This meditation is a practice that I like to do anytime I feel overwhelmed or reactive,
Or if I'm just feeling stuck and need help finding creative ways to deal with a challenge.
Let's just start off by noticing the sense of weight of the body against the mattress or the chair or wherever you may be.
Just noticing the sense of gravity and any points of contact between the body and whatever the body is resting on.
And noticing any thoughts or feelings that may be arising.
Just letting them be,
Not trying to judge or push away,
Just allowing our experience to be as it is.
And let's take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth like you're blowing out through a straw.
And let's take another couple deep breaths like that on your own time.
Now allowing the breath to simply come back to its natural rhythm.
Let your attention settle on the breath.
Just allowing awareness to focus on the breath at whatever point in the body you feel it most.
Maybe it's the nose,
The chest,
Or the belly.
Just letting your attention settle on the breath.
And if at any point you get lost in thought,
You can always simply bring your awareness back to this place and the breath.
Now let's take a moment to locate our sense of where we're focusing on the breath from.
Where in the body do you most feel your sense of the self who is doing the focusing?
Where does it feel like you are located?
Where are your thoughts coming from?
Most of us experience this as being somewhere in our head.
For me,
It's kind of behind the forehead and towards the top of my head.
Maybe for you it's different,
Behind your face or somewhere else.
Take a moment to feel into these sensations.
This sense of a self that is directing attention.
What does it feel like?
Do you notice warmth,
Tingling?
Sometimes for me it can feel like a sort of numbness,
Or if I'm especially lost in thought,
It can even feel like a slight ache.
Just continue sensing into this part of the body and bring a sense of care and curiosity for what your actual experience is.
Why is it that we have this experience of ourselves as being in our head and not some other part of our body,
Like our hand or our foot?
Just allow yourself to bring a sense of caring to that self,
To the one who is meditating.
Let that sense of caring be like a warm hug.
Now,
As you're sensing into these sensations,
See if you can pinpoint where they're actually located.
Seeing into this feeling of awareness of the one who is meditating right now.
Noticing how you can bring attention to it like any other part of your body that you were bringing your attention to.
Now allow your attention to encompass both this sense of being the meditator and the sense of the breath in the body.
Just allow yourself to experience both these things at the same time.
How does that feel?
Is there a sense of a spacious awareness that can encompass both at once?
Just allow yourself to get curious and see if you can sense into this more spacious awareness.
How far does it extend?
What does it feel like?
See if you can just allow this awareness to spread through the rest of your body and beyond.
How far can you sense it extending?
Seeing how this expanded awareness feels.
Connected at ease.
And again bringing a sense of care and curiosity to your experience.
Just letting awareness flow through your body and the space around you.
From this place we can simply be and allow our thoughts and feelings to arise without the need to react.
We can still use thoughts as we need to and let our inner wisdom guide us,
Experiencing this wisdom and awareness as one.
We can simply allow our natural sense of curiosity to do what it does,
Knowing that any answers we seek are available to us.
Simply connect to the sense of caring we have for ourselves and others.
Just letting our responses to any challenges we face come from this awareness,
This space of peace and connection.
And you can stay in this space as long as you like and return to it anytime.
