in a chair,
Bring the bottoms of your feet flat to the earth.
If you're sitting cross-legged on a cushion or the earth,
Notice the hips grounding down and supporting you.
Wherever you are,
Sitting up nice and tall,
Removing any support that you had for the back so that you hold your entire weight.
Stacking head over heart and heart over hips,
Sinking into the hips.
Hands come to knees or to the lap,
Palms facing down.
Right tuck of the chin,
The length in through the neck.
Take a deep breath in and a breath out.
Sitting into your stillness,
Your 10 minutes begins now.
Anytime you notice the impulse for the body to move,
For a hand to brush a hair away or to scratch the nose,
Bring attention to that impulse.
Bring attention to the energy that comes up in the hand to try to get it to move.
What happens if you don't move it?
And instead just notice that change in energy.
And notice the discomfort that may arise in the body as well.
Perhaps the hips are aching to move.
Perhaps the ankles are feeling a little pressure.
Maybe the knees are uncomfortable and want to move.
What happens if you don't move them,
But instead just notice?
Notice again the impulse to move.
The impulse to change our current situation.
The impulse to say where I am right now is not good enough.
Take a breath in and a breath out.
Notice the mind.
The movement that begins in the mind when the body wants to move.
The battle that begins when you try to maintain stillness in the face of that impulse to move.
How far off those thoughts can take you from the body if you let them.
But if you come back into the body,
Feeling feet on the ground,
Feeling hips on your seat,
Feeling hands on your knees,
Feeling the breath moving in and out of the body.
Notice when you come back to these things how still the mind becomes.
We're just over halfway.
Relax the muscles.
Relax the shoulders.
Relax the jaw.
Relax the eyebrows.
Relax the hips.
Relax the knees.
Relax the ankles.
And just be.
Keeping attention on the breath.
At the nose.
The back of the throat.
Or in the belly.
Or as the desire to move arises in any part of the body.
Bring your attention gently there.
Just to notice what's going on.
To witness.
As you give yourself permission to be still.
Not to itch the scratch.
Not to brush the hair away.
Not just to be.
Always coming back into the body.
Into the breath.
And the mind wanders.
And finding that stillness in the body.
That allows stillness in the mind.
The body is still.
The mind is still.
And the mind is agitated.
The body is agitated.
Starting to deepen the breath.
Inviting more energy back into the body.
Now starting to invite movement back into the body.
Wiggling fingers.
Wiggling toes.
By circling the wrists.
The ankles.
Stretching arms out overhead on the inhale.
And on the exhale,
Bringing hands back.
The knees are out wide.
As you slowly bat the eyelashes open.
And come back into the room.
