To begin meditation we're going to find a posture that we can sit in for about seven minutes.
One that we can hold easily where it's not going to cause discomfort to our body.
And then we sit in a way which allows the body to feel easeful but also alert and upright.
So traditionally that would be sitting on a cushion on the floor with legs crossed and the body upright so the spine long.
But depending on the condition of your body you may feel some discomfort in that posture so you can sit on a chair.
If you're unwell you can you can be lying in bed.
But find what works for you.
So we're trying to find a posture that is upright,
Alert and symbolizes wakefulness.
As much as possible try to keep the spine straight and if you can sit without it being supported then try to do that.
So if you're on a chair try to keep your back away from the back of the chair so that really the weight of your upper body is coming down through your sit bones into the ground or what you're seated on.
Allow the arms to just hang down beside your body.
This will let your shoulders relax.
You can rest your hands on your knees or facing upright if you rest them on your lap.
And you can have one on top of the other.
Not so important at the moment the the way that your hands are just so long as they feel relaxed.
And then take a moment just to feel how your body feels in this posture.
Just check in to whether it's comfortable or not.
And if you wish you can gently close the eyes or just look ahead of you a short distance onto the ground.
But if you keep your eyes open try to keep them focused on a single place in front of you so that you're not moving your eyes around the room.
That will just help to bring a sense of stillness to the meditation.
And from here to settle we're just going to take three big long deep breaths.
So at your own personal rhythm just breathing in,
Breathing out,
Full breaths.
And that helps us to relax.
So we're sort of slowing down and just becoming present,
Becoming aware of where we're sitting.
And we just stay with the awareness of the body.
So it's like an anchor just something simple that's in the present moment.
In this type of meditation we use the body a lot because it's something that we can feel that is solid and it's very it's very personal.
It brings us to ourselves so if we can develop awareness of our body and the the way that it feels that helps to bring us a little bit out of the world of our thoughts and our worries and concerns.
So we can use an awareness of our breathing to help with that.
But the most simple thing we can do when meditating is just to sit still,
Be present,
Be aware of our sitting posture,
Be aware of our bodies and sit like that.
We're just cultivating a sense of gentleness,
A sense of kindness towards ourselves,
Patience.
And the attitude of awareness is what we bring to meditation and is what we cultivate.
So if we can cultivate awareness while we're sitting for these minutes in our meditation posture then that stays with us through the day.
So these are just some very simple instructions about the basics of meditation.
Just the attitude of gentleness to develop the awareness of the body,
The simple upright and awake posture,
The sense of easefulness that's there but also alert,
Attentive and awake.
So we're just coming to the end of this introduction.
So just thank yourself for taking this time to try meditation,
To cultivate a few moments of peace and stillness and then just leave yourself a few seconds after the meditation to reflect on how you feel having finished this.
