Gentle Awareness

Make your way towards feeling a little bit more comfortable.

So if you need to rearrange yourself do so now.

Remember that if you feel pretty uncomfortable sitting down you can always find your support laying down instead.

Take a moment just to feel into your body.

Notice any spaces that feel tangled that feel like they're still trying to hold you up somehow.

Control and just allow those spaces to soften.

See if you can unravel and give the ground your weight just a little bit more.

Start to take in this moment noticing any sounds you can hear around you.

They could be near,

They could be far without investigating as to why that sound is there or placing too much story on it.

Can you just notice your surroundings and move on to the next sound you can hear.

Notice any textures you can feel.

The clothes against your skin,

Your body against your support.

Notice if you feel heavy into that support or do you feel light?

Neither is right or wrong just notice how you feel.

Can you draw your awareness to the tip of your nose?

As you inhale and exhale try and keep it only through your nose so less through your mouth just inhaling and exhaling through your nose if possible.

Notice that the inhale feels there's a slightly colder sensation at the tip of your nose and as the air leaves the body with the exhale it's a little bit warmer.

See if you can notice that.

Bring your awareness down through your shoulders see if you can feel your shoulders from the inside out.

Feel that space within the upper part of your chest and shoulders.

See if you can allow space,

Allow the muscles of the shoulders just to soften.

Using a sense of ease and openness.

Yeah I'm feeling down through your body into the heart space noticing the heart space from the inside out.

So imagining the feelings from deep within your body the center of your chest and noticing sensations from the core of your chest outwards to your rib cage and to the skin you're in.

See if we can rest our awareness there just noticing the ebb and flow of the breath from that space so as you inhale you'll notice from the core of your chest the chest will expand outwards in all directions.

As you exhale feel the air leave the body,

Chest relaxes back towards that center line.

See if you can rest your awareness just there.

Just watching the breath easefully passing in and out through your body.

Sometimes and when your mind starts to shift and drift off into somewhere else can you easefully guide it back into relaxation.

Allow it to soften and draw your awareness back to watching ebb and flow of your breath from the chest.

It can help to notice the thoughts that come and then just mentally say to yourself thinking and then arrive back to relaxation relax the mind again and come back to your breathing.

So often when we notice the mind runoff it brings up judgment on the simple fact that our mind did what it does which is think when actually in when we're practicing these meditations the meditation happens when we notice the thinking and bring us back to concentration so back to a point of one pointed focus simply watching the breath.

So it's watching the mind float off and then gracefully arriving back without judging the mind as to where it's gone in the process.

Every time the mind floats away just guide it back relaxing your awareness in that center point of your chest watching the breath from the inside out.

So Once again if your mind has wandered,

Gently draw it back,

Take a few intentionally deep breaths in and out through your nose.

Connecting to that grounding sensation at your hips as you exhale.

Once again feeling the support of the ground beneath you.

Once again noticing the clothes against your skin,

That feeling of touch and connection.

Once again noticing any sound you can hear around you near or far.

And then just setting the intention to carry this kind of gentle awareness,

A gentleness with yourself and your thoughts.

See if you can carry that with you for the rest of your day.

Thanks so much for meditating with me today.

If you haven't already,

Open your eyes and enjoy the rest of your day.