Welcome to your mindfulness meditation on thoughts,
Where you will create space between you and your thoughts,
Cultivating peace and resilience.
Begin by finding a comfortable seated position,
Allowing the eyes to gently close or rest half open in a slight downward gaze.
And consider taking a couple deep cleansing breaths.
And then allow the body and mind to come into stillness.
You made it here to your meditation today,
So allowing yourself to really be here,
Really devoting this time to be present.
Imagine setting to the side anything you've brought with you into this practice,
Any plans for the rest of your day,
Worries or fears.
Just gently set them to the side for now.
And begin bringing some gentle awareness to the body.
Noticing sensations or lack of sensations,
Relaxing any tightness or tension,
Noticing what is present in the body today.
Now taking a moment to connect to the breath wherever you most easily notice it,
Allowing the breath to be your anchor to the present moment.
And if the breath is not a comfortable anchor for you,
You can consider using sound or sensations of your whole body sitting here.
Our minds are so active,
Monkey mind,
They call it.
So allowing this time for true rest,
Kindly inviting yourself into this moment,
This body and this breath.
And now this breath.
Resting your kind attention on sensations of the body and breath.
Now imagine that your mind is the sky,
A vast,
Spacious,
Blue and open sky.
And occasionally you'll notice a thought cloud drifting into the sky of your mind.
Simply notice the cloud,
Observing it as it arises and passes through the sky of your mind.
Can we tell the difference between being in a thought and being in reality?
Resting back into awareness.
Back into that vast blue sky of mind.
Whenever you notice you're caught up in a cloud,
Bringing a gentle awareness to it,
Recognizing this as a normal activity of the mind.
And just like when we're observing clouds in the sky,
There's no need to judge the shape of a cloud or the color of the cloud.
There's no need to try to hold on to the cloud or push it away.
Simply noticing it as it passes by and return to your place as the sky.
Be right here in this moment.
And when you get caught up in a cloud again,
Consider softly naming the contents of your thought to yourself.
Judging,
Planning,
Ruminating,
Worrying,
Remembering.
The thoughts might come as pictures,
Images,
Words or like movies.
These manifestations of the mind.
Gently acknowledging this cloud you're in,
Then resting back into awareness as the sky.
Be right here in this moment,
Allowing yourself to be present for what's actually right here,
Right now.
For the last couple of minutes,
Allowing space for gratitude to arise for this moment of stillness.
You are the sky.
Thoughts are happening and we are kindly observing it all.
Not to get swept away into one.
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