Hi,
My name is Ellie and I'll be guiding you through this meditation on cultivating clarity and focus.
Sometimes,
Especially at the beginning of the day,
Or you might get to the middle of the afternoon and you feel a bit scattered,
Ungrounded,
Perhaps anxious or overwhelmed,
We can easily cut through the noise,
Arrive here and cultivate that clarity to move forwards with conviction through the techniques I'll share with you today.
If you haven't already,
Find a comfortable space to sit,
Distraction free,
Maybe sat on a chair or on the floor,
Even laying down if you'd rather.
Be sure that you feel supported,
That your spine can lengthen.
Invite some space and broadness across your chest.
Lengthen through the back of the neck.
Soften your jaw and either maintain a soft gaze or invite your eyes to close.
Take that as your invitation away from the outside world and whatever circus you feel is flying around you and your invitation to draw your awareness inward to this moment,
To this body and to begin setting the intention to really cultivate this feeling of clarity.
Be open to the possibility of clarity and to cultivating some focus for the rest of your day.
Begin by connecting to the points of contact between your body and your support,
Maybe between your hips and your chair or your hips and the floor,
Maybe from the soles of your feet to the ground.
Scan around that point of contact,
Connecting to a feeling of being held rather than sitting or laying on something,
You're being held up here.
That support can take the weight of your worries,
The weight of your overwhelm,
The weight of your anxieties.
Feel them melt into your support along with your body,
Surrendering.
Gently start to guide your awareness towards your breathing,
Breathing in and out through your nose as best you can.
To begin with,
Have little control over your breath but rather observe the body breathing itself.
Watch that natural ebb and flow of the breath pass through your body.
Also maybe invite some curiosity into your attention.
Notice the length of your breath.
Is your exhale longer than your inhale or maybe the other way around?
Does the breath feel high in your body,
Maybe around your chest or low in the body around the belly button?
Welcome a feeling of nothing being right or wrong.
Rather our job is just to observe the nuance of the breath unfolding,
Moment to moment.
To begin to invite that focus and clarity into the mind,
I'm going to start with a breathing exercise,
Which is very simple.
You just count each breath,
Counting backwards from 20 until zero.
On your next exhale count 20.
At the end of your next exhale count 19.
At the end of your next exhale count 18 and so on in your own time,
Counting backwards now from 17 until zero.
If your mind wanders,
Don't worry,
Just come back to your breath.
Begin again from 20,
Counting backwards from 20 until zero.
From wherever you are,
Just drop your count,
Come back to that spontaneous breath,
Come back to watching your body breathe itself and meet yourself here.
Just notice how you're feeling.
Anchor your attention towards wherever in your body you sense the movement of breath the most.
Now is that at the rise and fall of your belly,
The expansion and contraction of your ribs,
The rise and fall of your chest,
The subtle sensation at the tip of your nose as the air flows in and out.
Again,
No such thing as right or wrong,
Just connect your attention and anchor your awareness to wherever you sense you're breathing the most.
Just continue watching your breath here as and when your mind starts to wander,
Knowing that it will at some point.
Just acknowledge and accept that thinking is happening.
Rather than forcing that thought away or allowing your awareness to get further tangled up within it,
Take the power back.
Choose to release it and choose to come back here,
Back to your next breath,
Taking your inhale as your invitation to begin again,
Your exhale as your invitation to relax again and release again.
And just continue in that way.
I'll mind the time for you and I'll come back in a few minutes.
Once again,
If your mind has started to wander,
Acknowledge and accept that thoughts are there.
Instead of getting tangled up in judgment around that thought or even forcing that thought away,
We welcome it.
We also choose to let it go.
The clarity comes every time that you let go of thoughts and choose to come back into this present moment.
The spaciousness of this moment.
Focus is built each time you anchor your awareness towards one point,
Towards one breath.
Come back into your body now.
Reconnect with that feeling of support between your body and that which is supporting you.
Maybe start to deepen your breath and whenever you're ready to,
Slowly start to open your eyes.
Take a moment of gratitude towards yourself for cultivating this sense of clarity and focus today for taking space in your day to connect back to you and set your intention to take that into the rest of your day.
Have a lovely day and take care.
