Welcome to today's practice.
My name is Heidi and I'm glad to be here with all of you.
We'll begin our practice today by simply settling into the body,
Relaxing in,
Putting both feet flat on the floor,
Your spine is tall yet relaxed,
Hands can be resting in your lap,
And we'll begin by simply closing the eyes.
This guided sitting meditation will help you to learn to look within yourself with mindfulness and equanimity.
This practice allows us to switch from the usual mode of doing to non-doing or of simply being.
As you allow your body to become still,
Bring your awareness to the fact that you are breathing and become aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and it leaves your body.
We're not trying to manipulate the breath here,
We're not trying to change it,
Simply being aware of it,
Aware of the breath and the feelings and sensations associated with breathing.
Now I'd like you to observe the breath deep down in your belly,
Feeling the abdomen as it expands gently on the in-breath and as it falls back towards your spine on the out-breath,
Being completely present here in each moment with each breath,
Not trying to do anything,
We're not trying to get any place,
We're simply being here with the breath.
You may find that from time to time your mind will wander off into thoughts,
Anticipation of the future,
Thinking about the past,
Worries,
Memories,
Whatever may come up.
But when you notice that your attention is no longer here and no longer with your breathing,
Without judging yourself,
Simply bring your attention back to the breathing and ride the waves of that breath,
Fully conscious of the duration of each breath from moment to moment.
Every time you find your mind wandering off,
Gently you just bring it back to our breath,
That will be our anchor,
The place where we can come back to,
Using your breath to help you tune into that state of relaxed awareness and stillness.
Now as you observe your breathing,
You may find from time to time that you're becoming aware of sensations in your body.
As you maintain awareness of your breathing,
See if it's possible to expand the field of your awareness so that it includes a sense of your body as well as you sit here,
Feeling your body from head to toe and becoming aware of all the sensations in your body.
Being here with whatever feelings and sensations come up in any moment without judging them,
Without reacting to them,
Just being fully here and fully aware of whatever you're experiencing.
This is mindfulness and again,
Whenever you notice that your mind wanders off,
Just bring it back,
Bring it back to your breath,
Bring it back to that anchor and simply allow moment to moment,
Present awareness.
Now as you sit here,
I'd like you to see if you can allow your field of awareness to expand,
This time from your breath to your body,
To include the thoughts as they move through your mind.
So letting your breathing in the sense of your body be in the background now and allowing the thinking process itself to be the focus of your awareness.
And rather than following individual thoughts and getting involved in the content and going from one thought to the next,
Simply see each thought as it comes up in your mind as a thought and simply just let those thoughts come and go as you dwell in this stillness,
Witnessing them,
Observing them and then letting them pass.
If you find yourself at any point drawn into the stream of thinking and you notice that you're no longer observing them,
Just come back to observing them as events and use your breathing and the senses of your body to anchor you and stabilize you in the present.
Thoughts can take any form,
They can have any content and they can either be neutral or very highly charged.
If thoughts come up that have fear in them,
Just be aware of this fear and letting those thoughts come and go.
The same for worries,
Regardless of the feeling that the thought might create for you,
Just observe it as simply being a thought and letting it be here without pursuing it or rejecting it.
Noticing that from moment to moment,
New thoughts will always come and go.
We'll take a moment here to just practice in stillness and again closing the way we began by focusing on our anchor,
The breath,
And as this meditation comes to a close,
Give yourself some credit for having spent this time nourishing yourself in a deep way by dwelling in this state of non-doing,
In the state of being.
You have intentionally made time for yourself to simply be who you are and as you move back into the world,
Back into your day,
Allow the benefits of this practice to expand into every aspect of your life.
We'll close the practice by bringing our awareness back into the room,
Gently opening your eyes,
Bringing some movement back into the body,
And enjoy your day.
