Hello,
Beautiful ones.
I'm Kelly Dennis.
Thank you for taking the time today to practice this mindfulness meditation to help you to feel more centered and connected and grounded.
Always begin by getting yourself into a comfortable position,
Whatever that looks like for you.
You can be sitting up or lying down in a place that you can rest easily for a few minutes and you won't be disturbed.
Go ahead and make yourself comfortable,
But feel free to make adjustments along the way if you need to.
And once you're comfortable,
Go ahead and allow your eyes to softly close or to soft focus someplace down past your nose.
Begin by just focusing in on your breathing right now.
Finding your breath in your body,
You might want to place your hand on your diaphragm so that you can feel the rise and the fall of your body as you breathe.
Or perhaps you can just notice the air as it enters and exits your nose.
If you find that your mind wanders away,
That's okay.
That's what minds do.
Just notice where it went and very gently,
Without criticism or judgment,
Bring it back to your breath.
That's mindfulness,
Paying attention to whatever's going on for you in this moment,
Without judgment,
On purpose,
Coming back to your focus again and again.
Noticing the breath as your anchor when you find your mind drifting away,
Coming back to your breath,
Anchoring to this present moment.
Just noticing the rhythm of your breath,
Noticing the quality of your breath,
Feeling connected to this very act of breathing.
You might notice that as you focus on your breathing,
There's a desire to change it in some way,
But you really don't need to.
Just focusing on whatever the breath wants to do.
And as you continue to breathe comfortably and easily,
You can shift the awareness from your breath to your body,
Feeling the points of contact,
Perhaps your feet on the floor,
Your bottom in the chair,
Your back as it rests against the chair,
Noticing your hands in your lap,
Just getting a general sense of how your body feels right now,
Connecting to your body.
Many times we go through our days without really paying much attention to our bodies.
And so with curious investigation,
Just noticing the physical sensations,
The temperature.
You might notice urges to move or to change something in some way.
You might also notice that your thoughts change as you're focusing on your body,
Noticing what those thoughts are,
And then just coming back to connecting with your body.
Noticing your neck and your shoulders,
All the little muscles in your face,
The large muscles in your buttocks and your legs,
And just connecting with this body of yours.
Perhaps it's a little achy or sore or tired,
Bringing in some gratitude for whatever it's helped you get through thus far.
Shifting now away from the sensations in your body to your emotional self,
Noticing what emotions are rocking around inside of you.
Perhaps you don't notice one particular emotion,
Or maybe there's so many,
You can't tease them out.
Maybe it's a general mood state.
Just being aware and curious,
Putting a name to the emotions if you can,
Or the mood.
And with some emotions,
We have a tendency to judge and push away and not want to connect.
But right now,
Just allowing them to be there,
Making space for them,
Welcoming them,
Knowing that emotions give us information about our internal world.
Where do you feel them in your body?
Befriending them even if you can,
Noticing if they change or ebb and flow.
Perhaps they shift from one emotion to the other.
And then shifting your awareness from the emotions up to your thoughts,
Allowing your mind for a moment to just think about whatever it wants to think about.
And just imagining that you can be a detached observer,
Just watching those thoughts go by without really needing to do anything about them,
Just letting them come and go.
One gentle curiosity,
Seeing them and then letting them go.
Much like clouds across a bright blue sky on a breezy day.
And we can let the thoughts just come and go.
We can continue to feel grounded in our body and our breath without letting the thoughts take us away.
And so returning now to the focus on finding your breath in your body,
Noticing the rise and the fall,
The in and the out,
Feeling connected and centered in your breath and in your body,
Knowing that you've done very good work here today by bringing mindful awareness to this particular moment.
You can return to this meditation anytime that you're feeling unsettled to help you to be able to ground and center.
And now taking one last deep breath in and letting it out,
Wiggling your fingers and your toes.
And whenever you're ready,
You can open your eyes and return to the room.
Namaste,
My friend.
Have a beautiful day.
