Feeling Lighter (from Week 1) - Simple Meditation Practice

This is the perfect beginner's meditation, offering clear instruction and keeping it simple. We'll let the mind rest, notice the movements of the mind, and use our kind breath to soften that movement. This practice is about 12 minutes long with about 40 seconds of introduction.

Transcript

So welcome to our first practice together. I hope you're as excited as I am about it. Now before we dive in, Just a quick reminder. Meditation is not about doing it perfectly. I want your mind to wander. I want you to let thought in. That's why we're here, To learn how to manage it. More effectively. Like a thought training exercise. Your mind's gonna wander, That is. NOMU or we're practicing is compassion. Can I be compassionate in those moments? When I feel like I should be turning on myself. When I feel frustration. Can I turn away from it? And just breathe. This practice you can do sitting in a chair. BYE walking if you want to, As long as you've got your eyes open. You can listen to it wherever you want to. It doesn't need to be a formal sitting practice. You can do listen and follow your breath, Follow the guidance. Wherever you want. But from here what I want you to do, If you do want to close your eyes. I just want you to know you're in complete control throughout this practice. You can open and close your eyes as often as you like. You're even very welcome to stop this practice whenever you want to if it becomes uncomfortable or. . . If you're finding noticing, Watching the movement of your breath and things like that is becoming uncomfortable. And we're welcome to use other sensations in the body too. You don't just need to follow your breath. So let's set our intention now. You may have Made up your own intention? But the whole intention of this course is just to feel a little lighter. And so let's just say that in our thoughts. My intention is just to feel lighter. And so then we guide our focus, Guide our awareness. If we haven't already closed our eyes. Very welcome to now. We guide our awareness into our body. Awesome. More prominent sensations. I'm going to start with our feet. Now I remember being asked this question by my teacher, Saying, How do you know you've got feet? And what he wanted us to do was just to explore what sensations make us aware that we have feet. How do we know that they're there? How do we know that we have them? Maybe you can feel warmth or pressure. Maybe you're wearing shoes or socks. I believe. You can feel the coolness of the floor, The warmth of the blanket. The squeeze of your legs on top of them. Just anything that makes you aware that you've got feet. Just holding your awareness there. In the sensations of feet. And then from feet bringing it up into your hands. Asking that same question, How do you know that you have hands? What sensations make you aware that they're there? Again, Maybe it's pressure of warmth. And you're just aware of the sensations, Not trying to change them or control them. Aware of them. And then from the hands up into the shoulders. Probably a little bit harder to feel than your hands or your feet. Don't worry about if you are struggling to find sensations as well. Just to practice of Noticing. Even if the noticing is, I don't notice anything. Then that's amazing. You're aware of not noticing anything and that's really what we're trying to get to here. Can I be comfortable in. . . Not doing this perfectly. Although, Noticing that you're not noticing is. Exactly what I want you to do. At the moment we're just aware of any sensations that make us aware that we have shoulders, Pressure, Weight. And just like we can feel. Notice the feelings, The sensations of our feet, Our hands and our shoulders. We can also relax. And whilst relaxation isn't the goal of meditation. It's like a byproduct, A symptom. Of taking the time to notice. And now I want you to see if you can guide that same awareness, The same awareness that you harnessed to notice your feet, Your hands, Your shoulders. See if you can notice that you're breathing. Can you feel the movement of your breath? Again, It's not about control or change, You're just noticing the movement, The flow of breath into and out of the body. Maybe the most prominent sensations are the nose, The mouth. Maybe it's the rise and fall of your chest or stomach or shoulders. Don't worry about how much of each breath you can feel. The most important part is just noticing anything. Aware of anything. Aware of anything that makes us aware that we're breathing. You're doing amazing. I'm going to go quiet just for a little bit. I just want you to see over the next 20 to 30 seconds. How much of each breath you can notice. Don't worry about how well you're doing. No expectations. No wait. No doing it properly or not doing it properly. You're doing your best for this moment and that's all we could ask for. Let's just watch our breath for the next 20 to 30 seconds. Breath by breath. One at a time. So maybe what you notice there is that. . . Your mind drifted into thoughts. You became distracted. Maybe it was harder to notice the breath than you thought. All this is amazing. That's exactly why we're here, To notice this sort of stuff. Notice how distracted we are. Notice our thinking mind. Notice the movement of breath. And so we're going to bring in a bit of rhythm to the practice. And we start just by. . . One breath at a time. Just noticing the sensations of breath. But now i want you just to let thoughts happen i don't want you to try and worry about it control it change it no good or bad thoughts just Let any thoughts come. But I want you to be aware that. All of a sudden you notice yourself thinking. It doesn't matter how much or how far into thinking you are. You're just practicing noticing that you're thinking all of a sudden, Just watching. You've moved away from the sensations of breath and into the movement of thoughts. And when you notice that you're thinking, I just want you to. . . Consciously make a choice of bringing your attention back to your breath again. So you're just going to follow that rhythm of just watching yourself breathing. Allowing yourself to think or get distracted. And then just gently bringing that focus back to your breathing again, Bringing the awareness back. I want you to do that as many times as you can. What feels like failure is actually. . . Improvement. Awareness. Choice. So it's breath. Destruction. Enjoy. How are you getting on? Distracted? Excellent. That's why we're here. In the next breath, Just notice the sensations again. You're doing amazing. And now just to finish as you're breathing in, Just in your thoughts, Not aloud. Just saying the word calm. Breathing in and saying calm. As you breathe out. I just want you to imagine like that calmness could rest in your body, Just breathing out calmness. Breathing in, Calm. Just relaxing into that calmness, Breathing out calm and relaxing. And as you're gently doing that, Just beginning to open your eyes, But continue. On with that. Breathing in calm. And relax. And just eyes open now, Still breathing in that same way, Breathing calm into the body. And relax. And take this warmth and calmness with you into the rest of your day.