Ten Minutes For You, A Mindfulness Practice

This is a mindfulness meditation practice that invites you to first tune in to your senses and surroundings, and then to yourself. It is an invitation to drop in to your present moment and do whatever it is that your body and intuition are asking you to do.

Transcript

Hello, I will offer a mindfulness practice today and first and foremost just knowing that everything that I offer is just an offering. So if it's not working for you, Feel free to do something different or just turn it off. That's totally okay. And I will invite us to start by finding a comfortable shape that could be seated or laying down or standing. Maybe you want to do this walking. It's totally up to you. And so wherever we are, I invite us to start off by taking a big breath in and then through our nose or mouth a big breath out. We'll do two more together if you'd like. So as you're ready, Inhaling. As you're ready, Exhaling. One more if you'd like. Big breath in. As you're ready, A big breath out. From here, I'll invite us to find our natural breath, Whatever that feels like today. Perhaps inviting some softness into our forehead and our jaw. Maybe softening our shoulders and our bellies. And for a moment, If you'd like, I'll invite us to bring our awareness to the ground beneath us or maybe it's a chair. Just any points of our body that are touching the ground or what's beneath us. I invite us to bring our awareness there. We may feel a lot of sensation here or we may not feel much at all. Both are totally normal experiences. And now if you'd like, I invite us to bring our awareness to the sensation of the air on our skin. Perhaps noticing or imagining the temperature or the texture of the air on our skin. And I say imagine here because same thing with feeling the ground beneath us. We may not feel much sensation of the air on our skin. That's totally normal. And now I'll invite us to bring our awareness to any noises that we hear in our environment. Just knowing that it's totally normal for our awareness to jump to these external stimuli as they come and go. So as this happens, I just invite us to acknowledge these things in our minds. We can name them. We can name each particular noise as we hear it. We can even name any feelings that arise in us because of these external stimuli. So for example, If something loud and unexpected happens for me where I'm where I am right now, I may say to myself like, Man, That was really loud or that was really annoying. And now I'll invite us to bring our awareness to our breath. Maybe first at the tips of our nostrils to feel or imagine our breath going in and out through our nostril. If it's helpful, Maybe trying to make our inhales and our exhales the same length, Maybe even slowing our breath down a bit. This can help us drop into our parasympathetic nervous system. That's our rest and digest system. We could bring our awareness to our chest to feel or imagine our lungs expanding as we inhale, Softening as we exhale. We could bring our awareness to our bellies to feel or imagine our lungs expanding as we exhale. We could bring our awareness to our chest to feel or imagine our bellies expanding as we inhale, Softening as we exhale. And our breath can be an anchor for us throughout our day. It's something we can come back to and it's something that we can sometimes control in a world full of things that we can't really control. Our breath can be one of those things. So if it's helpful for you today, Feel free to come back to your breath. I sometimes like to come back to my breath when my mind is full of racing thoughts or if I get distracted by something that I don't want to be distracted by anymore. Coming back to my breath can sometimes be helpful. And I say sometimes because some days sometimes coming back to our breath isn't helpful or it's just not possible. It doesn't work. That's totally normal. We could find a different anchor perhaps. That could be the feeling of the ground beneath us. That could be movement. So at any time, Feel free to add movement. Maybe that's some wiggles with your fingers or toes. Maybe some sways side to side or any readjustments or stretches. Movement can be a great way to process our experiences, Our feelings. Another anchor for us could be our external environment. So maybe we take a look around our space to notice any colors or textures that we see. So using our sight as an anchor or maybe what you need for these few minutes is just to allow your mind to wander or to brainstorm or think through something. Or what you need could be totally different or unique in this moment to you. That's great. So now I just invite us to take just another couple minutes to ourselves for whatever we need. Now wherever we are, If you'd like, I'll invite us to take another big breath in as we're ready. A big breath out. And I'd like to invite us to take a few moments of gratitude for ourselves and for our teachers and all of their forms and for this day. And I thank you so much for being here and for sharing this practice today. I wish you all the best. Thank you.