Hello and welcome to day four of your meditation journey.
Asking yourself how you feel today,
Maybe letting your body answer instead of quickly responding with your mind.
If you're anything like me,
I remember when I first began my practice,
I did force myself to commit to the 10 days of sitting.
Whether or not I felt it,
I was very skeptical.
I remember the first few days I did not feel anything at all.
I thought it was a silly joke.
It wasn't until the latter half of my journey when I started to really see the transformation.
So if you're resonating with this and you're feeling a little bit skeptical like I was,
Maybe today you're thinking how this might be unproductive or a waste of time.
You could be doing something right now.
You could be completing a task or maybe something you think is more important.
I do want to reassure you that I too felt this way and I was shocked when I had this realization that I actually had zero control over the change that was happening in my brain.
The impact of me sitting consistently day over day to meditate and to check in with myself.
So I do want to break it down for you quite simply and quickly before we dive into today's meditation.
Our brain can be changed.
It's not fixed.
We have what we call our prefrontal cortex,
Which is responsible for regulating our thoughts and our emotions.
And we also have another piece of our brain called the amygdala,
Which is responsible for our fight,
Flight,
Or freeze response,
Aka reacting to stress,
If you know what I'm talking about.
But we do need our amygdala because it's what keeps us safe.
It's our key to survival when we're in a dangerous situation.
But most of the time,
Our mind tricks us and our amygdala takes control and it runs the show.
And it gets in the way of our clear,
More rational thinking.
So that's why we meditate.
Because over a consistent practice and over time,
We literally change our brain.
We make our prefrontal cortex thicker,
While simultaneously shrinking our amygdala,
Allowing us to have that clear,
Rational thought.
And the best part is,
Is you really can't control it.
Especially me with my Type A perfectionist personality.
I had no control over this change.
I would just watch my brain slowly react differently in life situations over time.
And this was as a result of my consistent practice.
If that resonates,
The science behind it,
I hope you can carry that with you throughout the rest of your journey.
That a lot is happening.
Today's metaphor for the mind and the thoughts and our relationship with them has to do with a puddle.
You can imagine a puddle anywhere.
And this is this is kind of like our mind.
A blank slate,
Just a puddle that's clear and serene.
Now imagine some raindrops coming in,
The rippling effect as you notice one drop hitting the puddle,
And how it affects the rest.
Maybe imagining a few more raindrops,
Maybe even a bunch of raindrops,
Noticing how it changes the way the puddle might seem.
Imagine the puddle being your mind and the thoughts that you have being the different raindrops.
And recognizing your relationship with your thoughts and how when you do get stuck and lost in one,
How it begins to compound and take control and slowly one raindrop turns into many.
Beginning to take deep inhales and exhales,
Sitting comfortably in your seat or on the floor.
Feeling the weight of your body,
Your feet on the ground,
Your hands resting on your legs,
And begin to take the deepest inhales and exhales you have all day.
Breathing in through your nose and then exhaling,
Releasing something.
Maybe your shoulders drop a little,
Maybe you feel your weight pressing down a little bit heavier.
Breathing in just like that,
Inhaling through your nose and releasing.
Beautiful.
Just like that one last time before breathing normally in through your nose and exhaling,
Slowly closing your eyes if you haven't done so yet.
And as soon as you close your eyes,
Maybe still allowing the space around you to be in your mind's eye.
Starting to feel the space around you,
Maybe even the sounds,
Maybe certain smells.
Allowing any of these external sounds,
The external environment to come in,
Not resisting anything.
Knowing that all you need to do for this meditation is just be.
See what it feels like to be in your body,
What it feels like to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
What it feels like to actually pay attention to the complete inhale and exhale.
Recognizing how often we take our breath for granted,
Yet not one breath we take is exactly the same.
And our breath is the one thing keeping us alive in this moment.
As soon as your mind wanders off or you notice you've been thinking this entire time,
Just smiling,
Bringing yourself back,
Training that muscle of recognizing when you're lost in a thought,
Bringing it back to the sensation of your breath.
Breathing in here and breathing out.
Checking in a little bit more clearly now,
So often we're stuck in our minds and the constant replay of memories,
Future projections,
The thoughts,
The distractions,
The to-do lists.
We forget what it feels like to be in our bodies.
We go in autopilot.
Autopilot.
We get from point A to point B,
Stuck in our minds,
Just thinking throughout our daily lives.
Just taking a moment here to recognize how our own autopilot gets in the way.
And together checking in more clearly.
This time starting at the tips of our toes,
Working our way up our body all the way to the crown of our head.
Starting at the very tips of our toes,
Working our way up through each bone in our feet,
Into our ankles,
Checking in on our calf,
Our shin bone,
Our knees.
Almost visualizing yourself,
Checking in on each piece of yourself,
Starting all the way from the tips of your toes up through your ankles,
Your legs,
Your knees,
Your thighs,
And bringing your attention to your hips now.
And for a moment pausing,
Offering yourself gratitude.
Gratitude from even getting from point A to point B.
Gratitude for waking up this morning with every inhale,
Envisioning it starting at the tips of your toes,
Breathing in,
Sending your breath up your legs into your hips,
Allowing that gratitude to now flow into your belly.
Maybe noticing your belly expand and then retract as you exhale.
Not getting lost in any specific body part.
If you notice an uncomfortable sensation,
Recognizing it,
Sending your breath to it,
Scanning up through your chest into your heart space,
In through your shoulders and down each arm,
Inhaling from the tips of our toes all the way up our body,
Feeling as that breath connects up towards our shoulders and into our throat,
Maybe swallowing here,
Noticing how our body knows exactly what to do.
You notice a thought came in,
A distraction,
Bringing your attention back to the sensation of breathing in,
Filling up your entire body,
Sending that inhale up your throat and into your face,
And exhaling,
Releasing.
Inhaling here,
Engulfing your entire self from the tips of your toes,
All the way to the crown of your head,
Finding that entire connection here,
Resting in this space,
This space of awareness,
Watching the thoughts coming and going,
Not getting attached or lost,
But not resisting if we do,
Allowing it,
Recognizing that we're building the muscle,
Seeing if you can find that space in between the thoughts.
You want to rest in that space,
Even if it's for half of a second.
Every time we recognize our thoughts are coming in and we're lost,
And we bring ourselves back to our breath,
We train to stay in that space between a little bit longer.
Breathing together as one unit with every inhale,
Filling up,
And with every exhale,
Grounding.
With every inhale,
Filling up,
And every exhale,
Grounding.
And taking one final inhale together as we transition back into the rest of our day,
Inhaling here,
And then exhaling,
Sighing out,
Bringing movement back into your toes and your fingers,
Maybe shrugging your shoulders,
Maybe twisting your head right and left,
Up and down,
Taking any organic movements you need here,
As you open your eyes,
Bringing yourself back to open awareness in an awakened state of attention.
Offering gratitude for yourself for completing this meditation.
Thank you.
