Hello,
I'm Mike.
I'll be offering up a breath awareness practice and an open awareness practice.
During the breath awareness practice,
I'll invite you to let your attention be with your breath.
It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
As the mind wanders off,
Which of course it will do most likely many,
Many times,
All you have to do is gently acknowledge those thoughts,
Perhaps even identify those thoughts as thinking,
And redirect your attention back to your breath.
We'll do that for a bit,
And then we'll transition into an open awareness practice.
During an open awareness practice,
You let the mind simply wander.
You let the thoughts go wherever they want to go,
But you allow yourself to notice those thoughts,
And see if you can notice those thoughts with a sense of non-judgment,
Almost as if you're a third-party observer to those thoughts.
These are two great practices,
And they're two great practices combined together.
I usually end most meditations with a gratitude practice,
So we'll likely finish up with a gratitude practice as well.
Let's go ahead and get started.
Take a few moments to settle into this space.
Give yourself permission to be here.
Remind yourself that for the next,
Let's say,
Ten minutes,
You have nowhere to go,
Nowhere to be.
This is a practice of carving out time and giving yourself space.
Make sure that your body is comfortable.
You can lie down,
Stay seated.
Then I'll invite you to either close your eyes or take a soft gaze.
Then you can seal your lips.
Just notice the air coming in through the nose and out through the nose.
You don't have to change the natural pattern of the breath.
Just notice it.
Perhaps the air feels cool as it comes in and warm as it goes out.
Just letting yourself notice the inhale and notice the exhale.
And when the mind begins to drift,
Or you start thinking about whatever you have going on,
Just know that's perfectly normal.
There's no such thing as being a good or bad meditator.
Just notice those thoughts.
Even address those thoughts with a sense of non-judgment.
And gently bring back the attention to your breath.
Each time your mind wanders off,
Just taking that pause,
Identify the thought,
And bringing it back to the breath.
Some days this will seem a bit easier.
Some days it will be a significant challenge.
But really the goal is just awareness.
It doesn't matter how many times you have to do it.
Just each time you do it,
Just come back to the inhale.
And then whenever you're ready,
We'll explore,
Or I'll offer up an open awareness meditation.
And this is where you simply let your mind do whatever it wants to do.
You can think about whatever you want to think about,
Whatever emotions surface.
All you have to do is acknowledge them.
But in this open awareness practice,
Just see if you can acknowledge anything that pops up with a sense of non-judgment,
And perhaps even a sense of compassion.
Everything that pops up is just part of this human experience.
So for the next,
Let's say,
90 seconds or so,
I'll invite you to let the mind do whatever it wants to do,
And just notice those thoughts almost as if you're a third-party observer or that you're just noticing them,
Perhaps not giving them a story or a narrative.
Okay.
Take a few more moments,
Noticing the thoughts,
Maybe even noticing the thoughts with a sense of curiosity,
Noticing where they're going or what's surfacing today versus yesterday.
And then whenever you're ready,
We'll come back to that basic breath awareness,
Perhaps this time just noticing the exhale as your mind is transitioning from that wander mode,
Noticing those thoughts,
But then bringing the attention back to the exhale,
Letting the inhale do its job subconsciously,
And then just noticing the exhale,
Reminding yourself,
Nowhere to go,
Nowhere to be,
Giving yourself permission to be here,
Just allowing yourself to notice each exhale.
And if you want to continue on with your meditation,
This may be a good time to hit your pause button,
But if you want to transition out,
We'll do so together.
I invite you to bring your hands into your heart center,
Center of your chest,
And I invite you to think of someone,
Something,
Someplace that feels like gratitude,
Perhaps if something's small,
Perhaps it's a loved one,
Whatever it is,
Whatever you're grateful for,
Bring her,
Him,
It into your attention.
And then if you closed your eyes,
I invite you to blink your eyes open,
Perhaps rolling out the shoulders a bit,
Maybe rolling out the neck,
And then slowly transitioning into your day,
Reminding yourself that this meditation is a practice that we do on our own or we do with a community,
But it's also an awareness practice that we can do at any point in our days,
Whether it's just five seconds to check in,
Check in with the breath,
Check in with the awareness,
The idea being is that these tools help us so that we can go out into the world and help our community.
So thank you for sharing space with me today.
Have a great rest of your day.
