Welcome to day six.
How are you feeling today?
Congratulations on making it through your journey and meeting me here on the sixth day.
And as we talked about in our kickoff,
It was really important to build the base foundation of our meditation practice,
Knowing that we're doing everything exactly as we should be,
Just being with our body,
Being with our breath,
And working on training our brain whenever it gets distracted or a thought comes in,
Bringing it back to the sensation of the inhales and the exhales of our breath.
So now we're here on day six,
Taking it a little bit further on our meditation journey,
Diving into a new technique today,
Continuing our breath and body connection,
But moving more into sensations.
We have our foundation of our grounding body scan and we're connecting to our breath.
We're still recognizing when we get distracted and bringing it back to our point of focus.
And today we're going to go a little bit deeper.
So wherever you are getting comfortable today,
Asking yourself,
If you want to try a different posture,
Maybe you've been sitting on the floor or you've been lying down,
Maybe trying out sitting on a chair or maybe trying out sitting on the floor.
If you've been in the chair honoring what feels good in your body today,
But keeping your spine straight and relaxed as we continue to breathe,
To breathe,
But starting to pay more attention here,
Taking the deepest inhales and exhales we have all day beginning together in through our nose and then out through our mouth.
If we're still trying to get our body a little more focused and grounded,
Maybe taking more forceful exhales to really ground down as we inhale and release.
Ah,
Beautiful.
Just like that.
One more time,
Breathing in and releasing.
And if you haven't done so already,
Slowly closing your eyes.
And immediately when your eyes close,
Notice where your mind goes.
Maybe you notice that this entire time you've been distracted.
And if so,
Just smiling,
Beginning to take deep inhales and exhales,
Settling in,
Knowing you're doing exactly what you need to be doing.
Beautifully training our mind,
Building that muscle.
And we notice we get lost or distracted,
Bringing our attention back to the sensation of our weight pressing down.
Begin to notice how your body's feeling today.
Whether you're feeling a little bit lighter,
A little bit more restless,
Maybe a little bit more anxious.
We're not trying to change this feeling.
We're just trying to notice it,
Observe it.
Or on the flip side,
Maybe you're feeling really heavy and groggy.
Again,
Just noticing.
And then notice if any physical sensation in your body got you lost in a thought or distracted in some area,
Some sensation.
Just slowly grounding here together now,
Beginning at the top of your head,
Slowly checking in on each piece of yourself.
As we ground briefly here,
Releasing any tension in your forehead,
In your face,
Your jaw,
Your eyes.
Separating your teeth,
Maybe swallowing,
Opening your throat.
Sending your breath and your attention now to your shoulders.
Maybe noticing how you're sitting,
Checking in on each arm,
Feeling the weight pressing down on your body.
And then bringing your attention to the middle of your body now,
Seeing where your breath is originating from.
Setting an intention to take deep belly breaths,
Filling up our belly.
And then releasing,
Continuing down into your hips,
Down through each thigh,
Each knee,
Each calf,
Each foot,
And then every single toe.
And from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes,
Feeling that complete connection.
Knowing that at any point that your mind gets distracted.
Maybe it hasn't yet,
But also honoring that it will.
Remembering our human condition,
Remembering why we sit to train our brain at any point.
Noticing,
Bringing your attention back to the inhale and exhale of your body.
And for today's meditation,
Diving a little bit deeper here into feeling our sensations,
Taking that mind-body connection a little bit further now,
Beginning with sounds.
What can you hear?
Let's start outside of your body,
Noticing the noises around you,
Allowing it to come into your awareness,
Whether it's the air conditioning or a fan,
Maybe a dog barking or another animal around you,
Maybe a car outside,
Maybe a lawnmower,
Maybe a beeping sound,
Maybe a sound you can't even identify,
But you know it's in your awareness.
Inhaling here,
And exhaling,
Hearing all of these sounds at the same time,
Not getting stuck in any sound,
Just letting it be in our awareness,
Part of today's meditation.
As we turn inward now,
Noticing what we hear,
Not resisting any sensations,
And while you're in your body,
Beginning to notice what you can feel.
Maybe your hands are resting on your legs,
Maybe your hands are resting on your belly,
Or there's a piece of clothing in between your hands and your body,
Just feeling that.
Maybe you feel the weight of your clothes as it's resting on your body,
Feeling the different heat and sensation.
Maybe you feel air on your skin.
Together,
Inhaling here,
And as we exhale through our nose,
Feeling the warm air as it releases,
Inhaling through our nose,
Feeling the cold air as it enters our body.
Our body warms this air as it releases through our nose on our exhale.
Moving now to your taste,
Bringing your attention into your mouth now.
Noticing if you taste anything specific here,
Whether you just had a beverage or a meal,
Maybe you brushed your teeth,
Or had a piece of gum in your mouth,
Or maybe nothing at all,
And you can't taste anything,
Just noticing the sensation.
Inhaling here,
And exhaling,
And now noticing any smells coming in,
The smell of the air just entering through your nostrils,
That cold sensation as well.
Maybe that's all you can smell,
Or maybe you can smell some food cooking,
A candle maybe,
Anything in your space,
Not trying to change anything or to think about the smell,
Just allowing whatever comes to your awareness here to inform.
Inhaling here,
And exhaling,
And now keeping our eyes closed,
Maybe asking yourself,
What can you see?
The inner parts of our eyelids,
Maybe we're moving our eyes around gently,
Maybe you notice that your mind so easily brings up a picture into your awareness once you put your attention there.
I invite you to keep your awareness on your entire self breathing here,
And if it's helpful,
For the next minute,
We're going to count our breath to keep that focus.
Inhaling together,
Counting one,
And then exhaling,
Counting two,
Inhaling,
Counting three,
And exhaling,
Counting four.
With every inhale,
Five,
And every exhale,
Six,
Continuing just like that,
Every inhale,
And every exhale,
Knowing at any point that you lose the counting,
Just starting where you remember leaving off,
We're just coming back to one,
We're not trying to achieve any certain number,
We're just watching the sensation of our breath as we inhale,
And we exhale,
Just continuing here at your own pace,
Anytime your mind gets distracted,
Bringing it back to your inhale,
And your exhale,
Slowly allowing the counting to wear off,
As we bring our attention back to the weight of our body,
Back to the sensations of what we can hear,
What we can feel,
What we can taste,
What we can smell,
What we can see,
Opening our eyes gently,
Looking around the room,
Getting back into our space,
And thanking yourself for completing your practice for today.
Thank you so much.
