Hello and welcome to meditation.
Let's start with finding that comfortable yet alertful position for the body where you feel your spine straight without effort,
The shoulders relaxed,
The feet touching the ground,
And closing your eyes or gazing down,
And start to connect with the breath,
Feeling the sensations of the breath in your body.
Noticing each part of the sensation,
Where the breath goes,
Where it moves in the body,
The pathway of the air as it comes in and as it goes out.
Feeling the temperature of the air on your nostrils,
On your skin,
Feeling the texture of your clothing,
The areas of your skin that are exposed,
And sensing the environment,
Feeling the hands relaxed,
Resting on your lips,
The sensation on the hand,
On the leg.
And if thoughts come and take your attention away from your body and breath and sensations,
That's completely normal.
So you can include thoughts in your experience,
Acknowledging the thought that pops in,
Noticing,
Maybe naming,
Labeling the thought.
What kind of thought is that?
Without judging,
Just acknowledging.
And with kindness,
Gentleness,
Return the attention back to the body,
Sensations that are present,
Resting inside your body,
Resting your awareness,
Your attention,
In the presence of this body right now,
In the presence of this breath right now.
Again and again,
Noticing what's present at each moment and including all of what's present in your experience,
Being aware of all that is present,
A thought,
A sensation in the body,
A feeling tone of maybe pleasant,
Maybe unpleasant,
Maybe neutral.
Include everything.
Look at everything without excluding and kindly allow,
Allow all things to be present.
Maybe saying this too.
Then returning attention to the body,
To the breath inside your body,
The movement of the air,
Moving everything inside,
Expanding your ribs,
Your belly,
Opening your chest,
And then returning back to this center of your body as you exhale.
Opening,
Expanding with the inhale,
And returning to the center of your body on the exhale.
Creating this connection with the center of your body,
The midline of your body,
And noticing this movement with each breath,
Opening and returning.
And again,
If thoughts come into your awareness,
Include them in this movement.
Notice the breath opening,
Creating space.
Allow the thought to be as it is.
And as you exhale,
Return the attention back to your core,
To your center,
With gentleness,
With kindness.
Connecting to this midline,
To this core part of your body.
Connecting to your spine,
To your heart,
And noticing and allowing the movement that is opening,
Creating space,
Expanding,
And then retracting,
Caring,
Closing,
Returning.
And this movement of life itself,
With each breath,
Expansion,
Openness,
Curiosity to what's present,
And as you exhale,
The returning to the center,
The resting inside.
And if there's a thought that is calling the attention and trying to engage your attention in a story,
And the attention went away with this thought,
The invitation is to acknowledge,
Not to prevent that from happening or judging it because it happened,
Just to acknowledge,
To say,
Huh,
Look at that.
This is something that happens.
And kindly,
Without judgment,
Gently returning the attention back to the body,
The breath,
And this movement of life that happens without effort,
And teaches us to be open,
Create space,
Expand,
And to balance that out with returning,
Going in,
Resting.
And it might be helpful to move your hands with the movement of the breath,
Maybe placing your hands in front of you,
And as you inhale in the belly,
The chest expands,
You maybe open slightly your arms,
Allow your hands to be to the sides,
And hold this expansion.
And as you exhale,
The hands return inward,
And maybe go all the way to touching your heart.
Inhaling,
Opening,
Expanding.
And as you exhale,
Returning in,
Centering,
Resting,
Noticing that this movement is in all things.
Life as a balanced state of opening,
Expanding,
Being curious,
And then going in,
Relaxing,
Resting,
Centering back into yourself.
And if you're moving your hands,
You can again rest your hands and your legs,
And just continue to feel this movement of the breath inside your body.
Notice the effortless aspect of just breath happening,
And resting in this,
Just for right now,
In this moment,
For this breath,
No effort.
And as we get to the end of this practice,
I invite you to feel the wholeness of your body.
Feel from the top of your head,
All the way down,
Feeling the muscles on your face,
Relaxing them down,
Relaxing the shoulders,
The neck,
The upper back,
The arms all the way to your fingers.
Breathing in and out and allowing the whole body to relax on this chair,
To rest in this moment.
Feeling relaxation in the chest,
The middle back,
The ribs,
Your hips,
Lower back,
The legs,
All the way down to your feet,
Your toes.
Feeling the soles of your feet touching the ground,
The connection with the earth,
The support beneath your feet.
And when you feel ready,
You can open your eyes again.
