At the beginning of the meditation,
It's always good to take a deep breath.
And when we say deep,
It really is you breathe deep into your abdomen.
So you're breathing to the very bottom of your abdomen.
And then when you exhale,
You exhale fully and empty your lungs as completely as you can.
So let's do a couple of those.
Now if you can settle in to your cushion or chair,
Wherever you're sitting.
Okay?
You may want to put your tongue just kind of behind your two front teeth.
And hold yourself erect where you sit.
That means your spine is erect,
You're sitting with your head erect.
One way I've heard that described is to sort of raise from the back of your head.
The real intention here is to be alert so that we don't fall asleep while we're meditating.
Okay?
You can close your eyes completely or partly.
Closing the eyes tends to prevent visual distraction as we sit.
And you can just be aware of the gravity,
The weight of your body where you're sitting.
And you'll have tension in your body,
Just be aware of that.
You can accept the tension or you can let go of it.
But understand that where there's tension,
You're tensing.
You do have control of it.
So you can find the points where you're tense within your body and let go of that tension so that you're relaxed,
You're alert,
But you're relaxed.
And you can focus on parts of your body,
Scan your body,
Moving from the toes,
The soles of your feet,
Up through ankles,
Through the calf,
Up to the knee,
To the thighs,
Where your body is meeting the cushion or chair,
And settled,
Relaxed.
And be aware of your spine,
The base of your spine,
And let your awareness travel up your back,
Your spine,
Up to your shoulders.
Your shoulders may be tense,
You can let them go,
Wriggle them a little bit,
Up your neck to your jaw,
Relax your jaw,
Your facial muscles,
The muscles around your eyes,
From the forehead up to the scalp.
And now you can expand your awareness to your whole body,
Where you sit,
And focus on your breath.
You may focus on the nostrils,
Where the breath is coming in,
Or on the rising and falling of your diaphragm as you breathe.
We always have breath,
It makes a good focal point for meditation.
Each in-breath is a unique in-breath,
Each out-breath is a unique out-breath.
Don't force your breath,
But follow.
And as you follow your breath,
There may be thoughts,
Just let the thoughts go,
Let them dissipate like smoke,
And return to your breath.
And you may be aware that your whole body is breathing.
You can expand your awareness of breath to encompass the whole body,
And as you follow your breath,
I invite you to imagine opening,
Opening your heart,
Opening your chest,
Opening yourself,
And as thoughts emerge,
Consider the source of those thoughts.
You may also have emotions,
Fear,
Sadness,
Love,
Happiness.
Accept your emotions,
Negative or positive,
It's okay.
If you're feeling sadness or pain,
Aversion,
It's okay,
You can let go of it,
Or you can accept it,
Embrace it,
And for the balance of this meditation,
In the minutes remaining,
As you let go of thoughts,
As you accept emotions,
I invite you to sit with an attitude of loving-kindness and acceptance of yourself,
Whatever you may think,
Whatever you may feel,
And to extend that attitude of loving-kindness broadly through your experience,
As you let go of thoughts,
To let go of them with loving-kindness,
As you experience emotions to surround them with loving-kindness.
