Start by sitting in a posture that suggests your intention to remain alert but relaxed throughout this practice.
Sit up straight but not stiffly as if your head has been gently pulled upright by an invisible cable.
Allow your spine to lift but your shoulders to relax.
You should be upright and erect but not stiff,
More relaxed.
Put your hands wherever they feel comfortable in your lap or on your thighs.
Place your feet flat on the floor,
Legs uncrossed and relaxed.
You may close your eyes or keep them slightly open,
Looking downward a few feet in front of you with a soft focus.
Let's begin by settling with six mindful breaths.
Take six breaths where you notice the breath going into your body and out of your body or where you consciously allow the out breath to be up to one and a half or twice the length of the in breath.
Just letting those six breaths relax you and bring you into a settled alert frame of mind as I go quiet.
You you you you you focusing on your feet,
Not looking at your feet,
But rather just allowing your attention to seek out any sensations that are coming from your feet on the floor.
How do you know your feet are on the floor?
You may feel a sense of gravity rooting your feet to the ground.
There may be a sensation of your socks or stockings in contact with your foot and then turn with the shoe.
There may be tingling or pulsing,
Perhaps hot or cold,
Or there may be nothing whatever.
But simply for a moment or two,
Just sitting,
Allowing yourself to become aware of your feet on the floor and any sensations,
If there are sensations that tell you that they are there.
Paying attention as I go silent for a few seconds.
And now,
Allowing your attention your attention to slip from your feet on the floor,
Up to wherever you're making contact with the seat you're sitting upon.
Just noticing the bones and the muscles of your hips and thighs as they contact the chair.
And again,
Just allowing yourself to open up to any sensations that tell you you're sitting here in this chair,
Or indeed if you're lying on the floor that you're lying on the floor.
What do you notice?
Is there any pulsing or throbbing?
Sensation of your clothing in contact with your skin?
Your thighs or your hips in contact with the chair?
Just opening up and allowing any sensations that arise just to come to your attention,
Not straining too much,
And not being disturbed if all you notice is there's nothing to notice.
That's okay too.
Just allowing yourself to open up your attention to what's going on with your seat in the chair.
Just slipping into that relaxed attention for the next 30 seconds or so as I go quiet.
Now,
Let's connect with an intention for doing this practice.
The intention of this practice is to visualize a time when your future vision of yourself has come to pass,
Sitting with a relaxed open mind,
And allowing yourself to reinforce your intentions for this day,
This week,
Or for the coming months and years.
This practice will gently reorient your attention to your longer term intentions,
Especially at times when the day to day pressure of commitments is crowding those longer term and desirable intentions out of your mind.
So connecting with the intention for revisiting your future vision of yourself.
So now bring your attention to your breath as it travels in and out of your body.
You may notice a movement of the abdomen or the chest that you breathe in,
Or perhaps colder air at your nostrils as the air enters,
Warmer as it exits.
Wherever the sensation of breathing is most noticeable for you,
Simply allow yourself to rest your attention there gently,
Just noticing the passage of the breath in and out.
Just noticing this breath going in,
This breath going out.
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
Your mind may wander away from the breath and that's okay.
It's perfectly normal for minds to do that.
When you notice that your mind has wandered,
Simply notice and distracted and return your attention back to the breath,
Following the breath in and out,
Noticing it at the nostrils as it goes in and out or in the abdomen as the abdomen rises and falls,
Wherever it's most vivid for you.
And if you're distracted from the breath 100 times,
Simply notice that and return your attention back to the breath with no judgment,
No worry about it.
It's perfectly normal.
Just allowing the breath to do what it does as much as is possible,
Maintaining attention to it as it travels in and out of your body.
Can you be kind and curious with yourself,
Even if you get distracted and have to continually bring your attention back to the breath?
Do you feel the sense of comfort in your breath.
Just allowing the breath to be kind of a home base,
An anchor for your awareness.
Thoughts will come and go.
There's no need to push them away,
Nor is there any need to chase after them.
If your attention wanders,
Simply bringing it back to the breath.
Noticing this breath now.
Then the next breath.
Simply keeping the attention on the breath in that relaxed,
Gentle,
Non-judgmental manner over the period of silence the next 30 or 40 seconds or so.
Okay,
Now gently bring to mind the vision you developed over the course of the program.
And project yourself forward to a time that that vision has come to pass.
When is that?
What are you doing?
How do you feel having realized this vision?
What does it mean to you and your loved ones?
Simply spend a few minutes over the silence,
Enjoying the feelings that come with your future success.
Seeing and feeling what it's like completely.
Now allow your mind to track backwards from that future point.
And recognize that what you do today,
Tomorrow or this week,
However small,
Can move you along that path.
Set the intention that you'll be alert and aware of any opportunity that arises before the end of this day or this week or this month that can keep you on track to your desired future.
See yourself being alert and aware of your vision as you go about your life with clear purpose and intent from every day for this point forward.
Allow yourself to feel how you'd feel doing so,
Knowing that each day like that is moving you ever closer to your vision.
Allow yourself to enjoy the sense that you're becoming more and more alert and more aware of all opportunities that might arise to move you closer to your vision.
Now take a deep breath and as you release it,
Slowly bring your attention out of that future vision and back to this present moment,
To right now.
What sounds do you hear?
What sensations do you feel?
What emotions do you sense that tell you you're focused back in this present moment?
Allow your mind to rest just for the next several seconds in silence in this present moment.
So,
As we come into the last few minutes of the practice,
Bring your attention back to the breath as it travels in and out of the body,
Tracking it wherever it's most vivid to you at the nostrils or in the abdomen,
Noticing the breath passing in and out.
And when you're distracted,
Noticing the distraction,
But returning yourself,
Your attention back to the breath just for a minute or so.
On the next breath,
Allowing the exhalation to be slow and gentle.
Beginning to bring your attention back to the noises and the sensations of the room around you.
Just before we terminate the practice,
Once again,
Visiting the intention that you're going to be alert and aware of any opportunity that arises before the end of this day or this week or this month that keeps you on track to your desired future.
