And welcome to today's practice.
Getting yourself into a comfortable position.
Sitting on the floor on a cushion or on a chair.
If you need your back supported that's absolutely okay.
Try and keep your head unsupported though that'll prevent you from dozing off.
Hands in your lap or on your legs.
And your posture should be dignified but not straining.
Everything should feel gentle.
And you might like to gently close your eyes.
If you prefer to keep them open just taking a really soft gentle gaze.
And starting to tune into your breathing.
So noticing the passage of air on the inhalation.
And then noticing the exhalation.
Just noticing your normal breath,
No need to change anything just yet.
Noticing where you're breathing.
Is it up in the collar bone?
Is it in the chest?
Is it down in the belly?
And seeing now if you can deepen the breath,
Moving it down into the belly.
Using the full extent of the lungs,
Using the diaphragm.
And knowing that throughout your practice today as you get distracted or a little lost you can treat the breath as an anchor and just return to two or three deep breaths to refocus the mind and jump back into the meditation wherever you are.
It's really important to accept that this is a really normal part of meditation.
The aim of meditation is never to stop all of your thoughts but to create an awareness around them and over time perhaps a slowing of them or distancing from them.
And continuing to bring yourself even deeper into this very moment on this very day.
We're tuning into your senses.
So start with touch.
Noticing the feeling of the air on your face and hands.
With the clothes on your back.
And noticing any sensations of coolness or of warmth in your body.
And then moving to sound.
What sounds can you hear?
And smells.
What smells can you hear?
What smells can you notice?
Gentle and easy.
And then noticing any tastes lingering in your mouth.
And bringing your awareness to the space behind your closed eyes.
Just notice what you can see there.
Remembering to breathe.
Remembering you don't need to sit perfectly still.
You can shuffle around as you need to.
And bringing your awareness now to your body.
See if we can drop from the head down into the body a little more.
Just noticing anything that stands out for you today.
Might be the energy in your body.
It might be a particular part of your body.
It might be an emotion that you can feel in your body.
Just noticing first what stands out.
And then taking your attention down to your toes,
Your big toes,
Second toes,
Middle toes,
Fourth toes and little toes.
Just bringing these body parts into your gentle awareness.
Just noticing them.
And then the soles of your feet and your ankles and your lower legs and your kneecaps.
That ticklish spot behind your knees.
And then up through the thighs,
The hamstrings,
The hips,
To the bottom and the sit bones.
Just noticing if you're storing any tension in any of those places.
And seeing if it's okay to let some of that go.
And then taking your attention from the base of the spine up through the lower back,
The mid back,
The curve of the spine and the shoulder blades out across the width of the shoulders.
And then down through the upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Palms of your hands and the backs of your hands.
Noticing your fingernails.
And then taking your gentle awareness back to the torso,
The base of the neck,
Up to where the head meets the neck.
Across the scalp,
The skull,
The brain,
To the forehead and the eyebrows,
The eyes,
Your temples.
And then bringing your awareness to your cheekbones and your jaw joint and your jaw bone,
Your chin,
Your teeth,
Your tongue.
That's often a place where you might store tension.
Again,
Just see if it's okay to let some of that go a little.
And today's practice is to dive into thoughts a little deeper.
So we have as humans between 50,
000 and 70,
000 thoughts every day.
So it's impossible to eliminate them.
But through meditation,
You get the ability really to step away from them a little bit and to accept that they're not you and that they pass through you like clouds move through the sky.
So the practice now is to sit,
Breathing quietly and just focusing on the breath again,
Noticing the inhalation where the air moves to in the body,
Where the breath stops and turns to an exhalation and letting go.
So you're going to sit and just focus on your breathing.
And before too long,
As you notice a thought arising,
Might be what you're having for dinner,
A work problem,
A memory,
A plan,
Whatever it is,
Just imagine that thought becomes a cloud.
And imagine watching it move through the sky on a sunny day,
Watching it pass.
And as that cloud moves out of your field of vision,
Return your focus to your breath,
Just paying attention to each breath wave through the body.
And again,
As a thought comes up,
Imagine it as a cloud and watch it pass through the blue sky until you can't see it anymore.
Let it go.
Return to your breath.
You're going to sit in silence for a minute or so.
And inviting yourself now to let go of the thought practice and begin your reintegration back to your day or your evening,
Taking in a couple of deep belly breaths.
Noticing any sounds in the room,
Anything you can see behind your closed eyes,
Any sensations in the body,
And starting to bring some movement back into the body,
Stretching and twisting and yawning,
In whatever way feels good to you right now.
And if you have time to sit a little longer and enjoy the effects of the meditation,
The music will go on for a couple more minutes.
This is the time to congratulate yourself,
You're deepening your practice.
You've taken 15 minutes out of your day,
And it's not always easy to do it.
And you've done it,
So well done you.
Well done.
You
