Hi and welcome.
Today I'm here to help you connect to a sense of calm.
A sense of calm you can take with you through the rest of your day and into any situation you feel you would need to.
Feeling calm has many benefits.
It allows us to be more responsive to the world that surrounds us rather than be so reactive.
It does this because feeling calm and cultivating calmness helps to relax the nervous system,
Lowers the heart rate and the blood pressure so we can be clearer,
More focused and enjoy more of the flow of life instead of being pushed and pulled around by the external world.
All you need is somewhere comfortable to sit and open mind and the knowing that you are in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
So let's begin.
Take this time to get comfortable.
Stretch the body a little.
Take deeper breaths.
It's worth taking the time as you'll get more out of the practice.
Once you feel like you've eased out any knots and you're ready to settle,
Open to that sense of physical stillness.
Either soften the gaze down towards the floor or allow the eyelids to slowly close.
Just for a moment,
Sense into the space that surrounds you.
The space in between whatever is on the right side of body and the wall.
Left side of body and the wall.
Between the front body and the wall in front and the space between the back body and the wall behind.
The space from the crown of the head all the way up to the ceiling.
The whole of the space that surrounds the body.
Getting a sense of or visualizing yourself where you're sat within the space.
Seeing yourself looking calm,
Feeling calm and maybe even a gentle smile on the face.
Now without changing anything,
Start to notice the breath and where the breath is sitting within the body as you breathe in.
Do you notice the breath feels shallow or choppy?
Perhaps the breath feels like it's more center of chest.
Or maybe even just by turning attention towards breath,
The breath has become more relaxed.
Whatever your experience is,
You don't need to judge,
Just notice.
A great way to work at cultivating calm is by taking what we call belly breaths.
As you begin to breathe in,
Instead of filling up chest,
Begin to fill up belly first.
You're breathing in and expanding the belly.
As you exhale,
Just allow the belly to naturally soften.
Focusing on this deep belly breath,
This is what is going to bring you the sense of calm now and throughout your day.
If you feel a disconnect from belly breath,
Then place one or both hands over belly.
This will give you the physical connection.
Take a little time in silence now,
Feeling the breath in the belly.
From here,
There's an invitation to drop more into a natural breath.
Let your body take over and do the work for you.
Start to just feel and notice the crown of the head.
Feel into the back of the head,
The forehead,
Around the temples,
The eyes,
The cheeks,
The jaw,
The ears.
Scan through the throat and the back of the neck all the way to the tops of the shoulders.
From the tops of the shoulders all the way down to the very tips of the fingers.
Scanning the awareness very slowly through the back,
The upper back,
The mid back and the lower back.
Scanning through chest,
Belly,
Down into pelvis.
Scanning through the front of the pelvis,
The sides and the shoulders.
Begin to scan through the legs,
From the tops of the legs all the way down to the very tips of the toes.
Notice whole of body.
Notice breath.
Calming whole of body.
Now as you notice breath calming body,
As you breathe in say to yourself,
I am.
And as you breathe out,
Calm.
Repeating this a few times to yourself in your mind's eye.
Now we begin the process of sealing this sense of calm into the body so you can take it forwards into the rest of your day.
Take a moment to bring to mind your next task,
The very thing you need to do after this session.
Imagine yourself there looking and feeling calm.
Making the picture bigger and brighter.
Imagine yourself pausing mid task,
Placing hands on belly and taking a few deep cleansing breaths.
Notice how it feels to stop and consciously take calming breaths.
Next take some time to visualise yourself going about your day in the same way.
Energetic,
Productive,
But most of all completely at ease.
Begin to let go of this vision and fully focus on the feeling of being awake and alert and calm.
As you begin to wake yourself up now take a few breaths and really pay attention to the inhale and the sense of lift that the inhale gives you.
And then as you exhale notice how grounded and connected you feel.
Comparing inhale to exhale.
When you catch the wave of your next inhale slowly begin to flutter the eyelids open.
Taking a little time to reflect.
Thank you for joining me for this meditation.
I wish you a calm filled day.
I look forward to catching up with you very soon.
