Hi,
Thanks for being here.
I know it takes effort,
Attention,
A little bit of bravery and some courage to show up on your mat or your meditation cushion or wherever you are to just soften your gaze and turn inwards.
So I see you,
I see the effort,
And I'm with you.
This meditation is a mindfulness meditation about befriending the present moment,
Befriending the present moment in all of its potential and possibility.
So wherever you are,
Get comfortable.
You might have a little shake.
And then allow yourself to drop into a physical position that feels good.
So it's engaged and aware and alert and strong,
But it's not uncomfortably so.
Soften your gaze,
Soften your face,
And then soften anywhere on your body that is still engaged.
It might be your glutes or your shoulders or your jaw.
You might be a thigh clencher.
Release that.
And bring your awareness now to a calm and relaxed body.
Feel the breath.
Feel the physical sensations as you breathe in,
And then allow it to wash over you as you breathe out.
Inhale,
Fill up your lungs.
Feel it.
Expansion,
Growth.
Take up space.
Exhale,
Let it go,
Contraction.
Stay with this steady breath.
It is your anchor to the present moment.
And all I ask for you,
Of you,
Is to bring your awareness and then bring your awareness again and again and again to the moment-to-moment unfolding of your experience without expectation,
Opinion,
Or judgment.
Letting go of what you think this should be or feel and leaning into how it is in reality for you right now.
As thoughts and judgments come,
Which they will,
The intention is to notice them and then not judge them.
It's not to be free of thought,
But to be less attached to thought.
It's not to be free of judgments,
But to be less attached to judgments.
It's having a beginner's mind.
And with a beginner's mind,
There is infinite possibilities.
With an expert's mind,
There are few.
Come back to your breath if you've lost it.
And as you're here,
As you're there right now,
See if you can stay in a place of neutrality with whatever comes up.
Having enough care and attention for yourself in this experience,
So you don't let your judgments,
Opinions,
Circumstances collapse or contract around you liking or disliking,
Wanting or not wanting.
One of my teachers shared recently that anything that happens is neutral.
Everything that happens is neutral.
What gives it a positive or a negative charge is the lens through which we see it.
So it's the story we tell.
And oftentimes when we come into something,
Whether it be a life experience or a situation or a meditation,
And we think we know it all,
We keep ourselves from new insights,
From new horizons,
From new understandings.
So letting this all play out,
Letting this moment be whatever it is,
Holding yourself in loving awareness,
Knowing that there is no end goal.
There's nowhere to go.
There's nowhere else to be.
And as long as you're here now,
You might as well be here now.
And when you sit with something for long enough,
If there's a particular experience,
Thought,
Opinion,
Judgment,
Idea that's come to you multiple times,
And with each realization that you're running with it,
That it's seduced you and distracted you and you let it go with the breath,
This actually is a really beautiful,
Powerful,
Powerful,
Powerful,
Powerful,
Powerful beautiful,
Practical,
Purposeful practice.
When you stay with something long enough,
You realize that you can actually change and shift the relationship that you have with that thing,
Experience,
Belief.
And there's so much power in that.
Remembering that you have agency over your relationships,
That you are in charge of how you relate to X,
Y,
Z.
And this doesn't mean being totally satisfied with the way things are,
Because we all have goals towards growth and transformation and change,
But it does mean being in content and acceptance of how they are right now.
And when we can accept the present moment for how it is right now,
We can gain clarity to move forward with more intention,
With more awareness,
With more presence and more purpose.
So though you may not love what's happening right now,
You might not have chosen it.
But I have been there.
Just as an experiment,
Could you try to resist it a little bit less?
You didn't choose it,
You didn't want it,
That's okay,
It's here.
Can you come to a place of impartiality,
Of neutrality,
Just to see?
We're not striving or working to change it,
We're just going to hang out with it for a sec.
Notice any sensations that come up in the body.
Notice any narrative going on in your head.
You might not have chosen it,
But it's here.
And the only thing worse than whatever it is,
Is resisting and fighting and rejecting whatever it is.
So with mindful loving awareness,
See yourself now in a seated meditation.
See yourself safe,
Trust that you are safe in this moment,
Supported by the earth,
Air in your lungs,
A heart that's beating,
Eyes that see.
Everything in life is neutral.
There's so much power and potential when we can take that frame of mind.
And though we all have opinions and preferences,
I invite you to play with this as you go about your life.
When a judgment comes up and you label something or someone as good or bad,
Like,
Dislike,
Want,
Don't want.
Can you come back to a place of neutrality?
Can you see multiple potentials?
Widen your gaze,
Open your heart,
Be brave,
Be curious.
And with your breath and loving awareness,
Continue to exist in the moment-to-moment unfolding of your beautiful,
Bountiful life.
Stay here as long as you want.
Thank you for taking a moment to tune in to yourself,
Your heart,
Your experience.
I see you,
I honor you,
And I'm with you.
