Hello and welcome to meditation.
And I invite you to close your eyes or maybe just find a soft gaze.
And take these initial minutes to just connect with your body.
Feel the body.
Kind of check in to see how the body is doing in this moment.
A lot of the times we are so much in our heads that we forget to really tune in to check to see how the body is doing.
And you can do that by kind of doing a quick scan throughout the body.
You can start from either the top going down or the feet coming up.
Feeling each part of your body as you go through this scan.
And maybe there is a part of your body that you feel is a little bit more tense.
And so I invite you to,
Whenever you find those areas,
To kind of pause there and breathe in to those areas.
Invite the air to expand,
To create room,
And possibly allowing the tension to just drop into those spaces that you're creating with the air,
With the breath.
Maybe you find some tension in your shoulders or your chest.
Or your hips.
Maybe on your face,
On your forehead.
And notice how it feels to pause where there is tension.
And just breathe.
Sometimes just giving attention to a part of your body that unconsciously was all cramped up relaxes those areas.
And when you're done scanning your body,
I invite you to scan your mind.
Be attentive to the thoughts that cross by.
Notice the type of thoughts that tend to arise in your awareness.
Maybe thoughts of worry or planning or criticizing.
Or maybe just thoughts of a memory.
Or rehearsing something.
Just be present,
Waiting for the next thought.
And it's not for you to do anything with the thought.
It's just to notice.
And as you notice,
Allow them to go away.
And just keep watching,
Scanning the mind.
We scan the body through space,
Through the space that the body occupies.
But we scan the mind through time at each second.
We keep looking,
Watching the mind working.
Watching from a distance.
Almost like an audience goes to a movie and sits and just watch the screen.
There's nothing to do.
Just sit,
Relax and watch the movie.
Just notice what thought crosses your mind right now.
Does any thought cross your mind?
And just allow the movie to play by itself without the need to get engaged with it.
At each moment,
You look again to see what thought is present right now.
And just as with the movie,
Sometimes we get carried away with the story with whatever it is that the thought is thinking.
Sometimes there is an emotion that's felt in the body.
And if that happens,
I invite you to recognize that you got carried away,
Got involved in the thought.
Maybe there was an emotion.
And if there was an emotion,
I invite you to again feel the body.
Notice sensations that you might be experiencing.
And if there was not any emotion,
Just return to watching your thoughts and letting them pass.
Noticing that thoughts and emotions can be noticed by you.
But you don't need to engage with them.
Although it's okay if you do.
And any moment that you do engage and you notice that you engaged,
That's the moment that you return to simply noticing what's present right now.
Either in your mind or in your body as a sensation in the body.
Always returning to the present moment.
Returning to that seat in the movie theater rather than getting involved in the movie itself.
And once again,
Noticing the body.
Maybe you have different sensations now than you had in the beginning.
Maybe you feel different areas of your body.
Where is it that your body calls attention right at this moment?
Maybe a change in temperature or feeling the texture of the clothes on your skin.
Maybe there is some part that is still tense.
What can you feel right now?
And I invite you to pay attention to the breath once more.
But this time instead of inviting the breath to a specific area of your body,
Just follow the breath where the breath goes.
From the moment that it enters the body to the moment that it leaves the body.
And then starts over again.
With each new breath,
You renew your intention to be aware of the present moment.
Maybe you notice the breath on your nostrils.
Maybe you notice in the movement of the chest or the belly.
Where can you notice and where do you feel your breath in your body right now?
And if you get carried away with any thought,
Again just return to this present moment.
To the body,
To the breath.
It's by training this ability to return again and again to the present moment.
That we are better able to focus,
That we let go of stressful thinking.
So the invitation is to every time that you notice your attention went away,
Return to the present moment.
Through coming to your body,
Coming to your breath.
And to close this meditation again,
Scanning through the body.
Noticing now how is it that the body feels.
Is there any area of tension?
Is there a place that you can offer some ease,
That you can just relax just for this moment?
And as I ring the bell to end,
I invite you to slowly open your eyes.
And slowly return to the day to day,
To the things to do.
Taking your time to really take in this practice.
The bell is invited.
Thank you.
