Sitting upright in a dignified posture so that it lends itself to an alert mind,
But not too stiff,
Not slouching,
Just upright like a king or like a queen with your feet flat on the ground,
Palms resting comfortably,
Hands resting comfortably,
Shoulders back and down.
Let them drop a little bit.
And beginning to pay attention to what it feels like just to be here now.
Noticing gravity doing what gravity does.
That means the weight of your body,
The feeling of your feet on the floor.
Noticing the touch of your clothing on your skin.
Just taking note of gravity.
This is a common anchor.
If it works for you,
You can stay with it.
We might also begin noticing sounds,
Distant sounds,
Sounds that are near.
This temporary nature,
How they come and go,
Not needing the sounds to be anything other than they are,
Noticing them as they appear and disappear.
Sounds being a second anchor and the breath being the third with the simple instruction breathing in,
Know that you're breathing in,
Breathing out,
Know that you're breathing out.
So aiming your awareness to the sensations of the breath,
The experience of the inhale and the experience of the exhale.
Going through the meditation,
The mind may want to do the normal things that the mind does,
Which we can just label thinking.
This is normal.
So when we notice thinking with a friendly and nurturing attitude,
We just say thinking and come back to the anchor,
Gravity,
Sounds or the breath.
From releasing our awareness on our own right to now,
You seem to just start feeling how Now taking a brief moment to notice if there's any tension in your body that you might be able to soften,
Whether your jaw can drop down and soften,
Maybe you can play with any tension you might feel in your shoulders or in your belly and let that soften all the way down.
Sometimes even the brain can feel a little bit tight and we can place our awareness there and soften it.
After softening any tension in the body,
We might begin noticing if there's any tension emotionally,
If there's anything that we're clinging to or holding onto or regretting or rehearsing,
Just practice letting go of that for now.
That will be there later for you to pick up after the meditation.
So softening any tension in the body and softening any emotional tension,
Letting go of that.
Let's practice.
Noticing this quiet awareness,
This stillness that's here no matter what's happening in the body or the mind.
When we're noticing and playing with tension in the body,
We can still have some of our awareness in this still,
Quiet place when we're noticing emotional tension.
We can still be aware of this quiet resting place or if thinking takes place,
We can still notice that despite the thinking,
There's still this stillness,
This awareness,
Sometimes referred to as a mountain in the midst of weather.
So no matter what kind of weather,
Whatever's going on around the mountain,
The mountain is just still and isn't bothered or moved by any of it.
So dwelling in this stillness,
Using your anchor to help maintain the awareness of the stillness and taking a few minutes now in silence to play with this.
Asking the question,
Where is my mind now?
It's been said that the mind is similar to those little feeding fish that trail along a big whale in the depths of the ocean,
Just pecking,
Pecking,
Pecking.
The whale is not bothered by these little fish.
So coming back to your anchor,
Back to that in-breath and knowing you're breathing in the out-breath,
Knowing you're breathing out and perhaps there's a little space or stillness at the end of the out-breath before the in-breath begins again and at the end of the in-breath before the out-breath begins again.
Maintuning your awareness to even notice that little space,
Allowing yourself to get even more still and more quiet and more grounded.
Okay.
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