I invite you now to find your way into a comfortable seated position,
Either on a chair with your feet planted and knees at 90 degrees to the hips or a little lower,
Or alternatively sitting on the floor with any props or cushions or stools you might need,
With your legs either gently crossed or kneeling,
Or placed comfortably and settle yourself in for meditation.
In this meditation we'll be using a count of 4,
But as you become more familiar with counting the breath as a form of meditation,
You can increase that number from 4 to 7 to 10 and all the way up to 21.
But for now,
We'll just start with 4.
So settling in,
And we'll first do a posture check after the bell.
So when you're ready,
Taking a nice deep inhale through your nose,
And then exhaling completely,
Allowing all the air to leave your body.
And you may like to take another nice deep inhale.
And when you're ready,
Exhaling,
Allowing the body to settle in.
And then allowing your breath to return to a softer,
Natural breath,
Whatever that is for you.
As we first go through and check our 7 point posture,
Making sure we're in good alignment before we begin the meditation.
Starting with your legs,
Bringing your gentle awareness to your legs,
Making any adjustments for comfort as needed.
Allowing your legs to be your foundation.
Please bring in your awareness to your back,
Making your spine nice and tall,
Not too rigid,
Not too loose.
Just nice and supportive,
Your spine like a pillar,
Allowing your body to relax around it.
Bring in your awareness to your shoulders and your arms,
Allowing your shoulders to fall down from your earlobes,
Your arms comfortably by your sides.
Bring in your awareness to your hands,
Resting comfortably,
Maybe with your right hand and your left hand with your thumbs gently touching at the navel,
Or simply in your laps with your palms up or palms down or clasped,
And allowing your hands to rest into stillness.
Bring your gentle awareness up to your neck,
Nice and tall,
Like you're being pulled by a string from the crown.
Down to your jaw,
Releasing any tension from your jaw,
Maybe moving the bottom teeth around and then bringing your bottom and top front teeth into alignment,
Popping the tongue on your back of your two top front teeth for comfort.
And finally your eyes,
Maybe gently closed,
Or maybe just a tiny bit open,
Letting a little bit of light in and allowing the gaze to blur.
From this alignment,
We begin bringing our gentle awareness to our breath.
For this meditation we're going to start counting our breaths in rounds.
For this example in rounds of four.
The breath can be soft and natural,
There's no need to control it in any way.
If it's comfortable inhaling and exhaling through the nose,
But if you find you need to you can also let some air in the mouth.
When you're ready I invite you to start counting your exhales.
On the inhale you might like to leave the breath or mind empty if you can,
Or just simply think or reflect and,
And on the exhale,
One.
On the inhale,
Thinking and.
On the exhale,
Two.
Inhaling and.
Exhaling three.
Inhaling and.
Exhaling four.
And then going back to one,
Inhaling and.
Exhaling one.
And continuing,
Counting four breath rounds in your own time,
In your own way.
Trying to remain with the count and with the breath.
And continue.
And for your time at this moment you may reduce your Force on the blood attending the Magnificent If and when you do find the mind wanders away engaging in thought,
That's okay.
When you notice the minds been taken away,
It's a gentle invitation to allow the thoughts to fade,
Inviting your mind to come back again to the breath.
Start counting the breath again at one,
Without judgement or criticism,
And continue.
Staying with the breath,
Staying with the count.
Staying with the breath,
Stay with the count.
About another minute retaining the awareness and concentration with the breath counting on the exhales and rounds of 4 good good and now allowing the count to fade away allowing your breath to be gentle and soft bring your awareness back to the body just noticing your feet on the floor and your bottom on the chair and just noticing how you're feeling in body and mind as we come into the conclusion of this meditation with three bells.
When you're ready slowly opening your eyes resting for a few moments and then resuming your day with a smile
