As they say in the stories,
When you're sitting comfortably we can begin.
Please do get yourself comfortable in your chair.
I'd suggest that you use a wooden chair without too much cushioning on it because when we're very comfortable we've got a tendency to nod off and although I've spent many sleeping meditations as I call them,
The practice is actually to stay awake.
So what we want to do is sit in a chair that's comfortable but not soporific and the first thing we're going to do is to scan our bodies and the way we're going to do this is by first of all paying attention to our hands if you're sitting on the chair and also to have our spine erect without over trying and yet we want to feel as if there's a cord going through our spine all the way up through the top of our head and it's just pulling us straight.
That's all the instructions you need.
No extra effort,
Just attention.
That's all we're asking for.
In fact we want to make less effort but in order to do that we've got to put in a little bit more energy at the beginning.
Our hands will be resting on our lap and I suggest your palms face upwards although some people like to have their palms resting on their legs.
See which one you prefer.
And I just want you to spend a couple of minutes just literally very gently swaying your head side to side in very and in very small circles just feeling intuitively feeling where the center is for your head on your shoulders because very often in the day we can become right or left focused.
So we just want to see where the center is right now.
You can't draw this on a piece of paper you can only feel it.
It's just like a gyroscope on a boat floating around.
And once you're feeling comfortable and your feet are on the ground your hands are resting gently on your thighs and your head is resting erect on your spine.
Just become aware of your breathing in and breathing out.
And just at the beginning of your practice I'm going to ask you to be aware of the way you're breathing.
Many people breathe from the top of their chest and for the practice we're going to very gently begin to develop the art of the deep belly breathing.
So really wonderful relaxing big tummy type exercise.
So it's the opposite of wanting to feel thin and pulling your tummy in so that you can fit into a size skinny eight or whatever it is.
This is about letting your tummy go letting everything hang out and if your trousers are a little tight loosen them.
And just on the out breath we want to let go of the tummy.
And then on the in breath the tummy fills up like a bellows from the tummy first.
And now we're just going to scan our bodies starting from our shoulders and with the out breath just allowing any tension to relax as we breathe out.
And as we breathe in we fill up and as we breathe out we relax any tension that we find just by focusing our attention on the out breath to where we feel the tension.
Very often in the back of the shoulders,
In the neck,
In the face,
In the buttocks,
In the thighs,
The knees,
The calves,
The feet.
Just breathing in,
Breathing out,
Relaxing a little more with every breath.
Dropping a little deeper,
Turning our attention inwards a little more.
This is the first ten minutes.
We're going to now reverse this process because it's very important to come out as gently as you go into the meditation so that whatever you found when you've been resting you bring this back to the present moment when you open your eyes and continue on in your day.
And when you do continue on in the day just notice if there's a difference in the quality of the way your day unfolds and how you feel.
You're just going to become aware of your breath and then aware of your feet on the ground and we just gently want to wiggle your toes there.
And many people like to count if they've been like deeply in the ocean and imagine yourself swimming back up to the surface with a five of four,
Three,
Two and one and then feeling your body and waggling your fingers and your toes and coming back into the awareness of the space in the room,
The noises,
There's building or kids or whatever just being aware of the noises and then very gently flutter open your eyelids just not really focusing on anything.
And coming back to the room.
So well done for your first meditation session.
You've hit the headlines.
