Welcome,
Beautiful one,
To this guided meditation to help you use mindfulness to increase productivity.
Begin by getting into a comfortable position with your head,
Neck,
And spine straight or in whatever position helps you to feel relaxed yet alert.
Close your eyes if that feels comfortable to do so.
If not,
You can soft focus someplace down below your nose.
And then take a nice deep,
Full breath in,
The deepest breath you've taken all day,
And let it out.
And then take another full,
Deep inhale,
And let it out with a sigh.
And now breathing in whatever way feels good to you.
Finding your breath in your body,
Bringing some mindful awareness to your body as it breathes.
Perhaps placing a hand on your diaphragm and feeling the rise on the in-breath and the way that your belly contracts on the exhale.
Or perhaps finding the breath in your nose,
The difference in temperature on the inhalation versus the exhalation.
As you bring mindful awareness to your breath,
Just notice how your body receives the breath.
Breathing is typically effortless,
And sometimes when we focus in on it,
We have a desire to change it.
Just allowing your body to breathe.
You might find that your mind wants to wander away,
And that's okay.
Minds will do that.
Just notice where it went,
Perhaps making a note,
Thinking,
And then bringing it back to your breath once again.
Practicing,
Noticing when you've gone away,
Wandered away,
And then coming back to your breath.
And being here in this moment with your breath is a way to bring focused attention.
Practice helps you develop focused attention,
Which helps you improve decision-making and can decrease getting caught up in distractions,
Things that help to increase your productivity.
The more you practice focusing in on your breathing,
Noticing when your mind has wandered away and gently bringing it back without criticism or judgment,
The greater your focused attention will be.
Focusing in on your breath is a mindful activity.
Shifting your awareness to your body now and bringing mindful awareness to the soles of your feet,
Noticing the physical sensations in the soles of your feet,
Bringing your attention to your legs,
The calves,
The shins,
The knees,
The thighs,
Bringing your awareness now to your bottom as it sits in the chair and your hips,
Coming up into your back,
Noticing the whole length of your spine,
Noticing your belly,
Your diaphragm,
Your chest,
Your ribs,
Noticing the physical sensations in your arms and your hands,
Coming up into your neck and your shoulders,
All the way up to your face.
When we bring this mindful awareness to our bodies,
We can often notice that there are thoughts and emotions connected to bringing awareness to our bodies.
And so when you notice that your mind might have wandered away to a particular thought about your body,
You can notice that,
Become aware,
And then bring it back to the focus on your body.
It's the same with emotions.
We can sometimes get caught up in noticing emotions as we do a body scan,
But noticing what emotions come up for you and then without getting caught up in them,
Coming back to focusing in on your body,
Focusing in right now on all the muscles in your face,
Allowing your brow to smooth and soften,
Relaxing the muscles around your eyes,
Noticing your jaw and your mouth,
And perhaps gently swallowing and allowing the tongue to rest on the floor of the mouth.
And as you bring this mindful awareness to your face,
Noticing what else has come up for you.
This is about paying attention on purpose to the present moment without judgment.
And so now allowing yourself to bring some awareness to the thoughts that are coming up for you right now.
And perhaps thinking about your thoughts like clouds in the sky.
Your mind is like the bright blue sky and your thoughts are like the clouds drifting on by across the bright blue sky.
Bringing some mindfulness to your thinking without getting caught up and attached to your thinking,
But just being this observer of your thoughts passing by like clouds in the bright blue sky.
And if you find yourself getting attached to a thought,
That's okay.
That's what happens sometimes.
See if you can return to letting that thought float by like a cloud in the bright blue sky.
And now bringing your attention back to your breathing,
Back where you started.
Finding the breath in your body,
Placing your hand on your diaphragm once again,
Feeling the rise and the fall,
Focusing in on this breath and then taking a nice deep full breath in and letting it out,
Wiggling your fingers and your toes and perhaps moving around in your body,
Feeling good to move after being still for so long and knowing that you are building the mindfulness muscle to help you to begin to increase your productivity.
When we have focused attention,
Our mind works better and our bodies are more relaxed.
You did good work here today.
Thank you for spending this time with me.
I'm Kelly Dennis.
Be well and have a wonderful day.
Namaste.
