Hello and welcome to this meditation.
This meditation is simply a meditation to practice balancing the mind.
I want to start with a quick quote.
The quote is,
The self is required to balance the self.
The self is required to balance the self.
Just take a moment to begin to let your body settle and arrive.
So if you need to move around a little,
Get out any of the habitual movements and see if you can get still.
And maybe as you get still,
Letting your eyes shut down,
Letting your shoulders relax,
Letting your belly relax,
Letting your hips get heavier on the chair or the cushion or the bed,
Letting your ankles and your feet relax,
Letting your jaw and your cheeks and your forehead relax.
Noticing how your body feels in this posture,
Continuously practicing being erect in your posture,
Long spine,
But the muscles relaxed around the bones,
Keeping awake and alert but relaxed.
Right here is where the balance begins.
Your body will want to habitually tighten up or you'll want to move your posture.
And the practice is,
Can you rebalance by relaxing again?
And can you keep a balanced mind and practice choosing to not move or fidget,
But to just be aware of the desire of wanting to move or fidget.
Checking back in with your body,
Releasing any tension that has come back in the last few moments,
Practicing letting it go.
And right here,
As the body is balanced,
Bring awareness to your breath,
The inhale,
The exhale,
The inhale,
The exhale,
The inhale,
The exhale,
And find the place in the body that it's easiest to follow the breath.
It might be at the tip of the nostrils,
It might be the belly,
It might be the whole body breathing.
And continue right here to follow the breathing,
Knowing when you inhale and knowing when you exhale.
Now as you practice following the breath,
The mind will become unbalanced and will pull you in different directions.
This is completely normal.
This is no problem at all.
The practice is to notice that you've strayed from the breathing and gently bring yourself back to the breath.
When your mind wanders,
The body also tenses up.
So as you bring your awareness back to the breath,
See if you can also be aware of releasing the tension in the body,
Keeping the body alert but relaxed as you continue to practice losing the breath and bringing your attention back to the breath,
Being distracted from the breath and bringing your attention back to the breath.
If you've lost the breath or tensed up the body,
No problem.
Simply relax the body again and then go back to the breath.
If you've lost the breath or tensed the body,
No problem.
Simply relax and return.
For the next five breaths,
See if you can keep your body fully relaxed and your attention fully on the next five breaths.
Now gently let the breath go.
Let the body go and just notice how you feel and what's here now.
Just notice what's here right now.
How is this different than what was here when you started?
Now let that go and just take one more deep inhale,
One big exhale and maybe placing a hand over the heart or the belly,
Giving yourself gratitude for showing up,
For practicing,
Knowing that to stay balanced is simply the practice of losing balance and then gently refinding balance.
Just like the body would tense or the mind would wander,
We will become unbalanced and it is our job to rebalance.
The self is required to balance the self.
The self is required to balance the self.
