Good morning.
During this 20-minute meditation,
We will be simply learning how to listen to the birds,
The sounds of the birds,
To the calls of the birds,
To the songs that they sing,
So we may be truly here right now.
I invite you to come to a comfortable position,
Whether that's seated on the earth or on a cushion,
Or whether you're standing or laying down.
Wherever you can be,
Where you can remain aware and alert.
Once you've found yourself there,
I invite you to glance around the room,
Checking in your surroundings,
Noticing all the colors and all the textures,
All the shadows,
All the things that there are to notice right here.
And then once you feel like,
Yeah,
I can meditate here,
I can drop in here,
I encourage you to do just that.
So perhaps you soften your gaze and take a few slow,
Long,
Deep breaths.
We'll breathe in through our nose together for five,
And out our mouth for five,
Getting nice and long on the inhale,
And releasing tension in the body on the exhale.
Keep this pace going with your breath.
And when you feel ready,
I invite you to feel your lips so that you're breathing in and out of your nose only.
Now at any point in this practice,
You can come back to feeling this sensation of breath as an anchor,
As a place to ground us in the present moment.
So a couple of anchors could be the way that the breath swirls in the nostrils and how it feels cool on the way in,
And then how on the breath out,
There's a heat that comes out of the nostrils.
It's changed by being with you in your body,
And there's so much to notice in that.
And so the invitation is to come back to how much there is to notice,
Just simply about our breath.
Our breath is our sustaining force.
Without it,
We die.
And there's a way in which sitting in meditation with the birds,
The first thing can just soften us and bring us right into the present moment so the birds can be an anchor for you.
So we're going to come back to here.
Nature,
Mother Nature,
Thank you,
Mother Nature,
For the songs that you bring to us every day through these winged ones.
May we be presenced by their wisdom and by their gift of flight,
Allowing for the flight to catch our eye.
Bringing us right here,
Or the call from one bird to another.
Call and response.
May we learn to listen to the language of this wise one,
This wise group of winged creatures who come with songs to sing and messages to share in colors of magnificent beauty.
From the Allow for your breath to be slow and steady as you sit with whatever rises in you today.
There's nothing to change or fix about whatever it is that you are experiencing.
In mindfulness practice,
It is simply to become aware and then in the awareness,
Notice how we choose to respond,
Responding to the sensations that arise when we sit still.
Noticing if there's a tendency to fidget,
Try to make ourselves more comfortable by moving during our meditation,
Which oftentimes is a distraction from what really wants to come up.
To invite you,
See what it's like to sit in stillness.
Simply listen to the songs that the birds are singing for us.
And feel your breath.
That's all we're doing right now.
Just breathing and listening deeply.
I encourage you to bring back the five-count breath on the inhale and exhale if that feels supportive to your practice.
I invite your exhales to soften what's happening in your body,
To release any tension you may be holding in your jaw,
Maybe in your neck.
See how you can release while still remaining stationary and still.
And notice how our breath brings this subtle undulation into our entire being.
There is a subtle vibratory frequency with every inhale and every exhale that is only alive here and now in this breath,
In this moment.
1,
2,
3,
4.
.
.
Noticing if the mind has perhaps wandered or maybe it's still right with your breath just noticing with non-judgmental awareness.
It's that moment that we notice,
Ah yes,
I'm thinking that we can then kindly redirect ourselves right back,
Right back to the inhale,
Right back to the exhale,
Right back to the call of the birds.
As they sing songs for a new day,
May we all learn to be present and to greet the dawn with such joy as the birds.
We all learn to be present and to greet the dawn with such joy as the birds.
We all learn to be present and to greet the dawn with such joy as the birds.
As we sit in stillness there is a current of energy that runs through our bodies,
It runs through our minds,
It runs through our heartbeat.
And as you find that current in your heart right now keeping time with those long beautiful full breaths,
Noticing all the sounds around you,
Just including the sounds in what's happening in the moment.
Notice what it's like when you choose to stay and observe.
I invite you to take a few more intentional breaths,
Really breathing them in for the last few of this meditation.
See if you can perhaps invite a sense of these breaths feeling really good in your body.
I invite you to carry this presence,
This awareness of the winged ones who are all around us,
To presence us throughout our day and of course to remember our breath as a constant anchor to bring us right here.
We'll take one breath together to close,
Breathing in through your nose,
Breathing out through your mouth.
Thank you my friends for being here.
Enjoy your day.
