Welcome to meditation.
Make yourself comfortable in your seat.
Whether you're sitting in a chair or you're sitting cross-legged on the floor,
Or even if you're lying down,
Feel your body just as it is in this moment.
Feel the position of your body.
Feel the condition of your body,
Like if you feel tired or you feel energized.
Then scan through from the top of your head all the way to the soles of your feet.
Notice if there are any places that feel especially tense.
If you find tension,
Just breathe into it.
See if you can let it go.
Definitely let your face relax.
Definitely let your belly relax.
Breathe like you're breathing into your face and let that soften.
Breathe right into your belly and let any hardness,
Any tension that might be there go.
Then bring your attention to your breathing and take a few breaths that are a little bit deeper than normal.
Sometimes we need to stretch our lungs out a little bit.
We do this just by breathing all the way in and breathing all the way out.
You don't have to force anything,
But just expand your lungs with a big inhale and really empty them with a full exhale.
Do that a few times.
This will also help your body to relax and help you to settle in for this meditation.
Just a few more of these full breaths.
After that next full exhale,
Just let your breath be totally natural,
But keep paying attention to it.
Just feel it come in and go out,
It's like a swinging door.
Comes in and goes out.
Let's enjoy that.
And then we're going to add a kind of a visualization to this breath focus.
Imagine that your whole body from the top of your head to the soles of your feet is a big vessel.
And that as your breath moves,
The energy of your breath goes all the way through that vessel.
And it goes like this.
When you breathe in,
The energy rushes all the way up through you from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
And when you breathe out,
It goes down again from the top of the head to the soles of the feet.
So it goes up and down every time you breathe.
Up with the in-breath,
Down with the out-breath.
Your breath can be very natural,
You don't have to make the breath different.
You're just adding this extra focus.
And you might be able to feel the energy moving or you might have to imagine the energy moving.
It's okay.
You really can't do this wrong.
And as the breath moves in and out,
Up and down,
Again and again,
Allow yourself to imagine,
Or maybe you can actually feel it,
That that movement of energy is clearing you on the inside.
Clearing you of feelings,
Clearing you of thoughts,
Clearing you of energies that may have accumulated inside of you.
So simple.
It's just up and down.
And you'll notice that as you do this,
Your body will continue to relax.
You'll feel like you have to sit still like you're made of stone or wood.
You can let your body just be comfortable.
If you need to move,
Let your body move.
Anyway you're moving when you breathe.
Breath flows up,
The breath flows down,
And every time you get a little more clear,
A little more empty.
If this sensation is enjoyable,
Or even the relaxing feeling is enjoyable,
Let yourself go into that enjoyment.
And it's like as that energy flows up and down,
See if you can relax your sense of you into that flow.
You whatever your name is,
You call yourself me.
You let that like as if it were made of sand or salt or earth.
Dissolve the way that sand or salt or earth would dissolve in water.
Breath flows up and down.
Everything that is you and everything that you're holding,
Surrendering to that flow,
Moving in that movement.
You can let yourself get really relaxed,
But see if you can stay here,
See if you can stay with the process,
Even as you dissolve into the process.
If your breath wants to change,
Let it change.
It might get real shallow,
It might want to be deeper.
Whatever it wants to do,
Let your breath kind of breathe you.
And you're just melding into the breathing,
This upward and downward flow.
If you get bored or tired of going up and down and you want to just take a break and just rest in the space that you're creating,
That's great.
Like I said,
You really can't do this wrong.
But then when you want it,
When you want that focus again,
You want to go back into that sensation,
You just find the next breath.
Up on the in-breath,
Down on the out-breath.
It might feel like it goes beyond your body,
Beyond the crown of the head,
Beyond the soles of the feet.
The sense of the body might get loose,
Might even dissolve.
It's okay too.
We'll do a little bit more.
Breath flows up and down and you just keep dissolving into flow,
Into this pure energy.
And the last moments of this really let yourself soak it up.
Make savor the last few rhythms,
The last few rising and falling breaths.
Then to transition from this practice,
You can make your breath deeper,
You can let your body move.
Try not to disturb the energetic quality that you've cultivated.
But let your body move and when you feel ready,
You can take an inhalation and gently open your eyes.
You don't have to look at anything at first,
Just let yourself transition gently out of this practice.
Thank you for joining me for this meditation.
