You are very welcome to this 15 minute sitting meditation practice where you are taking some time to slow down and quieten the mind.
It's a time you've chosen to set aside for self-care and enhancing your well-being.
Whatever you're doing previous to this,
You're now moving from that doing mode and into a quieter being mode.
Over time we'll cultivate an attitude of gentleness and kindness to ourselves and through the meditation we'll also bring an attitude of curiosity and a willingness to be open to what we find,
Noticing the thoughts and feelings that arise without judgment and bringing acceptance to what we find.
Now I'd like to invite you to set an intention for this practice,
Perhaps just the intention of being present and regardless of what arises to continue to the best of our ability just to notice and accept whatever arises without expectations.
We take a moment to get a comfortable posture and as best we can with a straight spine,
Your head as if pulled up high by a string through the crown and then gently tucking your chin slightly down,
Shoulders down and feet resting on the floor.
Now we bring awareness to our head,
To our face,
To our shoulders,
To that straight back and spine and our arms and our hands on our lap,
To the pelvic area,
To the thighs,
Our calves and down to our feet on the floor.
Sensing into the feelings and sensations of our feet on the floor,
Perhaps feeling the sock or the shoe and just noticing what do we feel here.
And now moving our attention to the breath,
Feeling the in-breath and the out-breath,
Sensing the physical movements of the breath,
The air coming through the nostrils,
The chest rising,
The abdomen expanding,
Where do we notice the breath the most?
Perhaps at the nostrils,
Perhaps at the chest or maybe for you it's at the abdomen.
Wherever we notice the breath the most that can be our anchor,
A place to come back to when the mind is distracted or perhaps difficult thoughts arise.
We can gently bring our attention back to the anchor.
Perhaps if you don't like the breath as an anchor you can choose sounds or sensations,
Perhaps the sensations of your feet on the floor or the sit bones on the chair or your hands.
Whatever anchor you choose it's a useful place to come back to when the mind gets caught up in a flow of thoughts or is just distracted.
Now moving our attention to the awareness of sensations in the body,
Sensing the whole of the body from the head through the torso and the legs down to our feet.
Perhaps feeling the air against our skin at our face,
At our hands.
Sensing into somewhere in the body where the sensations are strongest,
Perhaps the weight of the body on the feet on the floor,
Perhaps there's a tension in the shoulders.
Wherever you notice the sensation in the body just tuning into those sensations,
Noticing what is arising in this moment at that point.
Noticing what's arising when we bring our attention to that point.
Do the sensations change?
Or do they stay the same?
Perhaps breathing into that location,
Imagining the breath moving to wherever the sensations are.
This can be a useful way of increasing our attention.
If any difficulty arises you can always come back to the anchor.
And if the mind wanders,
As the mind always does,
We just take a moment to note where the mind has wandered to.
Wherever that is we just note it and then gently but firmly bring our attention back to our focus of attention.
Now moving our awareness to the sounds in the room.
Sounds that are close by us and sounds that are further away.
Perhaps noticing how we can be quick to label the sound,
Traffic,
Car,
Person or bird.
Whatever the sound we are hearing the mind quickly goes to label it.
And now as best we can,
Allowing the sounds to come to our ears and just listening to them for what they are.
The noise,
The pitch,
The frequency.
Just attending to sound as it is.
Noticing the silence between the sounds.
The silence out of which sounds come.
Moving our attention from sounds to thoughts and emotions.
Thoughts arising in the mind like clouds in the sky.
The mind being like the vast blue sky.
And thoughts being like clouds coming and going.
The thoughts can move slow or fast.
They can be dark or light.
They can come as little wisps or lots of clouds together.
Just taking some time to become aware of the thoughts as they arise.
And as best we can letting them go.
We try not getting caught up in our thoughts.
But if we do and the mind wonders,
As it inevitably will.
We just note where it has gone to and then come back to the breath or the anchor.
And when we're comfortable there,
Again starting to note the thoughts and letting them come and go.
Perhaps some thoughts also have an emotion alongside them.
And if that is so,
Just sensing into those emotions in the body with gentleness and kindness.
Whether that could be anxiety in the tummy or stress in the shoulders or the jaw.
Or a lightness perhaps.
Whatever it is just bringing an awareness to these emotions and where they are in the body.
And now moving from thoughts and emotions to an overall awareness and just sitting with whatever arises as we sit here.
Sensations or sounds.
Thoughts or emotions.
As we come to the end of this meditation we recognise with gratitude the time that we've spent in looking after ourselves and taking a little bit of time out to come to being more present.
As best we can,
Perhaps we take some of this awareness and attention into the next moments of our day.
