Good morning,
It's Jemima the Connection Coach.
This is your morning meditation for 15 minutes.
Now depending on what state you find yourself in this morning,
You may want to move around.
You may already be moving around.
It's perfectly fine to do meditation while you're walking,
Running,
Moving,
Doing a repetitive task.
Maybe you're in the garden,
Maybe you're washing up,
It doesn't matter.
The movement suits us especially if we feel anxiety and seated meditation is probably the most difficult kind of meditation to do.
So if there is anxiety or if there is a will to move,
Do that.
If you are seated and you're feeling a little unsettled then I'm going to invite you to tap on your body.
Use two fingers of your dominant hand and tap just below this joint,
This little space here in between your collarbones,
So about an inch below there.
I'm going to invite you to tap at a rhythm that feels soothing to you and that suits you.
So taking a full deep breath in through your nose to begin and then a big long sigh out.
The exhalation activates your vagus nerve which informs your nervous system that it's okay to relax.
It sends your body towards rest,
Digest,
Being able to reason and think properly rather than the hyper vigilant state of fight,
Flight or freeze that we go into when events around us make us feel stressed or unsettled.
So taking another couple of breaths mindfully,
Close your eyes if it's safe to do so if you'd like to.
Breathe in fully through the nose,
Big exhalation through the mouth,
Nice and long and slow and again a big full breath in through the nose visualizing that breath coming all the way down the body,
Down your spine,
Down to the bowl of your pelvis,
Down your legs,
Down to your feet and then exhaling all the way back up again.
Start to allow your shoulders to drop away from your ears,
Begin to relax the muscles of your face,
The tiny muscles around your eyes.
You can use your hands to massage across your cheekbones,
Your temples,
These big muscles here around your jaw where we often collect a lot of tension.
You can use your hands to massage anywhere that you would like,
Anywhere that feels slightly tense to you.
Around the neck is a common place or even at the base of the skull and just notice how good that feels to touch and soothe your own body.
So coming back to the breath and coming back to noticing the pace and the depth of the breath.
It's as if you were an observer,
So it's almost as if you were looking at somebody else,
Just watching how the breath comes in and how it leaves the body,
How quickly,
How slowly,
How deeply or shallowly and whereabouts you can feel that within your body.
Start to gather your energy into the very centre of your body,
Just a couple of inches below your belly button.
Start to gather and draw your energy down from your head where all this activity goes on in the forebrain all the way down just below your belly button.
Visualise that energy as a ball,
A shimmering ball.
This is your power centre.
Every breath you take you send down towards your power centre.
Every exhalation you get to release tension,
Toxins,
Anything you no longer want to keep within the vehicle of your body.
So as you inhale and start to power up your body by drawing your breath down to your belly,
Start to visualise all of your muscles and cells being invigorated by each breath that you take.
As you do that you can begin to direct the energy from your next inhalation to any particular spaces within your body that need loving attention.
So if you know that you feel tense and stressed and a little headachy,
You can direct your breath into your skull,
Scalp and brain,
Into your head and visualise that creation of space,
That soothing that the inhale brings.
And on the exhale imagine emptying all the things that cause you discomfort back out on the out breath,
Back out into the universe,
Taking a fuller deeper breath all the way down to your feet.
Maybe your feet are on the ground,
Maybe you're walking or running or standing or sitting with your feet on the ground.
Just start to notice the plane of contact between your feet and the ground.
Start to draw your weight down towards the ground and at the same time visualise the crown of your head being magnetised up towards the sky.
Imagine your spine being drawn and stretched very gently from earth to sky,
So you become the conduit in between the two.
Visualise life running through you.
You choose which parts and which pieces to hold on to.
For the main part,
Life runs through you as a vessel and the clearer you can keep yourself,
The clearer you can keep your mind,
Clearer and cleaner you can keep your body,
More graceful and fluid is that process.
Life coming in and running through and leaving.
Experiences coming in,
Being understood and felt and then leaving.
Communication coming in and leaving.
Imagining yourself just allowing life to wash through you.
How would that feel different?
Knowing that you don't need to hold on to anything.
Taking a fuller,
Deeper breath in through the nose,
A big sigh out through the mouth,
Softening your face,
Softening around your head,
Your ears,
Your neck and your jaw.
Remembering who you are.
You are in command.
Your body wants to take care of you.
Bring your hands to your heart,
One hand over the other.
Bow your head down to your heart.
Take a final mindful breath,
Breathing in fully through your nose and long and slow through your mouth and then slowly coming back to your day.
