Welcome to this guided meditation today.
Okay let's begin.
So settling into a position that's comfortable.
If you're sitting in a chair,
Ensure your spine is supported and that your back is upright.
Feet flat on the floor,
Arms resting on your thighs or in your lap.
Sitting on a cushion,
Cross-legged,
Again ensuring that your spine is supported.
Neck tilted slightly forward.
And if you're laying down,
Just feet outstretched and arms resting gently by your side.
With your eyes open,
Just gently gazing around the space that you're in.
Letting your gaze settle on an object for a few seconds and then gently moving on.
Noticing the space you're in,
Physically arriving,
The colors and textures,
Light,
Shadow.
Just softly and gently moving around the room.
And gently closing down your eyes.
Bringing your attention now to your body.
Being held here,
Down through your cushion or through the floor.
Supported and held.
Sensing the weight of the body coming to rest.
And settling that little bit more into your chair or cushion and down through the floor,
Through the building and all the way to the earth below.
Sensing that connection with mother earth.
Stability.
Being held and cradled and supported.
Noticing other parts of your body that are touching the floor or touching itself.
Connecting in with the physical body.
Your body held here,
Coming into stillness.
Noticing any fragrances or smells that you can detect.
Simply accepting,
Letting them float to you.
No need to interact or follow a story.
Just simply be.
Noticing any tastes that you can sense.
Perhaps something you've recently eaten or drunk.
Or simply the metallic tang of the saliva in your mouth.
Sitting in,
Arriving in this space.
Turning your attention to any sounds that you can hear inside the room.
Those near in sounds.
Perhaps a heater or a fan.
Or if it's really quiet,
Perhaps the sound of your breathing.
Simply letting those sounds float to you.
And expanding your attention now to sounds that you can hear outside the room.
The more distant sounds.
Perhaps the sounds of nature.
Birds singing or dogs barking.
Perhaps some traffic noise or people simply going about their day.
Slowing down and arriving in this space.
Nothing else to do.
Nowhere else to be.
There to be here present.
Connected with your physical body.
Being supported up through the floor.
From Mother Earth below.
Turning your attention now to sensations inside the body.
Thoughts or feelings or emotions.
Lacks and pains.
Simply connecting with what's present for you.
Simply accepting.
No need to alter.
Simply observe.
And integrating your inner world and the outer world.
Complete and whole.
You here present.
Through the external senses and the internal body.
Whole.
Complete.
Nothing else required,
Nothing else needed.
Taking your attention now to your feet.
And sensing any tightness or tingling sensations in your feet.
The top of your foot.
The sole of your foot.
Your toes.
Your heel.
Simply noticing the sensations within your feet.
An aliveness.
Sense of energy flowing.
No need to alter.
Just simply accepting.
Letting your attention rest in your ankles.
Simply noticing whatever's present for you.
Into your lower legs,
Calf muscle and shins.
Connecting in.
Sensing the energy and the aliveness in the body.
To your knees.
The back of the knee.
The front of the knee.
Simply noticing and observing whatever's present for you.
To your upper legs,
Your thighs,
Hamstrings.
Deep inside to the bones and outwards to the skin.
Sense of energy and strength through the large muscles.
An aliveness.
Sense of presence.
Connecting in.
Accepting.
Into your hips and pelvis and sit bones and genitals.
Core of the body.
Simply connecting in with the energy and aliveness.
Any tingling or tightness.
To your lower back,
Base of your spine.
To your belly.
Simply noticing and connecting.
Allowing your attention to move slowly up your spine vertebrae by vertebrae.
Noticing the life flowing and living within your body.
That sense of energy.
Bringing your attention now to your heart center,
To your chest.
Sensing your heart pumping blood throughout the body.
The aliveness and the energy that flows.
Into your lungs.
You're breathing in and breathing out.
The oxygen enters the blood to be carried throughout the body.
Sensing the energy and the aliveness.
Your rib cage protects everything.
To your shoulders.
You may sense a tightness or tension.
Whatever is present for you.
The shoulder joint,
Muscles,
The bone,
The skin.
Simply connecting with the aliveness and energy flowing.
Into your elbows.
Into your forearm.
Sensing the aliveness and the energy flowing.
Into your wrists.
All the little bones in the wrist.
Into your hands.
Palm of your hands.
The backs of your hands.
All the way down to the tips of the fingers.
Bringing your attention now to your neck and throat.
I sense the air passing down your throat as you breathe.
Everything that's present for you.
I sense a prickliness.
Sense the hair resting on the scalp.
Sensing the temperature in the room.
Just to the very tip.
I sense yourself breathing as the air comes in and out of your nostrils.
To your lips and jaw.
Simply accepting and connecting in with the aliveness and the energy.
And inside your mouth,
The tongue,
The teeth and gums and the saliva.
Broadening your attention now to taking the whole body.
Feeling the energy and the aliveness through the whole body.
Scanning and connecting.
Noticing the quality of your mind and the thoughts.
Noticing the space between your thoughts as well.
Focused on the present.
Letting go of the future.
No need to dwell on the past.
To be here and present,
Held.
Aliveness in the body.
Connected,
Integrated.
You may like to sense a small light sitting in your chest.
Let that light expand to fill the body.
The consciousness.
Then slowly expanding that light,
That consciousness into the room,
The Turin.
Connecting in with the objects and the space,
The Turin.
Sensing the life and the energy that connects us all.
And slowly expanding further outside the room to the building,
The house that you're in and to the outsides.
And sensing nature,
The trees and the plants,
The other part of our lungs that take in the carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen for us.
The connected nature of the world that we live in.
And to the other people close by.
And going further still to the street or the neighbourhood.
Ever slowly expanding your attention.
You may sense a dissolving of the self into this interconnectedness of everyone.
All of the meditators here.
Experiencing that openness,
Sense of connection,
The aliveness and energy that flows throughout the world.
As we spend the next few minutes in this silence,
In this presence.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Bringing your attention now back to your body.
Physical body being held here in this space.
And sensing the weight of your body being supported up through the cushion or through the floor.
And noticing other parts of your body in contact with the floor itself.
I sense your clothing resting on your skin.
The temperature in the room or a gentle breeze.
Connecting back in with the physical body being held here.
Noticing any fragrances or tastes that you can sense.
Noticing any sounds that you can hear both inside and outside the room.
Arriving back in the space.
Connecting back in with the body.
You may like to take a couple of deep breaths,
Deep body breaths.
Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Reconnecting with the physical body.
Letting your breath just return to its natural rhythm.
And introducing some small movements.
Wriggling your fingers and toes.
Maybe a clenching of your hands.
Perhaps a gentle roll of your shoulders or other gentle stretching as your body awakens.
And when you're ready,
Just gently and softly opening your eyes.
Connecting back in with the space around.
This being James Baldwin,
Connecting back.
