Welcome to practice.
My name is Neil Seligman,
Founder of The Conscious Professional.
Thank you for joining me today for this guided mindfulness meditation focusing on calming anxiety.
Begin by finding a comfortable posture and by bringing your awareness to the breath.
Take a few moments to let yourself arrive and allow the breath to draw you gently into internal awareness.
Allow the gaze to soften and if appropriate for your setting the eyes to close.
As we breathe allow the awareness to drop all the way through the body to the soles of the feet.
Feeling that connection between the feet and the cushion or the feet and the floor.
Allowing your curiosity to do the work.
Noticing the toes,
The toenails,
The bones in the feet,
The skin,
The flesh and any sensations that might be present in the feet.
Noticing temperature,
Noticing moisture,
Noticing the texture of clothing if we're wearing socks or shoes.
Breathing with the feet,
The feet which take us on all of our adventures,
The feet which support our standing body,
The feet which set us in motion through the world.
And just being with the awareness of the feet as the feet show up for you.
If we're feeling anxious spending time with the feet in our awareness allows us to take our focus from the thinking mind.
Still in the body but as far away from the thinking mind as possible.
So we start here starting with the feet remembering this body,
One body breathing.
Next we bring one hand or both hands whatever feels comfortable for you to the heart.
And as we bring the hands to the heart we signal to bring our awareness to the heart as well.
And as we bring awareness to the heart we notice the contact between the hands,
Clothing,
Hands and skin.
We notice that as we do this the heart shows up more clearly in our awareness.
We might start to even feel the warmth of the heart and if for whatever reason placing hands on heart or contemplating heart doesn't feel good for you just choosing another part of the body,
The knees,
The belly or simply holding our own hand.
Allowing the breath to connect the heart with your practice.
Notice how the breath reaches the heart and how the breath allows the warmth of heart to circulate through the breathing body.
And so as we ground through our feet,
Connect with our heart,
We next come to a compassionate contemplation of the breath.
Sensing right now the rhythm of your own breath without a desire to change it.
Allowing the breath to be just as it is and to flow.
Riding the waves of your own breath.
Finding your way in your own experience to the place in the body and being that feels most calm,
Most still.
Acknowledging yourself for showing up for this practice.
Allowing a sense of appreciation to arise.
Appreciation for the gift that you have given yourself of this time in practice.
Acknowledging the permission that's required when we change direction.
We need permission to stop,
To try another way,
To come back to something simpler,
The body,
The heart,
The breath.
And sometimes when we do we find there is also stillness in our experience.
There is also calm available and so we breathe.
And as we weave the threads of this short practice together,
Just allowing ourselves to follow the next exhale up and out.
Perhaps a light feeling of energy rising and in your very own time allowing the eyes to reopen.
Thank you for joining me in practice today.
