Get To Your Writing Desk: A Meditation For Procrastination

This short guided meditation addresses the act of physically transitioning to writing from any other activity. Sometimes all that's needed to stop procrastinating is to physically put our bodies in front of the page.

Photo by pedrosimoes7. Music by Scott Buckley.

Transcript

Hello, Let's hop right into it because you're here because you wanted to stop procrastinating. Okay, First arrange yourself in a comfortable but alert position. Then once you've done that, Let's take three deep belly breaths. So inhale, Feeling your lungs expand, Feeling your diaphragm press out, Feeling your stomach expand all the way until you can't comfortably go any farther. Hold it for a second and then exhale, First compressing the bottom of your stomach, Then your diaphragm, Then the base of the lungs to the tops until you can't get out any more air and then breathe back in. So inhaling top of the lungs, Feeling the bottom of your lungs expand, The diaphragm rise, The stomach and then exhaling, Reversing that through the base of the belly, The diaphragm, The bottom of the lungs, Top of the lungs, Holding for just a moment and full exhale and then inhaling one more time. So top of the lungs, Bottom of the lungs, The diaphragm, The belly, Inhaling fully to a place where it's still comfortable holding for a moment and then exhaling, Compressing the base of the belly, The diaphragm, The bottom of the lungs, The top of the lungs until all the air that you had in is expressed. And then breathe regularly and picture yourself writing. Consider the place where it is that you most like to write or at least can write today. Maybe you know what that place is already, But maybe you don't know and then just call it to mind right now, Just the first workable place that comes to mind. Now in your mind's eye, Investigate in this place, What are the touch sensations that you experience? What do you feel against your body? Is there a hard surface you're resting against or a soft pillow? What does the air smell like? Are you able to taste any of it against your tongue? Is there a bird song or maybe muffled rustling you hear beyond the earplugs you'll put in or a conversation, A cafe that fades as you focus on the scene you're writing? Explore wherever you are in your mind's eye, That writing space that's your favorite or at least going to have to do for today. Explore it for the next 15 seconds or so. And if you aren't finding anything new, Just relax into the setting in your mind's eye, Observing. Okay. Now picture yourself wherever you are right now listening to this guided meditation. And let's imagine the steps it will take to get to the workspace you just imagined. And what will it feel like the five senses again, As you move to get there, The movement of your muscles, The momentum of forward motion? Are you going to pull on a jacket, Get in a bus or a car or rollerblades or shift positions, But otherwise write pretty much exactly where you are now? What's the scent of the errors you move, The feeling in your body? Picture the whole physical journey, Whether it's a long journey or a short one from where you are right now to where you'll be when you write. And at the end of this picture the motion of taking out whatever you'll be writing with computer, Pencil, Pen, Phone, And typing the first letters of your day. And if you don't know what those first letters are going to be, Choose any letter, Maybe your favorite or just the letter A because it's the first letter in the alphabet and the sensation in your hands or toes or tongue as you write it. I'll give you a moment to imagine this to yourself fully. And if you're already there in your mind, Take the trip a few more times, Seeing if you notice anything new with your imagination and your five senses in your mind. Okay, So now you've visualized it, You felt it in your body. Let's take one more deep breath, Maybe the deepest one you've taken so far, Inhaling, Bringing the air into the tips of your lungs, The bottom of your lungs, Feeling your diaphragm expand outward, Your belly expand outward. And then exhale, Feeling your belly compress, Your diaphragm compress, The base of your lungs, The tips of your lungs. And when you're done with this exhale, Open your eyes, Wiggle your fingers and toes, Take in normal deep breaths and then go just the way you visualized and get to the writing.