For the next few minutes of this guided mindfulness meditation,
Find yourself a nice and quiet,
Comfortable spot.
You may sit down in a comfortable position with your spine erect.
When sitting is not an option for you at this point,
You may also lie down.
Just be aware that lying down increases your chance of your mind wandering.
So let's prepare.
Make sure you're sitting straight with your head straight in line of your spine,
Directly over your shoulders,
Your shoulders directly over your hips,
So your breath and energy can flow freely up and down.
We're going to start by progressively relaxing the body.
We're going to start with your forehead and eyebrows,
Letting go of all the tension you're feeling in this area.
Relax your eyes.
Let them gaze easily upwards and in between your eyebrows.
Relax your jaw and tongue.
Relax your shoulders,
Your arms and hands.
Relax your whole trunk.
Relax your legs and feet.
And ensure comfort and relaxation in your body.
Now bring your awareness to your breath.
Bring your awareness to the point where you can feel the breath most distinctly.
It might be the rise and fall of your abdomen.
It might be the air passing through your nostrils.
Whichever place you find,
Cover your whole awareness around the sensation.
All there exists right now is your breath and the sensations attached to it.
Become aware of the quality of your breath.
Is it fast or slow,
Shallow or deep?
Make a mental note of how it is right now and observe the possible change.
You may notice that your breath becomes deeper and slower over time.
And whenever the thought grabs your attention,
Simply and gently bring your awareness back to your breath.
Thoughts naturally arise,
As it is the job of our brain to produce thoughts.
Without these thoughts,
We would often be helpless in our world,
Wouldn't know what to do.
Mindfulness meditation,
We're just trying to be aware and not get lost in these thinking patterns.
And by simply zooming out and seeing a thought as just a thought and not as the whole reality,
We slowly begin to disentangle and detach ourselves from the realm of thought and slowly penetrate our true identity,
Separate from thought.
So slowly try to let go of your breath as an anchor of focus.
And simply be.
This means having an open,
Exclusive awareness to everything that is entering your realm of awareness.
It might be a thought,
A picture,
A sound,
A sensation in your physical body,
Whatever it may be.
Simply be aware and experience the sensation and see it as only that,
A stimulus entering your field of awareness,
Without any judgment or labeling,
It just is.
So without holding onto it or clinging to it,
You will see that it disappears just by itself.
So and again,
The thought has pulled you down into the rabbit hole,
Slowly snap back out of it and realize that this is presence,
This is reality.
A thought is simply a figment of your mind and it can only exist with your attention.
So and now slowly,
If you haven't already,
Open your eyes and become aware of the changing sensations,
Entering your awareness,
Light,
Color,
The world around you and realize that there is no difference to previously when your eyes were closed.
For often we keep our meditation separate from real life happening with our eyes closed.
But with this open eye practice,
Let's try to bring this quality of mindfulness into our daily life to really reap its benefits.
So just continue like this,
Awareness of your mind,
So just continue like this,
Awareness,
Open awareness,
Maybe you see a piece of furniture,
A plant,
Don't linger too much on any sensation,
Just keep your awareness wide open,
Neutral.
Then you can choose to stay like this for as long as you feel comfortable.
Otherwise,
Very slowly awaken your body,
The small gestures of your hands and feet,
And slowly start about your day.
Namaste.
