Begin at this very moment,
Exactly how you are,
Accepting where you find yourself at this very moment.
You're good enough to begin meditating.
You don't require any special skills or any unique wisdom.
You just need to settle in,
Accept a little boredom in your mind,
Breathe a little deeper and find quiet.
That's all it really needs to be.
Just come into this moment and this space.
If you're ready to do so,
Close your eyes,
Soften your shoulders,
Sink into your hips.
Notice your breath exactly where it is right now.
That is just where you're supposed to be.
And then not because you're doing anything wrong,
But because you can.
Breathe in a little deeper and when you breathe out,
Breathe a little slower.
You're slowing down.
You're coming into a greater quiet and a deeper stillness because it's good for you and it sweetly serves your soul.
Let yourself settle as you breathe in more deeply and exhale slower.
Feel the weight of your body.
Feel the expanse of it all the way out to your skin,
The volume and mass that you occupy.
Take a moment to be grateful for your body,
Your constant home that does so much to support you.
And then slow down a little more,
A deeper inhale,
A longer exhale,
Just a tiny bit more.
If you have any places of tension in your body or tightness,
See if you can direct your breath to heal and release those places.
Give them softness.
Notice your spine,
The length of your back as you breathe.
Use your lungs to expand the space between your vertebrae,
Extending your whole body north to south.
Each body has a particular volume,
The space it occupies from our core to the extremities of our skin.
Notice with as much precision as you can imagine the space you occupy.
You could almost mathematically guess at the volume of your body.
You don't have to,
But you can just imagine your body has an exact volume.
That's you going through the world.
Everybody has limitations.
It can go so far and sometimes no further.
We have limits to our physical capacity,
Limits to our reach,
Aches and pains.
With your breath,
Let your spirit transcend the bounds of your body and drift.
Envision that for a little while as you breathe.
As you breathe,
Know that you are your body and you are more than your body.
Let yourself expand into that possibility,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
And drifting.
Everyone has a boss,
Someone or people or an idea that they serve.
You have to serve somebody.
And mostly that's good.
It puts us in a network of mutuality.
Even if our boss is our pet,
We serve it by taking it outside and feeding it.
We all serve.
Sometimes it's happy service and sometimes it carries a little bit of mistrust or resentment.
Sometimes it's not fun.
That's okay.
But as you breathe in deeply and exhale slowly,
Know that you transcend service,
That you are not just put on this earth to serve,
But to be.
And that being is freedom.
And existence is gift.
Breathing in and transcending bosses and supervisors and others demands to be fully yourself as you are called to be.
In deeply,
Out slowly,
Free.
Dwelling into the stillness of the moment and the quiet of your surroundings such that you can hear and feel yourself breathe.
Everyone worries toward the future.
Every person has things on their mind at any moment that are coming and may not even arrive.
Duties and checklists ahead.
It's a sign of a life of commitment and richness.
For now,
You can transcend that,
Letting go of the distant future and breathing.
At your core,
You are an independent agent and every task is optional.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
In and out.
And leaving your to-do list far behind.
Enduring a deeper stillness,
Listening for a transcendent quiet.
Lastly,
Everyone at many times can feel beaten down,
Can feel small or less than,
Or wounded.
It's in our nature to suffer injuries,
Small and large.
We all receive scars well earned through life,
But we keep getting back up.
As you breathe in and out,
Know that that is what the universe wants of you and for you.
That you should rise again and be lifted up.
Feel in your breathing the possibility of uplift,
Getting lighter,
More pure,
Stronger,
Proud,
Confident.
You're breathing,
You're settling,
You're quieting the mind.
For the remainder of our time,
Remember that you can transcend your body,
You can transcend your bosses,
You can transcend your tasks,
And you can transcend your smallness.
Three more times,
Breathe in as deeply as you can,
And breathe out as slowly as you can.
Blessings.
