Hello and welcome to your guided mindfulness meditation.
Beginning your practice to set yourself up into a comfortable seated posture.
This may be on a chair or the ground.
You may like to prop yourself up against a wall if you are seated on the ground or perhaps place a pillow or blanket.
Anything that allows your seat to feel sustainable for your practice.
As you use this opportunity just to relax the shoulders away from the ears.
Letting go of any tightness or tension that may be present within the body.
And encouraging the eyes to simply soften or completely close down.
Welcoming yourself into your seated meditation posture.
And as you find an internal scan within your own body.
Just noticing the essence of your energy,
Your mood,
How it is you have physically arrived to your practice.
Without a need to compare or judge or even create a narrative.
Just to simply have that observing witnessing mind to yourself in this moment.
As your awareness moves towards the palms of your hands.
Noticing the simplicity into the sense of touch.
The subtle temperatures that greet your hands,
Perhaps your face.
Any area where your skin is exposed.
Feeling beyond the layers of clothing.
They brush against the physical skin of your body.
The parts of yourself that feel a sensation of warmth.
And the parts in which feel a sensation of cool.
As your awareness moves up towards the mouth.
Noticing the subtleties,
The tastes that linger within the mouth.
The sensation of having a tongue,
Teeth.
And allowing your awareness to guide upwards towards the ears.
Noticing the subtle sounds which feel quite close to you.
Those which seem a little further away.
Noticing the impermanence of each sound.
As one enters it will soon enough gently pass.
See if you can rest your awareness on one sound for a moment.
Perhaps the subtle sound inside the ear canal.
This is known as the sound of silence.
As your awareness moves up towards the nostrils.
Noticing the breath as it moves organically in and out of the body.
The sensations of breathing in through the nose and out through the nose.
That gentle pause between each breath in and out.
A moment here just to refine the breath.
Noticing any constriction or rigidity.
Creating a smooth and calm tempo.
You can breathe with ease in and out of the body.
You may like to inhale for a count of four.
And exhale for a count of four.
Just simple easy breathing.
And offering your mind this one gentle task.
Holy to fixate upon.
And anytime the mind becomes distracted,
Know that your next inhalation is that opportunity to begin again.
You may like to simply trace the sound of the breath.
Perhaps visualizing it as a color.
Or to simply trace the sensation of the breath moving in and out of the body.
Let's take one more round of this counted breath practice.
And when that full exhalation has completed its cycle.
Just relax and release from that counted breath.
But see if you can continue to follow the movement of the breath within you.
You may feel a specific point of your chest,
Ribs or abdomen in which you feel the breath moving.
A light expansion with every inhalation and a gentle contraction with every exhalation.
Just simple easy breathing.
Without a need to compete or challenge within yourself.
Rather just allowing the breath to occupy your complete attention.
And anytime a thought arrives,
See if you can perhaps label the quality of that thought.
Whether it is a memory,
A projection or just simply thinking.
You may like to repeat the quality of that thought three times mentally to yourself.
And gracefully allow that thought to pass.
Witnessing,
Acknowledging and letting go.
With that continuous pattern of breath cyclically moving in and out as your complete anchor to constantly return to.
You may notice a sense of pattern within the quality of thoughts if there are any present within your practice.
Perhaps more ruminating thoughts than projections.
Or perhaps a balance between simple thinking and projecting.
But as you continue this practice you may begin to notice a pattern as to where the mind wanders.
And with that acknowledgement continually bringing it back to the breath.
That intention to simply be in the presence of your body.
To be in the presence of the vitality your breath offers you.
And the spacious stillness of that moment.
And from there let's take one more breath here in together through the nose.
And this time go ahead open the mouth clear sigh cleanse that breath out.
As you release from that practice just allow yourself to return into subtle sensations within the body.
Connecting back in with the physical sense of your seat.
The energy of your physical body.
The energy of your mood.
Just noticing here any significant subtle changes that that mindful practice has offered you.
That subtle significant change that moves within you.
A sense of connection centering and awareness.
As you bring to mind the attention in back into the subtle sounds of the room you are present in.
The subtle temperatures that grace your skin.
In your own time with the eyes down towards the ground begin to very softly flutter the eyes open.
Welcoming yourself back to the light and back to the room.
