Hello,
My name is Matt Albury and thanks for picking this meditation.
This practice is going to be what I would call a lunchtime practice.
So it'll be a 10 minute practice to help us just to ground and take stock of our day.
So in this practice,
We'll sit for a bit,
Bringing awareness to our breath,
To our thoughts,
And then we'll end with intention setting for our next part of the day.
So whether you are having a break from being busy at home or in the office or in the shop,
The practice will be to allow you to ground and then focus how you want to be for the remainder of the day.
So to enable us to start this,
Allow yourself to get comfortable where you are.
So wherever you're seated,
Notice the firm floor underneath your feet.
Notice whatever you're sat on.
Notice your sit bones on the cushion.
Notice the sensation of the chair.
If you're in a chair,
Holding your body and then allow your awareness to go out to all the sounds.
So one of the most important things in yoga and meditation practice is we accept what's going on around us.
So when we're meditating here together,
We accept whatever noises are around us as part of life going on around us.
And then when you're ready,
Take a lovely breath in through your nose and sigh out through the mouth if that's comfortable for you to do that.
And we do that again.
So lovely breath in and a breath out through the mouth.
By doing this,
We're helping the body come into a relaxed response.
And then if it's comfortable to do so,
Close your eyes.
And then when you hear the bell,
We start to do our practice together.
So allow yourself now just to bring your awareness ever so lightly onto your breath.
So a lot of the wisdom teachings in different styles of meditation use breath as your anchor because it's always there.
And something we can attach to as we bring awareness into focus.
So here we're just going to lightly watch the breath come and go.
So you might watch the breath come up through your nose,
Down into your body.
Feel the air flooding into the body.
Feeling all the physical sensations that go with that as the body expands with the in breath.
You might notice a little pause before you naturally want to breathe out.
And again,
We watch the sensations of the body as the breath rolls back out.
And just watch the breath just evaporating away out through the nostrils.
And then you'll notice another little pause and then allow the breath to roll back in.
So here we're not trying to control the breath.
Just notice the breath doing its thing.
Your breath is as unique as you actually,
As unique as your fingerprints.
So here we're just bringing our awareness,
Noticing the breath come and go.
Just that gentle reminder you will get distracted possibly by sounds,
Physical sensations,
And you will get distracted by your mind.
And when you do,
You just notice it.
Notice you've gone off with that thought or that physical sensation.
And then bring yourself back to watching the breath come and go.
So you're just watching this wave.
Breath in,
Breath out.
And then ever so briefly,
Lift your awareness away from the breath and just come and place it on the mind.
So what I mean here is we're just watching the mind do its thing.
So letting the thoughts come in and go out.
Not worrying about whether they're good thoughts,
Bad thoughts,
We shouldn't be having them.
Here we're just noticing the mechanics of the mind.
And as you probably already know,
The more you practice,
The more you meditate,
The more these mechanics of the mind happen in the background rather than the forefront of our practice.
So a sort of stillness that comes with regular practice.
But just notice the mind ticking away,
As they call it in yoga sutras,
They call it the chittifrity,
The fluctuations of the mind.
So here,
That's what we do.
Just watch the mind randomly bringing thoughts up,
Watching them go.
And then gently bring your awareness back to your breath.
So here again,
We're just watching the natural flow of your breath in and out,
Like this wave coming into the body and out of the body.
But no expectations at all,
Just watching the breath come and go.
Then allow yourself to come and set some intentions for your afternoon.
These are known as sankalpas,
For the most direct translation means a solemn vow.
But all this is,
Is about intentional living,
Bringing attention into our afternoon.
So thinking of how your first part of the day has been,
How do you want to be for the remainder of your day?
So these can be set intentions to think I'm going to be more patient with myself or more patient with a person I'm finding difficult,
Or I'm going to be kinder to myself.
So think about these qualities,
How do you want to be for the remainder of your day?
And as these intentions come up in you,
Just let them settle into your heart center.
Just trust they'll come up as and when you need them to throughout your day.
And then when you hear the bell,
That'll be the end of our practice and I'll lead us out of our practice together.
So just lift those awareness away now from the intentions and from the breath and listen to the sounds.
Notice the sounds all around you.
Notice the chair you're sat on,
Feeling the physicalness of that chair or the cushion and drop your awareness down to your sit bones.
Feel the feet on the floor there and take a lovely breath in through the nose and sigh out through the mouth.
I'm going to do that again.
And then just open your eyes,
Have a look around and then prepare to go into the remainder of your day.
And just before you go,
Just a reminder that when we set these intentions,
They're not a stick that we hit ourselves with later if we don't fulfill them.
Just a way of us thinking about how do you want to be.
And at the end of the day,
If we've come to it and we think I can do any of those intentions,
So be it.
And then we start again tomorrow.
