Allow yourself to settle into the room.
See if you can find a little bit of home here in the room tonight.
A place that you can rest and let go of all the to-dos and stories you've been wrapped up in today.
A little bit of refuge from the world out there.
Let your breath settle into a normal rhythm,
A normal depth.
There's no need to control the breath.
Begin to check in with the body.
See if there are any places of tension that you can let go.
Bring the shoulders back and down.
Release the grip in the hands.
Let go in the lower abdomen and the stomach.
Then begin to wake up to the noise in the room,
The noise outside.
Just noticing what you hear.
Leading up to the aliveness of the present moment here in this room.
Now,
Narrowing the attention,
Sharpening the mind,
And aiming it at the place in your body where you most feel yourself breathing.
Where there's the most aliveness in your breath.
It could be the lungs expanding,
Contracting.
Could be the feeling of the air entering your nostrils.
Might be the feeling of the air in your throat.
Just find that one place.
If it feels difficult to stay with the breath,
If you can't allow your breath to settle into a natural rhythm,
Find a place in your body that feels neutral.
It could be the hands,
The feet,
Shoulders.
Explore establishing an anchor in the body,
Just keeping your mind on the sensations in the hands or the feet.
And its You might have noticed that the mind begins to wander,
Begins to move away from the breath or the bodily sensations that you're paying attention to.
It starts to play on the rest of the night or remember a conversation you had before coming.
Whenever you notice,
Just gently guide the attention back to the breath or to the body,
Whatever your anchor is,
And avoid the tendency to judge yourself for your mind wandering away.
You are not your mind.
The mind just does what it does.
Just keep coming back.
Move backwards.
Now I invite you,
If you haven't already done so,
Begin to widen your attention.
It's almost as if you're taking a step back with the mind,
Seeing a wider picture,
Observing the breath,
Observing the body,
But also sound.
Seeing as the observer resting as consciousness itself.
And there's nowhere else to be right now.
There's no other person to be.
There's nowhere to go,
There's nothing to do.
The present moment is home.
And whenever you find that your mind has drifted away,
Lost in thought,
You can always open back to this wider awareness,
To this consciousness,
To this home.
Just keep coming back.
There's no other person to be.
There's no other person to be.
There's no other person to be.
There's no other person to be.
There's no other person to be.
Again,
Avoid the tendency to judge yourself if your mind wanders.
It's also a tendency to judge the current moment,
The present moment.
Maybe I'm just not mindful today or this meditation isn't going well.
Think of it as if you were playing with a little puppy in a yard and the puppy wandered away.
You wouldn't be upset with the puppy,
You would just guide it back over.
Doesn't know any better.
It's the mind.
It's the mind.
In these last few minutes,
Check back in with the body.
See if there are any places that you can let go,
Even a little bit more.
Shoulders,
Stomach,
Even the face.
Good.
And with the sound of the bell,
Just notice it like any other sound.
And then open your eyes when you feel ready.
And then open your eyes when you feel ready.
