Hi,
I'm Jan Mahler and welcome to this mindfulness exercise.
Sit or lay down comfortably.
And if you sit,
Keep your back upright without it becoming too tense.
Take a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds.
And as you exhale,
Gently close your eyes.
To begin the exercise,
Just become aware of your body's position sitting or laying down.
And just feel how it is touching whatever you are sitting or laying on.
The chair maybe,
Or the floor,
Or the bed.
Notice if you can feel the weight of your body.
Maybe it feels heavy,
Or maybe it feels very light,
Or maybe you can't really tell,
Which is okay too.
Now gently direct your attention toward your feet.
Just feel that they are there.
Just acknowledging their existence.
Maybe you can feel some sensations in your feet,
Or maybe in the soles of your feet,
Or maybe not.
Then slowly move your attention to your hands.
Just feeling that they are there.
Maybe noticing some sensations in your palms.
There is nothing to do now.
Something you need to change in this moment.
Just sitting or laying down,
Observing your body.
Now become aware of your breathing.
Feel how the air enters and exits your body with no effort on your part.
You feel the in-breath and the out-breath happening all by itself.
And you are just an observer.
Every time your attention is focused on your breathing,
You connect with the present moment.
Because the breathing is always happening in the here and now.
Now try to notice what happens when you start thinking.
Can you observe how thinking makes you lose the attention on the breathing?
This always happens because the mind is always thinking of something.
It always wanders off by itself.
And that is okay.
Because that's its nature.
And we allow this to happen.
We just observe it.
The challenge when practicing mindfulness is not to try not to think,
But to become aware of as often as possible that we are thinking in order to bring our attention back again to our breathing.
Every time you start thinking,
Your mind leaves the present and goes to the future or to the past.
And every time you bring your awareness back to your breathing,
You reconnect with the present moment.
Take the following 30 seconds to practice bringing your attention back to your breathing in a kind and gentle manner every time you become aware of that you are thinking.
Very good.
Try to feel the sensations in your body again.
Observe how your body is sitting or laying down.
And maybe you can feel again the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands.
And coming back to the breathing once more.
Observing the in-breath and the out-breath.
You can start ending the exercise now.
Take a deep breath and hold it a little bit.
And as you exhale,
Slowly open your eyes.
If you want,
You can stretch your arms and legs a bit.
And thank yourself for dedicating these moments to your well-being and happiness.
