So letting the back be straight,
Inviting the shoulders to relax,
Let your chest be open so you can breathe easily.
You could let your hands rest in your lap or on your knees or on your thighs.
And if you'd like to,
If it's comfortable,
You could let your eyes gently close and let your attention drop inward down into the body.
We spend so much of our time in our heads,
In our thoughts.
This is an invitation to kind of drop down out of the thinking mode and just settle into being here.
Feel your body on the cushion or the chair.
Feel the contact with the surface beneath you,
Your thighs,
Your buttocks,
Your feet,
Maybe your hands.
Just feeling the sensations,
Pressure,
Warmth,
Tingling,
Softness,
Hardness,
Whatever's present.
It can be helpful to take a few longer,
Deeper breaths as a way of helping us to settle into being here,
Helping us arrive.
Nice full deep in breath,
Releasing,
Letting go on the out breath,
Breathing in,
Calming the body,
Breathing out,
Calming the mind.
Whenever you're ready,
Just letting the breath settle into its natural rhythm,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
You might find it helpful to consciously invite a smile to your face,
Activating the muscles around the eyes and around the mouth.
And the smile sends a message to the nervous system,
To the brain,
That we can be at ease,
We can relax.
It's helpful to think of someone who makes you feel happy or a time that you're feeling happy or joyful.
Just inviting the smile,
Maybe taking it in,
Taking it into your heart,
Into your body.
You might put a hand on your belly,
On your chest,
Just connecting with yourself,
With this life,
Feeling the rising,
The falling of the chest,
The belly.
You might consciously put aside thoughts of the future,
Thoughts of the past,
Thoughts of things going on elsewhere,
And just let yourself be as fully here as you can be.
Invite the intention to be as fully present as you can be for all that comes up during this meditation.
It's to be here,
And if your mind goes off somewhere else,
Just to keep coming back.
You might invite to an attitude of kindness and acceptance and non-judgment to all that comes up for you.
If you can both have the intention to be here and the intention to meet your experience with kindness,
With acceptance,
And without judgment,
Letting everything come and go without adding a story or a narrative about what's going on,
Staying as close as you can to your direct experience.
You might bring your awareness to your breathing,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
In breath,
Out breath.
You could let your breathing be your anchor,
Whatever holds you in the present.
Here now,
Breathing in,
Knowing that you're breathing in,
And breathing out,
Knowing that you're breathing out.
And as you bring mindfulness to your breathing,
You can also be aware of whatever else you're experiencing in the body,
The heart,
In the mind,
Letting your breathing help you hold whatever is coming up.
When you experience a noticeable bodily feeling like discomfort,
Pain,
Or a pleasant bodily feeling,
Just let the feeling come,
Let it be,
And then let it go when it's ready to go.
And let your breathing help you to hold the feeling without resisting or pushing away,
Opening to whatever bodily feelings are present,
Whatever come up,
Letting them come,
Letting them be,
And letting them go like waves rising and falling,
Cresting and ebbing.
When you experience a noticeable emotion or mind state like sadness,
Fear,
Joy,
Gratitude,
Anger,
Whatever mind state or emotion may come up,
Just let that feeling come and go too.
You might notice what accompanies it.
If it's sadness,
Is there a feeling around the heart or in the face,
Around the eyes?
Or if there's fear or worry,
Is there tightness or tension in the body?
Or if there's joy,
A more expansive,
Spacious feeling,
Just be aware,
Allow those feelings to come and go.
You can notice any thoughts come up in the mind and then just let them come and go too.
And whenever you find the mind has got pulled into thoughts or stories,
Plans or memories or daydreams,
Or any kind of thinking that pulls you away,
Pulls you into the future,
The past or elsewhere,
Just choose to let the thought go.
Choose not to follow it,
Not pushing it away or resisting it,
But just letting it go and come back to the breath,
Come back to the body and just opening to whatever is coming up in the body,
In the heart,
In the mind,
Opening to whatever you're experiencing,
Using the breath as an anchor or a home base and allowing whatever comes up,
Whatever you're experiencing to come and go without clinging,
Without judging,
Without resisting,
Escaping,
Whatever comes up.
If you find yourself resisting or clinging,
Just bring that into awareness too.
Let that come and go.
Finish with this poem by Rebecca Del Rio called Prescription for the Disillusioned.
Come new to this day.
Remove the rigid overcoat of experience,
The notion of knowing,
The beliefs that cloud your vision.
Leave behind the stories of your life.
Spit out the sour taste of unmet expectation.
Let the stale scent of what ifs waft back into the swamp of your useless fears.
Arrive curious without the armor of certainty,
The plans and planned results of the life you've imagined.
Live the life that chooses you.
Knew every breath,
Every blink of your astonished eyes.
