Hey,
What's going on?
Thank you for listening to this.
I wanted to provide you with a short guided meditation.
I wanted to focus on how to improve our concentration in staying with the present moment,
Staying with our breath.
I know that oftentimes in meditation when I'm trying to find my calm,
I will be present for a good duration of the time.
But sometimes I lose my train of thought.
I forget about the breath and I escape it.
I think about things that are happening in the day or things that are happening yesterday or things that have happened yesterday,
Things that are going to happen tomorrow.
I come back,
But I want to share with you how I come back in this guided meditation.
We're going to follow along using a technique known as labeling.
So what we're going to do today is learn about the practice of labeling the breath.
When your mind starts to wander,
It doesn't mean that anything is wrong.
This is just what the mind does.
It thinks about the past,
Thinks about the future,
And goes all over the place.
In Buddhism,
This is something that they call the monkey mind,
In the sense that the mind is always jumping around from branch to branch and from tree to tree,
And it never seems to slow down.
So this is like the monkey mind.
In meditation,
We want to learn how to work with the monkey mind.
So instead of trying to force the monkey to stay still and not jump around,
We're actually going to give the monkey something to do.
This is going to be the technique of labeling or using a short mantra or a short phrase that we can repeat in our mind.
So what this is going to look like is as you breathe in,
You're just quietly in your mind rising,
When you feel the belly rising.
You're just labeling things.
And as you breathe out,
You can quietly in your mind say,
Falling,
And then feel the falling of your belly and the falling of your chest.
So when you do this labeling of the breath to improve your concentration,
We want to make sure that the most of our attention is still in the actual here now.
So let's get started.
So go ahead and take a deep breath into your nose.
And just releasing right out of your mouth,
Finding your calm,
Your comfortable place.
Take a few moments to settle in and just find your zone.
And you can close your eyes if you feel comfortable to,
Or you can keep them open.
Just not really focusing in on anything if you do decide to keep it open.
Because we are very visual beings and you know,
If we're trying to meditate and something captures our eyes,
We will most likely become appeal to it and divert away from the meditation.
The point is to be here now.
So if you do decide to keep your eyes open,
Just downward gaze,
Preferably,
Or again,
You can close your eyes.
Start by taking a few deep breaths,
Just to relax the body and relax the mind.
So breathing in deeply.
And breathing out slowly.
Breathing one more deep breath counting to four in your head.
1234.
And then breathing out.
1234.
Just allowing your breath to return now to its natural state.
Slitting the body breathe itself.
And then spending a few moments again,
Just inviting the body to soften,
To relax.
Letting go of any to do list.
Letting go of any agenda.
Just really giving yourself permission to be here.
And when you are ready,
You can bring your attention onto the feeling of the breath once again.
So connecting with wherever you feel the breath the most and just noticing the movement of the breath.
Noticing how your breath changes over time.
So here you can actually start to practice the labeling technique.
Just saying the short phrase to help us stay focused on the breath.
So as you breathe in just quietly in your mind,
Just saying one word,
Rising.
And then actually feeling the rising of the belly or the chest or the in breath of the nostrils.
And then as you breathe out just quietly in your mind saying falling.
Feeling the falling of your belly or the chest or the out breath of the nostrils.
Breathing in,
Rising.
Breathing out,
Falling.
Falling.
Again,
Whenever your attention wanders away from the breath and whenever you notice just acknowledge that the attention has wandered and gently bring your attention back here to the breath.
So any judgment or self criticism,
Just practicing acceptance.
And then once again reconnecting with the breath and the phrases breathing in,
Rising and breathing out,
Falling.
As you repeat those words,
Really see if you can keep most of your awareness on the physical sensations of your breath.
Just letting the words be very quiet and soft voiced in the back of your mind.
Just something to keep pointing your attention to the breath.
Breathing in and just noting rise,
Breathing out and just noting fall.
With the noting practice we're just giving the monkey mind something to do,
Something to keep it busy.
And then we just keep bringing our attention back to the present moment.
Just observing what we're experiencing,
Just noticing where our attention is right here or right now.
Is it with a thought?
Is it with a pain in the body?
Is it with a judgment?
Wherever our attention is we're just going to notice and acknowledge it.
We're going to allow it to be there.
Then we're going to invite our attention back to the feeling of the breath and the body.
And we're just going to feel the rise and the fall of our belly or our chest or the air that's coming in through our nostrils.
Using the words,
The phrases to help you stay connected,
Rise,
Fall.
Really don't worry too much about what is distracting you.
Whether it's a sound in their environment or thought,
Emotion,
Pain in the body.
Whatever is distracting you just acknowledge it and then let it go.
Inviting your attention back to your breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Now just to end this meditation we can take a deep breath in together.
So breathing in nice and deep and breathing out slowly.
In your own time,
Allowing your eyes to open.
Just taking a moment to notice how you feel.
Maybe connecting with your breath just for a moment once again.
When you're ready,
You can go ahead and carry on with the rest of your day.
Thank you for meditating with me.
Namaste.
