Hello my friend,
So I don't know if you've just started to feel a little bit stuck or if you've been in a slump for a long time,
But either way I hope this meditation can give you just a little bit of extra support.
If you're here,
You've already accomplished something great because the hardest part is getting started.
To begin,
Find a comfortable position for you today,
Either sitting up or lying down.
And if you'd like,
You can keep your eyes open,
Softly gazing just a few feet ahead of you.
Take a few moments to take in your surroundings,
Your physical environment around you.
So I'm going to guess that you may be giving yourself a hard time about being in a rut,
Thinking about things that you should be doing or you could be doing.
Or you may have an image in your mind of how you'd like to feel.
Energetically lighter,
More at ease,
Happier.
And this is completely natural.
Of course we all want to feel contentment.
Of course we all want to achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves.
And I want that for you too.
However,
Sometimes what we find is that if we let go of our vision of our desired future state and instead bring our attention to what is actually here today,
We can release ourselves from our own expectations and the mind has space to open.
And this can sometimes give us the space we need to get out of the rut that we're in.
So for the next little while,
I'm going to challenge us to let go of any regrets about the past or our anxieties and expectations about the future and instead bring our attention to the present moment,
Which is already here.
So if you haven't already,
Feel free to close your eyes,
Gradually start to bring your attention to the breath,
Noticing how it feels when you inhale and exhale.
Noticing how the flow of the air feels as it enters the nose and flows into the lungs and watching it slowly as it exits through the nose and the mouth.
Taking your time,
Not rushing anything,
Allowing your breathing to happen organically.
Notice even if you can remove any effort from your breathing,
Not trying to manipulate it at all,
But allowing the body to breathe automatically,
Which it naturally knows how to do.
And if you're having difficulty keeping the attention on the breath,
It can be helpful to count your breaths up to 10 before starting over back at 1.
So inhale,
Exhale 1.
Inhale,
Exhale 2.
And just like that,
Continuing on in your own time,
Counting up to 10 breaths before starting back at 1.
And when your mind wanders,
Just know that you're not doing anything wrong by any means.
It's actually an opportunity to notice what the mind is doing,
Or in other words,
Be mindful.
It's all part of the exercise,
Noticing your thoughts and bringing the attention back to the present moment.
Now let's bring our attention to what can be sensed in the body.
Noticing how the body is arranged,
The head,
The arms,
The hands,
Your legs,
And your feet.
Feeling the weight of the body pressed down on the earth.
Noticing any tension in the body or the muscles of the face.
Just scanning through the body and noticing how it feels.
And now bringing the attention back to the breath once more,
Taking a few slow in-breaths and out-breaths.
Taking all the time you need,
Not thinking about plans for the future or what has happened in the past,
Just being here.
And gradually as we come to the end of this meditation,
You can gently open your eyes again.
Thank you so much for meditating with me.
I hope you feel so proud for showing up today.
Take good care and I'll see you again next time.
