As we always do,
Find a posture that's comfortable.
Some gentle movement,
Maybe stretching out the neck in a way that feels comfortable.
Can look slowly side to side.
And down.
And when you're ready,
Gently closing the eyes or letting the gaze soften.
Almost imagining if we could close all the browser tabs of the mind or minimize them for the next 15 or 20 minutes.
Setting an intention to let everything go.
Trusting that whatever is important will be there when we're done here.
Taking a few deep breaths in through the nose.
And sighing out as loudly as you feel comfortable doing in your space.
If you're alone or not disturbing anybody,
I encourage you to do this two or three more times and really sigh it out.
Letting the feet rest on the floor or in a comfortable position.
Feeling the weight of the body held up by your chair or sofa or cushion.
Setting the intention to cultivate stillness.
Anticipating that the mind will certainly get distracted,
Will take you in a hundred or a thousand or a million or a billion different directions during this meditation.
We don't really have control over that.
We don't really need to control that.
We do have a little bit more control in the area of the body.
And just sort of committing to finding a position that feels comfortable and balanced.
And then letting this be our posture for the duration of the meditation.
The less we allow ourselves to fidget and adjust and scratch every itch and,
You know,
Turn and look at every sound,
Sort of resetting the clock.
So just trusting that barring any serious emergency,
We can probably just deepen and cultivate this stillness for the next few minutes without any real consequence.
Taking in one more deep breath.
And on the out breath,
Letting go of any expected outcome,
Any transactional nature of if I show up and sit still,
I'm just letting go of that thought.
Any transactional nature of if I show up and sit still and close my eyes,
I will get this much relaxation or,
You know,
Inner peace that is durable.
Maybe just enjoy this moment.
Body breathing in,
Body breathing out.
And just noticing already a few minutes in what's changing.
Maybe the mind feels more active or less active.
Closing the eyes might bring sharper resolution of certain sensations in the body.
So one of the things that we're practicing here is just noticing.
Mysterious quality of mind is that we can intentionally direct our attention for a moment,
But we can't intentionally direct it indefinitely.
We always get pulled away.
So I invite you to really sense into the sensations of breathing in your nostrils.
Probably can't help,
But suddenly notice something about the air going in and out of the nose.
Cool air coming in,
Warm air going out.
Gentle flaring of the nostril.
You might notice the expansive feeling of the breath if you've taken an allergy pill this morning or the weak,
Stodgy breath of forgetting to take your allergy pill this morning.
And suddenly you're not thinking about the nostril.
You're not experiencing that sensation.
So for the next few minutes,
Use that bit of spotlight attention to come back to the breath.
Then rest the attention and observe what happens.
Observe what pulls you away from that sensation.
And then let go and let the cycle repeat.
You're probably still breathing,
But are you still aware of breathing?
And as quickly as the mind can get distracted,
That's how quickly we can reorient to some present moment experience.
We sit with the intention of merely breathing in and out and being present with those sensations.
And these other thoughts always pop up.
And I'd invite you to consider that the importance of any distracting thought in any given moment is pretty close to zero.
In this moment,
There's nothing to do.
The thoughts may sound like they're coming from us,
Sound like our own voice and our own mind,
But they bubble up from more of a subconscious place.
So part of the practice is just training to identify with them a little bit less and to notice that,
Oh,
I'm just here trying to breathe and the thoughts are popping up.
And 99.
9% of our lives,
We spend identifying with them,
Pulling the threads as far as they'll go,
Leapfrogging to related ideas,
Not even aware that we're thinking.
Come back to the sensations of breathing in and out through the nostrils.
Air flowing across the upper lip,
Waves of breath like the tides of the ocean.
There's no good or bad when it comes to the breath.
There's no right or wrong.
Letting the sound of my voice almost come out of my mouth and my voice almost act as a bell,
Cutting through the stories and the train of thought,
Reminding you to come back to the body.
Scanning the body now,
Maybe find a place of tension or discomfort.
And really exploring what it feels like.
Can you breathe in and out from that place?
Can you breathe into that place?
Does it have a color?
Does it have a temperature?
Is it sharp or dull?
Stick with that place.
Is it changing?
Can our attention even rest on something that is uncomfortable and distracting?
Or does the mind still get pulled into thinking or stories about it or stories about something else?
Maybe a moment ago,
We were trying to breathe.
The tension in the shoulder was the distraction.
Now that we're in the shoulder,
Something else is the distraction.
Now let go of the effort.
Let go of any specific part of the body.
You feel the whole body breathing in and out in unison.
Energy rising on the inhale,
Settling on the exhale.
What is the mind afraid of in rest?
Why is there a part of the mind that wants us to do something other than being here with the breath?
What is the part of the mind that's wondering how long this will last?
The part that can't just be here,
Trust the process.
And how often do we let that part of the mind run the show?
Mind and who we are is much more expansive than that part.
The subconscious thought factory,
The habitual reactive mind.
Every time we return to the breath,
We allow other possibilities in this moment and in future lives.
In future moments.
In our last minute,
Seeing if we can continue the practice after we open our eyes,
After we re-enter the world.
What is stopping us?
Do we need to draw a line between life and practice?
When you're ready,
Slowly reintroducing some movement,
Coming back to the space around you.
Thank you for your practice.
