Welcome friends.
This is a meditation to support you in calming an overactive mind.
Take your seat either in a chair or on the earth and adjust your body so that you feel comfortable,
Supported and alert.
Let your eyes close.
Let your breath deepen.
Relax through the face,
The eyes,
The jaw.
Allow the shoulders to soften away from the ears.
Let the breath touch the heart and the belly.
Feel your hips supported by the earth or the chair beneath you.
See if you can let a little bit more of the weight of your body be received.
Scan through the body and note any areas of obvious tension and re-soften those areas with intention.
Bring your awareness into your mind and just begin by sensing what the state of the mind is in the present moment.
Does the mind feel cluttered with thoughts,
Chaotic?
Or does it feel pretty spacious and at ease already?
Imagine that you could merge your mind with the entire sky.
Let the whole sky be filled with your mind.
Notice what that's like to let your mind expand that much.
Let the mind free.
As you let your mind fill the whole sky,
Expand your body's field to fill the whole room that you're in,
House or building that you're in.
So mind and body expanded and open,
Vast and free.
Thoughts may still come and go.
Just notice the thoughts without getting hooked into their story.
Be aware of the thoughts but not identified with them.
Just bear witness and recognize that you are not your thoughts.
Acting with this image of the mind merging with the sky.
Could imagine that the thoughts are like the clouds that float by in the vast blue sky.
And you remain anchored to your truth as the vast blue sky.
Witnessing the clouds as they float by.
And you notice that you've gotten lost in the thoughts.
Name the thoughts.
Recognize when you're having a planning thought,
A worry thought,
A critical thought or a judgmental thought.
Just naming.
This is a planning thought.
This is a judgmental thought.
And then returning to the body and the breath.
Seeing the breath moving in and out of the body.
The gentle expansion and contraction of the physical body as you breathe.
Being witness to the way that your breath breathes itself without any effort on your part.
No doubt you'll get pulled away by thoughts.
Just keep it simple.
Name the thoughts without judgment.
Then return to the body,
Return to the breath.
Moving home to presence.
Starting once again with filling the whole sky with your mind.
And expanding your body's field to fill the whole room or home or building that you're in.
Breathing in a vast field of presence.
Be kind to yourself when you notice that you've drifted away,
When you notice that you've gotten lost in thought.
Become aware of when you've drifted.
Name what's distracted you.
And then come back to presence.
Whatever you become aware of,
You're not so in the grip of,
You're not so identified with.
There's freedom in that.
So much power in the simple practice of naming without judgment what's distracted you and returning to presence,
Returning to the body and the breath.
Keep it simple.
The music will continue for a few more minutes.
I invite you to stay in your practice until you hear the end bell.
Blessings and namaste,
Everyone.
