Welcome to the Reset Practice.
Finding a comfortable place where you will be warm and free from distraction.
Choosing to either sit on a cushion on the floor,
Perhaps a meditation stool if you have one or a chair.
Wherever it may be that you will be comfortable for the next 20 minutes or so.
Wherever you are,
Harbouring an erect and dignified posture that will allow you to fall awake rather than to fall asleep.
Using enough cushions to bolster your tripod mountain-like position if you are on a cushion on the floor.
And if you are in a chair,
Just allowing yourself to move away from the backrest so that you are in a wakeful and ready posture.
Wherever you are,
Taking this opportunity to choose to stop.
Just stop.
An invitation again to step out of linear time and to step into ourselves.
A place where we will meet ourselves and offer nourishment and nothing but kindness.
For those of you who are not familiar,
The definition of mindfulness is the awareness that arises when we pay attention on purpose in the present moment and without judgement.
And that is exactly what we are doing here today and every time we decide to befriend ourselves in this way.
We are consciously stepping out of doing mode and using our attention to cultivate the heart of being mode.
Allowing ourselves to be with whatever arises along the way and to be exactly as we are in this moment.
I am not saying that this is going to be easy but following along with my guidelines as best as you can and as you notice your mind wandering as it surely will,
Gently and kindly escorting it back to my instructions.
Now allowing your eyes to gently close if they haven't already or if you feel more comfortable perhaps having them open but lowering your gaze and keeping the eyelids soft.
Now my invitation to you is to become aware of gravity,
Really feeling into the weight of the body and also the uplift through the spine.
Noticing a harmony between the loftiness of the head balancing on top of the spine and the soft yet grounded support of our root system.
Our intention here is not to be relaxed but relaxation may be a byproduct of this practice.
Our intention here is to be fully present with our experience and allow it to be whatever it is,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant or perhaps neutral.
Knowing that there is no right way to feel when practicing mindfulness,
The way you are feeling is the way you are feeling.
Letting go of any tendency of wanting things to be different from how they are and allowing and accepting completely as it is and without judgment.
Now drawing your attention back to the body and perhaps noticing the feeling of the weight of the clothes on your skin.
Perhaps getting a sense of the folds of the fabric,
The quality of the fabric,
Getting a sense of the weight,
Perhaps noticing the blanket that you may have covered yourself with,
The extra warmth that it provides you,
Getting a sense of how it is to be sitting here in this moment.
Perhaps you can notice the temperature that surrounds you and that envelops your body and your skin.
Now I'd like you to draw your attention to the breath,
To the natural breath cycle.
We are not here to change anything or to want it to be a different way for any particular reason but just following wherever in the body the breath is most prominent for you.
Perhaps you get a sense of the cool air that rushes in through your nostrils as you inhale and the warm air as it rushes out as you exhale.
Perhaps the breath is most prominent for you in your chest area,
Getting a sense of the diaphragm as it expands and contracts or perhaps for you,
Your breath sensations are more available in your belly as it rises and as it falls with each inhalation and exhalation,
Really sensing the wave-like motion of the breath.
However it is in this moment,
Allowing your attention to fall for the complete duration of each inhale and the complete duration of each exhale.
The breath breathing itself.
Perhaps you notice the space in between the breaths,
How it turns and falls at the top of an inhale and dives into your exhale before sweeping and turning back to climb in the inhale,
Whatever your experience,
Allowing it to take centre stage in the field of your awareness.
And now allowing your breath to let go and to take your attention and deliver it to body sensation.
So whatever sensations are available to you in the body as a whole at this moment,
Really listening in to anything that is prominent in the forefront of your awareness,
Perhaps it's tingling for you.
Maybe temperature is available to you,
A warmth or a coolness in a particular body part,
Maybe your extremities are a bit cool and you wished maybe you'd put some socks on.
However that feels,
Just allowing that to be your inner experience in this moment and with this breath.
Being patient with whatever arises,
Allowing it to be as it is and as we find it.
We are using the body as a barometer to notice the temperament of our internal environment.
Really taking your attention and delivering it to whatever you hold in your body sensations in this moment.
Is there a particular area of your body that's expressing a more challenging sensation as we sit here?
Perhaps the hips or the knees or the lower back,
Wherever that might be for you,
Just holding that with a curiosity.
What is that like?
What is this sensation like for me?
Trying not to want it to be different,
Craving it to be a different way or avoiding the way that it is.
You can mindfully move if this allows you to experience some relief from whichever sensation you are experiencing.
Being stuck to note where you're going to move and then fully inhabiting the move before you do so.
Or if you will allow using your attention to draw right up close to that sensation,
Whether it's pleasant,
Unpleasant or perhaps nothing at all,
Perhaps your experience is that there is no experience and knowing that that's okay.
Using your attention to investigate gently and in a friendly manner what's available to you right now.
Does it have a texture?
Perhaps it brings a color into your awareness.
It's really exploring those sensations.
And as your mind wanders,
As the mind is made to wander,
To not curse the mind for wandering but just acknowledging where your mind has wandered,
Perhaps to a thought or a really sticky feeling that's hard to shift or navigate at the moment.
Wherever it is,
Acknowledging where your mind has gone and then gently and kindly escorting it back to the body sensations,
Really listening into the body,
Inviting an awareness to our inner experience,
Noticing our experience from the inside.
What is here for me right now in this moment as we sit here?
And when you are ready,
Taking a deeper and more intentional breath in through the nose and down through the body and out through the toes and on your exhale,
Reversing that action up from the toes,
Up through the torso and out through the nose and allowing the body sensations to dissolve from your mind's eye.
And now I'd like to invite you to perhaps notice any thoughts,
Not struggling to find them but just asking the question,
Are there any thoughts present?
If so,
What is the tone surrounding them?
Is there a mood to my thoughts,
To these thoughts that I am having in this moment?
Perhaps there might be some sticky feelings attached to the thoughts.
Some thoughts by nature can feel supercharged and can feel deep.
Perhaps they are quick and fleeting and hard to grasp.
Whatever your experience of your thoughts and the feelings that are present for you in this moment,
What is that like?
Not getting too attached to what's in the thought but noticing that the thought or the feeling is present and taking a curious detective nature as to the tone and the mood surrounding that.
Perhaps a thought or a feeling has a particular body sensation attached to it.
What's that like?
Being kind and open to the sensation or the thought or the feeling that you are working with and allowing it to be exactly as it is without judgment in this moment.
Perhaps there are no thoughts or feelings.
Maybe you are feeling a little bit neutral right now.
Perhaps the relative absence of thoughts or feelings.
Maybe that absence is your experience.
Sometimes it helps to imagine thoughts like clouds in the sky just passing through,
Noting that the thought is present,
Acknowledging it and allowing it to continue on its way.
Whatever it is for you right now,
Getting a sense of what is your inner experience.
As best we can,
Meeting whatever is arising in the mind and the body as our practice unfolds moment by moment in a kind and friendly way.
This is the practice.
Meeting what comes up in our practice,
The way you would meet a lost child looking for comfort with open arms and grace.
We hold ourselves with whatever is present.
Now allowing the thoughts or feelings to dissolve from your mind's eye and drawing your attention to the body as a whole.
Just resting here in awareness,
Not doing anything.
Just being,
Just sitting with ourselves with a kind friendliness open to whatever arises in this moment and with this breath,
A deep inner wakefulness and stillness that we are cultivating with our focus of awareness,
A nourishing,
Patient and accepting realm of wellbeing where we are open to things exactly as they are and we are complete exactly as we are.
Now as the practice draws to its natural conclusion,
You may want to express gratitude to yourself for befriending yourself in this way,
For allowing yourself to be exactly as you are,
Complete and without judgment and to relax in knowing that what we are cultivating here,
The heart of being mode is always as close as just this moment or just this breath.
Allowing yourself to sit here for as long as you feel comfortable,
As long as you would like in the stillness and the silence in this realm of wellbeing.
Feeling to be kind and gentle to yourself as we transition from this formal practice into the practice of our daily lives.
Relax in knowing that should you ever need to press your reset,
This practice is available for you to come back to over and over again.
