Hi,
Welcome to this guided meditation.
Today we're going to explore the six steps preparation.
This preparation has many benefits.
By practicing it,
You will feel more motivated,
You will strengthen your discipline and you will be less distracted during your sit.
We're going to go through the six steps in detail.
But when practicing it,
The six step preparation may only take you a minute or even less.
So when you're ready,
Simply take a comfortable posture and close your eyes.
So first,
We're going to look at our motivation for meditating.
Why do we actually want to meditate?
Are we meditating for stress reduction?
Are we meditating to improve our concentration?
Are we meditating to feel more relaxed,
Peaceful,
Happy?
Maybe we just meditate because we like the idea of training our mind.
Whatever the reason is,
Don't judge it.
Simply acknowledge why you are meditating.
This reason may change from session to session and this is perfectly normal.
Second,
We're going to choose a goal for this meditation session.
Recalling previous sessions,
There may be problems or obstacles or challenges that we run into quite often.
For example,
We may spend a lot of time planning our day ahead or reviewing the past day or the past hours.
We may also recall some instructions that will help us meditate.
We can recall,
For example,
That it is very important when we notice that the mind has wandered away to appreciate the fact that we're conscious.
Not to be disappointed or frustrated by our mind has wandered away.
So when the mind wanders away,
Our goal is to fully appreciate this recognition.
And then we go back to the breath sensations at the nose.
Third,
We want to drop expectations.
We've just formulated a few goals and perhaps a motivation to meditate.
But our meditation practice shouldn't be done in a mindset of expectation.
We should always work with what arises and not be disappointed if our meditation is more challenging than we expected.
Also,
We should not expect our experiences to be consistent across meditation sessions.
So we're going to have sessions that are very pleasant and we're going to have sessions that are very unpleasant.
Not each session should be approached as a discovery,
As an exploration.
So we're letting go of expectations.
Fourth,
We're going to commit to practicing seriously.
Sometimes we may find ourselves on the cushion without really intending to meditate.
When this happens,
We want to make sure to renew our intention and increase our level of effort.
We're taking this time as a gift to ourselves.
We're going to make best use of it.
Fifth,
There may often be distractions that come up again and again and again.
We may recall a few distractions that come up particularly often and are harder to deal with perhaps.
This is normal,
But right now,
We're going to remind ourselves of what these distractions are and we're going to resolve to put them aside during our meditation session.
This will help the mind collaborate with us and these distractions will come up less,
Less and less often as we keep practicing.
Sixth and last step,
We're going to adjust our posture,
Make sure that it is straight and that we're reasonably comfortable to continue meditating.
Once that is done,
We're going to move our attention to the breath sensations at the nose.
We're going to feel the sensations of the incoming breath and we're going to feel the sensations of the outgoing breath.
We are watching the sensations produced by the in-breath and produced by the out-breath.
We may even notice sensations between the in-breath and out-breath and between the out-breath and the in-breath.
By practicing like this,
We are sharpening our mind and we're training it for further practices.
Now,
You can look at all the sensations throughout the body and expand your attention to include all of them,
Whether they're in your legs,
In your arms,
In your upper body.
We're looking at different sensations in different places,
Doing their own thing,
Some of them pleasant,
Some of them unpleasant.
But we're simply watching,
We're not concerned with the content of the sensations.
Now we're going to expand our attention even more,
To include the sounds,
The feeling of the air in the room we're in.
Notice the feeling of space around you.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes.
So that was the six-step preparation followed by a quick meditation.
You can practice the six-step preparation before every sip.
It will increase your motivation.
Make it very clear what you have to practice and reduce your distractions.
