Thank you.
So having adjusted the posture so that you feel really supported and comfortable,
Stable,
Yet alert,
The first thing to really think about is taking two or three really nice deep breaths.
And when we breathe in,
Having a sense of really engaging with the in-breath.
So breathing wide into the ribcage.
And as high and as deep as you can.
And then on the exhale,
It's about releasing.
So releasing the shoulders,
Releasing the belly,
Releasing the jaw.
We often hold tension in our jaws.
So maybe just gently parting the lips and allowing the tongue just to rest on the floor of the mouth.
There's nothing for us to do right now,
But really try and be with this sense of relaxing the body,
Connecting with the breath.
If it feels that you're able to breathe through the nostrils,
You might notice as you inhale,
The coolness of the air as it enters the nose,
And the sensation of breathing as you breathe in.
And as you exhale,
You might notice the warmth of the air on the top lip.
So we'll just take a couple of breaths in this way,
Just familiarizing ourselves with the sense of breathing in to become present,
Noticing the in-breath,
And breathing out to relax and release any tension in the body.
And then I'd like to invite you to start counting from one to 10.
And then when you get to 10,
To come back down to one again.
And we're going to focus the mind,
Not only on the number,
But also visualizing the number as we kind of say it to ourselves quietly.
And the rhythm and the speed is up to you,
But I'll start us off in a way that can be quite gentle and soothing.
And then if that feels that the pace is not quite right,
We'll drop into silence for the last three minutes and you can choose your own rhythm.
So imagining the number one,
Breathing in one,
And breathing out two,
And breathing in three,
And breathing out four,
And five,
And six,
And seven,
And eight,
And nine,
And ten,
And nine,
And eight,
And seven,
And six.
Now keeping going in this way and understanding that the mind will get busy with thoughts because that's what the mind does.
And it's absolutely fine to catch yourself lost in a story,
Lost in a thought.
The practice of mindfulness is that we notice when our mind has taken over.
And then we let go of that thought we might want to place that thought in a balloon and let it float off into the sky.
Or we might want to place it on a boat and have a sense of it sailing away down a river.
But we notice that thought that we're in thinking,
We let it go and we gently start again from one.
And so this is a practice of focusing and concentrating the mind.
So every time you catch yourself lost in a thought,
So every time you catch yourself lost,
We just come back and begin again from one.
Okay.
I'm going to be quiet now to let you do that.
Just noticing what's there and just trying to count from one to 10 and back down to one.
Okay.
And we might also notice some tension or resistance in the body and that's fine.
That's quite normal,
Especially if we're used to being busy and doing all the time.
And just simply noticing that and inviting the body to relax,
Release the tension as we stay just for another minute or so with the counting.
And then we'll come back to the beginning.
So we'll start again from one.
Another minute or so with the counting.
And in a minute,
I'm going to ring the bell.
And before you,
The way to come out of a practice is very gently.
And we do that by just starting to notice that contact point between the feet and the floor again.
Noticing the chair beneath us.
And as we listen for the sound of the bell,
We might inhale a little bit deeper and we might start to take some gentle movement and perhaps go into a stretch.
