So to get started,
Let's firstly close our eyes for the best part.
And whilst we sit here for the first five minutes,
We're just going to calm ourselves down.
First,
Let's set an intention.
Whether it be for the day or just for the next 30 minutes.
The intention can be as simple as,
I will sit here for 30 minutes.
Or if you're like me and it's in the morning,
You can set something for the whole day.
And then just sit with that thought.
Other thoughts may arise,
But just keep thinking of your intention.
No need to overcomplicate it.
Keep things simple.
And the more we repeat it,
The more we can solidify it.
For use now or later in the day.
Depending on what we need.
And as we sit here with the intention,
Let us bring our attention to the breath.
Any part of the breath that seems most convenient to you.
Maybe it's the rising and falling of your lungs,
The air coming in and out of your throat,
Or the air coming in and out of your nose.
Finding a focus point that works for you.
And just observing.
Just observing.
There's no need to change it.
For now,
Just let it be natural.
Do not judge how you breathe.
Just watch it.
Maybe you can listen to it.
And as you let the breath fall in and out,
As it shall be,
You can find that it's all just happening.
We don't usually think about it when we observe it.
Along with everything else around us,
It's just happening.
The best thing we can do?
Simply observe.
Now you may find,
Whilst focusing on the breath,
That your mind keeps racing.
Thoughts keep coming in and out.
And that's totally fine.
The idea of this is not to stop the thoughts.
It is merely to observe them.
To observe them.
And to not let them bother us.
To let them pass without judgement.
So what we're going to do is,
When we find ourselves getting stuck with the thoughts,
Simply think the word,
Thinking,
And then return to the breath.
It's as simple as that.
Just think the word,
Thinking,
And then come back to observing the breath.
And do not get upset with yourself.
If you get too lost in your thoughts,
It's completely normal.
Just accept it.
Think the word,
Thinking,
And come back to the breath.
And the more we do this,
The easier it becomes.
Okay.
So now we're all nice and comfy.
We're going to do some very easy,
Simple breathing.
So the way we're going to breathe is in an alkaline fashion.
So we're going to breathe deeply in through the nose,
Fill the stomach,
Fill the lungs,
And then sigh it out.
Like so.
And as we breathe in through the nose,
We can softly touch our tongue against the roof of our mouth.
This helps to open the sinuses.
Continue at your own pace,
Just in.
We're going to do this for a few rounds.
And when I say so,
We will hold our breath for a little bit.
Not too long.
It's nothing to worry about.
Just deeply,
All the way in through the nose.
And sigh out through the mouth.
And when I count to 10,
We're going to take a really big,
Deep breath in and hold it for about 10 seconds.
And then we're going to sigh it out and hold it for about 30 seconds.
I'll do all the counting.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten.
All the way in and hold here.
And sigh it all out.
And hold the breath out here.
Observe the feelings in your body.
Maybe you have some tingling sensations.
That's great.
If you feel like you can't hold your breath,
No problem.
Feel free to breathe at any time.
Only 10 more seconds here.
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Back in.
And deep sigh out.
Now continue back into the pattern.
All the way in and sighing it out again.
Continuing at your own pace.
Keeping the tongue on the roof of the mouth when you inhale.
And letting it go as you exhale.
You may find your breath getting even deeper and deeper the more and more you practice it.
Once again,
Not judging this,
Just letting it be.
Enjoying.
And again,
When I count to 10,
10,
We'll hold the breath in.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten.
All the way in and hold here.
And let it all out.
And hold here again.
Observe your heartbeat.
See if you can slow it down with pure intention.
Notice the blood flowing through your veins.
Surprisingly simple it is to hold the body with no oxygen.
Okay,
In five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
All the way in.
And exhale.
Back into the pattern.
In through the nose.
Sighing out through the mouth.
And now what we're gonna do is as we sigh out,
We're going to hum at the same time.
So breathing in through the nose.
Using the hum to exhale.
This will slow down the pattern,
But that's okay.
Let it all out.
Notice the vibrations in your body as you hum.
We're gonna do this for 10 more seconds.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten.
All the way in.
And hold it here.
And hum it all out.
And when you reach the end of the hum,
Hold it there.
There's no air needed.
And now we sit here and observe the body again.
The heart,
Your blood,
Your lungs.
Any sensations you feel in your hands and your feet.
Maybe in your face.
That's where I usually get it right below my eyes.
Just sitting and marinating in the feeling.
You're doing great.
We're almost there.
If you feel you need to breathe,
Go for it.
But I believe that you can hold it longer.
And five more seconds.
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
All the way in.
And out again.
Let your breathing return to normal.
And by the way,
I lied.
That last one wasn't in it.
So well done.
And now I want you to imagine the room or wherever you are sitting in around you.
In your mind.
Imagine the furniture.
Or maybe you're outside,
So imagine the trees.
Place yourself where you are sitting in that room.
And in your mind,
Look towards the roof and imagine there's a bright white light coming down from the roof or from the sky.
And it's landing right,
Right in the top of your head,
In the middle of your scalp.
And as that white light touches the top of your scalp,
Focus there.
Bring your attention to the scalp,
The sides of it,
Just above your forehead.
Now everything that this white light touches,
It's going to relax it.
Feel free to change the color of the light as you please.
This is all about you.
So let us move that light and our attention to the forehead,
The eyebrows,
The temples,
Letting it relax all of those muscles.
Let it move down to your eyelids,
To your eyes,
Letting them rest in their sockets,
Down to your nose,
Your cheeks,
To the area just above your mouth.
Now to your lips,
Your tongue,
Letting your tongue rest naturally in the mouth and to the jaw,
Letting it drop as feels comfortable.
Now bring that white light to the front of the throat,
The sides of the throat,
Relaxing the throat muscles.
I'm the only one talking so you don't need them.
It's okay.
Let them relax and bring the light and the attention down to your collarbones,
Shoulders,
Letting them fall.
Now to your upper arms,
Your biceps,
Your triceps,
Forearms,
Your elbows.
And now to our hands,
To the palms,
To the backs of the hands,
To the palms,
To the backs of the hands,
Every individual finger.
Pay attention as the light touches each part of the body,
Relaxes them.
Now we've moved it up and up our arms,
We can bring it back up the arms,
Up back to the shoulders.
And now to the chest,
Notice your lungs breathing in and out,
Relaxing them along with the chest muscles,
Down your sternum to your belly.
Maybe you have some kind of sensations in your stomach or your kidneys or your intestines.
Maybe you have some kind of sensation in your stomach or your kidneys or your intestines.
Let them all relax and just observe.
Now move that light and your attention to your lower back.
When we sit,
We often feel some kind of tension here.
If you feel tension here,
Just observe it,
Now from the lower back,
Move up to the lower middle back and the upper back,
Relaxing everything that the light and your attention touches.
Now we move to the back of the neck and the back of the head so that now the light has touched from the top of our head to basically our hips and all the way back up.
So now all of that light and relaxation,
We're going to imagine that it is coming out of the top of our heads and falling over us like an umbrella surrounding us.
If you want,
You can make it spin,
It can be quite fun.
And as it falls around you,
Let it re-enter through the base of your feet,
Relaxing your toes,
The soles of your feet,
Your ankles,
Moving up through your calves,
To your knee,
To your knee,
Relaxing the thighs,
The fronts and the backs,
And joining the hips.
Now we will sit here for a few minutes,
Enjoying the relaxation in our body,
Noticing any sensations that arise.
And if we get lost in thought,
Remember just to think the word thinking,
Return to the breath,
And return to observing the relaxation inside of our bodies.
Feel free to smile if you're feeling good,
Noticing anything in your body,
Any sensations,
Letting them be.
And often,
When we simply observe sensations,
They tend to go away.
Fantastic.
Okay,
Let us bring our attention back to the feet.
We're going to now move up the body slowly,
And as we do,
We're going to return everything to its base awake state.
So the feet,
The ankles,
And the legs,
Let them wake up.
Our hips,
Our stomach,
And our lower back,
And our lower back,
Let them wake up.
Our chest,
Middle and upper back,
Let them wake up.
Shoulders,
Neck,
Time to wake up.
And the face,
The back of the head,
And still keeping our eyes closed,
Just waking up the muscles again,
And all of the light and the energy that we've found in our bodies,
Let's store it in the top of our heads.
Just leave it there,
So you can use it whenever you need.
If you're feeling run down,
Or anxious,
Or stressed out,
You can try and imagine that it's still there,
Because we've left it there,
And you can use it.
Now that our body is alert again,
We will just sit here for a few more minutes,
Focusing on the breath,
Going back to our intention.
If your intention was to sit through the practice,
Congratulations,
You've done it.
Well done,
You should be proud.
If your intention is for something later in the day,
Remind yourself of it,
And I hope that you achieve it.
And as we sit here for a minute or two more,
I'd like to leave you with a little story,
A little Sufi story,
A little parable.
There is a man who has a dream,
A dream of becoming enlightened,
Of becoming all-knowing,
And he thinks about this a lot.
And then a voice comes to him one night in a dream,
And it tells him that he needs to go out into the forest to learn how to be enlightened.
So the man goes out into the forest,
Looking for some sort of key to seeking the knowledge,
And he sees a fox lying on the ground with no legs.
And so he thinks to himself,
This must be it.
How does this fox with no legs survive?
So he sits and he watches the fox.
And as the sun goes down,
A lion comes up to the fox and lays a piece of meat down for the fox to eat.
I understand now,
Thinks the man,
All I need to do is trust in God and trust in the world and everything will come my way.
So he sits and he waits and waits and waits,
Not eating,
Barely sleeping.
And after about two weeks in a fever dream,
While starving,
The voice comes back to him again and says,
You fool,
Don't be like the fox,
Be like the lion.
I'll leave you with that.
Thank you for sitting with me.
You did a wonderful job.
I hope you can go about the rest of your day wonderfully.
I'm hoping to do these sessions every month.
So feedback is welcome.
If there's anything in particular you'd like to do next time,
Let me know.
You can now open your eyes,
Enjoy the world or the room,
Move your body slowly.
No need to rush to get up.
If you've fallen asleep,
Well,
Good night.
And just slowly at your own pace,
Go about the rest of your day.
May peace be with you.
Thank you for joining me.
