Taking a moment to get settled wherever you are and in whatever position,
Sitting or even feeling the weight of your body.
Feeling the pool of gravity keeping you planted right where you are.
And feeling the sense of groundedness that this gives you.
And feeling the weight of your body connecting to what's beneath you through the force of gravity with its help.
See if you can feel a surrendering,
A sense of letting go from head to toe,
Of surrendering what you may be holding as tension.
And see if you can scan the body and starting from the head notice if there is or are parts of the body that are holding tension.
See if you can give that away the way you allow your body to drop down with gravity just for these moments.
Letting your face become very soft if you haven't already allowing your eyes to close.
And feeling the softness of your face allow the expression of your face to go away as well.
Feeling that softness move from the head through the neck down toward the torso releasing and relaxing all the way down through the neck.
And then softening and releasing through the shoulders,
Through the upper arms,
Lower arms,
Through the wrists,
Hands and fingers.
Feeling a releasing and relaxing and moving from the top of the chest down slowly through the ribs feeling a releasing and relaxing down through the belly.
Softening the belly and feeling it move as you breathe.
Softening at the upper back just below the neck releasing and relaxing gliding down through the center of the back all the way out to the sides and feeling the tension that might exist in the lower back falling away.
Moving down through the waist,
Softening through the buttocks,
Releasing and relaxing through the thighs giving their weight to gravity and softening through the knees and through the calves and through the tops of the feet,
Ankles and around the heels,
Across the soles and all the way through the feet and toes.
Feeling your body getting even heavier,
Surrendering to gravity.
At this moment surrendering not just your body,
Surrendering the mind too.
It is often incredibly busy thinking and thinking but in these moments letting that subside,
Slow,
Letting the volume of the mind become lower and the speed becomes lower.
No matter what you have been thinking,
No matter what you may be thinking,
See if you can give that to gravity too just for the moments of this meditation and don't worry you can pick it all back up when we're done.
And if the mind is still busy,
Trust you're not doing anything wrong,
The mind thinks that's what it does and it has its own momentum sometimes and often.
But as best you can,
Keep your attention elsewhere because your attention is the energy the mind needs to move in the ways that it becomes most powerful,
Be it positive or negative.
And right now dropping all of that and bringing the attention to the breath,
The slow movement of your breath with no attempts to change its pace.
Feeling the belly soft and feeling its movement like the tides of the ocean,
Rising and falling with every breath.
Deepening attention,
Paying close attention to the felt sensations of the breath.
Nothing is more important in this moment than paying close attention to the movement of the breath where it's most apparent.
That can be the belly,
That can also be the movement of the chest or the movement of the air felt through the nostrils,
Wherever you'd like to focus.
And for just a few moments,
See if you can stay anchored in that place where your breath is most apparent with nothing else but that anchor.
As we sit in silence,
If you do get hooked by the mind and thinking,
When you notice this,
Know that this is entirely normal and you can gently bring your attention back to the movement of your breath.
So be here for a minute or two.
Stay with your breath.
Noticing any moment where your mind takes your attention or your attention runs with the mind,
Noticing how easy it is to gently bring it back to the anchor of the breath.
And now,
For just a minute,
See if you can drop your anchor completely.
See if you can just be.
Okay.
And now bringing your attention back to your breath.
Maybe,
If you like,
Gently deepening your breath,
Feeling it in your soft belly,
Feeling the aliveness of your feet,
Feeling the aliveness of your hands,
Feeling the aliveness of your heart space,
And perhaps noticing that it takes no thought to be aware of the body,
That awareness is inherently here.
And awareness without the monkey mind often includes fragrances of peace and contentment and sometimes even bliss.
And no matter how your experience was,
Remember that this is always a practice.
And the quote masters have meditations where they spend the entire meditation in their head.
And then we just stick with it.
And experiences are like weather patterns,
Always changing.
So too in meditation,
So too in life.
Deepening your breath once more.
And now,
When you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes.
Thank you so much for joining me.
I hope you have a beautiful day or night.
Take care.
