Meditation for beginners.
An introduction and guided meditation.
We all come to meditation with preconceived ideas of what it should and should not be.
Sometimes these ideas make meditation harder than it should be.
There are so many meditation traditions,
Both ancient and modern.
They all have the same goal in mind,
But take different paths.
Meditation should be an exploration and a getting to know yourself.
A meeting between the mind and the true identity.
How you get to that meeting is something unique to your journey or path.
You may need to try a few meditation techniques and find the one you can stick to.
The practice of meditation is just that,
A practice.
There is no fast or quick way and there is no destination.
The best way to meditate is the one that works for you.
I have created this introduction to meditation for you to sample a few basic ways to settle your thoughts and release tension.
Have no expectations of what you feel or think or not think.
Try only to listen and focus on my voice.
If your mind wanders away,
No problem.
That is the first lesson.
It will happen and the practice is to come back to the focus point,
In this case my voice,
And to follow along where I am in the meditation.
Frustration is an unnecessary emotion in this process.
You are teaching yourself a new skill.
Be patient and try to have fun or learn something new about yourself.
Most of all,
I believe meditation should be pleasant,
If not fun.
I want to come to my meditation space because I look forward to it and I want the same for you.
Let's begin.
Begin to find a comfortable seat or a space that you can lay down.
If you feel that you may fall asleep in a reclined position,
Then I suggest a seated one on a sofa,
On a chair,
Or on the floor.
Make sure that you can lengthen the spine up,
Roll the shoulders up and back and relax them.
Take a deep inhale and then release the breath.
Do that again just to feel what it feels like to breathe in deeply and release the breath again.
That rhythm,
That movement of the breath,
That becomes our first focus.
Your breath is always with you.
It is your rhythm.
It is your pace.
Slowly breathing in and out.
Notice the area in the body where you feel the breath.
Maybe it's the rise and fall of the chest.
Maybe you feel it at the tip of the nostrils or in the sinuses or the back of the throat.
Bring your attention to that space where you sense or feel or notice the breath the most.
Then note how just bringing our awareness to the breath has already begun to slow it down.
Feel the gentle rise of the chest and the fall.
See how full you can fill the lungs up and still stay comfortable.
Feel the breath nourish you.
Feed every cell with oxygen.
We are going with each inhale new fresh air,
Oxygen and fuel to each cell in your body.
Let's shift the focus from the breath to sensation in the body.
What do you feel?
Notice the temperature of the toes or the fingers.
Notice if there's any area in your body where there's a tightness or sensation that feels different to the rest.
Scan your body from the toes,
Relaxing all the way to the balls of the feet.
Notice any temperature changes or differences,
Any tingling or any sensation as you move your awareness to the heels,
To the ankles,
Up the calves,
To the knees,
Thighs,
Hips.
Release all the tension in the lower body,
Just allowing everything to feel settled and relaxed.
And then we move the awareness up the hips to the belly.
Notice the movement of the belly and the chest as you breathe for a few breath cycles.
Feel how relaxing it is to just notice that wave-like sensation of the in and out breath.
Take your awareness back up the body to the shoulders,
Down the arms to the elbows,
Palms and fingers,
Up the neck to the jaw.
Release any and all tension in the jaw,
In the cheekbones,
The eyes inside the sockets,
The space between the brow to the crown of the head.
Notice the relaxed state that the body is in and if there's any tiniest little bit of tension left,
Let it go,
Let it go,
Release it now.
Let us bring the awareness to the thoughts without creating thoughts.
I would like you to just notice each thought that comes and goes.
Even a thought about your thoughts is a thought.
What do the thoughts look like or feel like to you right now?
Are they coming slowly in a linear way or does it feel jambled up and all over the place?
There is no right,
There is no wrong,
There just is.
Your job is to notice.
Now imagine that the thought process or the thought space is a wide open space of blackness and nothingness and as each thought comes,
Give it a visual representation.
Maybe your thought looks like a sentence floating by,
Maybe it's an image,
Maybe you can almost hear it as if a sound.
Imagine the thoughts just coming from one side and moving across that empty space to the other side.
As each thought comes,
We allow it to come,
We look at it and then we let it go without attachment,
Without even a deeper closer look.
Letting the thoughts come and letting the thoughts go,
No one more important than the next for this practice,
They are just objects drifting in and out of our awareness.
Let them come as they will and let them go.
Let them come and release them.
Now imagine as the thought comes into your mind,
Wrap it in a clear bubble and as you exhale,
Release it away.
Each thought for now losing its importance as it is only part of this process.
Feel how liberating it can be to not be attached to one thought.
Now notice that you are not your thought.
You are the observer becoming aware that the thoughts come and go.
You are the one that watches the thought.
That is the true you.
Go back to just watching the thought for a few more moments with this awareness that all you are doing is watching,
Noticing no attachment with the ability and the desire right now to release each thought.
Take a deep,
Deep breath in and exhale.
One more breath deep in and let it go.
Notice the calmness and the stillness in the body.
Come back and just notice the breath without changing any pattern.
Notice how the breath feels,
The pace,
How it makes your body feel and its wonderful ability to calm and relax us.
Stay here for as long as you would like,
Repeating any of the exercises we have gone through,
Either focusing on the breath,
Sensations in the body or watching the thoughts come and go.
In each case you were the observer watching and allowing,
Observing.
Before you wake up or become more alert,
Imagine an inner smile,
Maybe the face does change and there's a smile on the face but there's an inner smile,
A wellbeing,
A sense of knowing you have done something here,
Something that is useful and helpful and can be done again and again.
How you feel now,
The state of relaxed,
Calmness,
You can come back here any time.
Slowly begin to wiggle the toes and the fingers or create any movement that you need.
You can move the head from side to side,
Moving the arms and legs when you're ready and lastly opening the eyes.
I hope you have enjoyed this guided meditation.
Come back and do it over and over again.
Find the stillness,
The relaxed state and the knowing that this is meditation.
It is a practice and do it again and again and again.
Namaste.
