21 Days Of Meditation: Day 11
Join Anthony from Nature of Mindfulness on day eleven of a 21 day meditation journey. This guided practice combines deep and meaningful reflection with proven effective techniques including body scanning and breathing exercises.
Transcript
Welcome to your meditation on day 11.
Begin by aligning your body and taking a moment to set yourself up.
Whenever you feel even in your left and right sides,
Go ahead and close your eyes,
Letting your palms rest onto your knees.
Bring more length into your lower back,
Sitting up nice and tall,
Completely relaxing the arms and shoulders.
Notice if your hips are tensing,
Relax your hips.
Now bring your awareness to the parts of your body that make contact to the floor or whatever's beneath you.
Notice the parts of your body that are exposed to the air around you and see if you can feel the temperature of the air on your skin.
Without forcing your breath,
Notice that breath is already happening.
Start to give your breath space to deepen on its own.
Completely relax your abdomen and notice if your breath flows a little bit deeper into your belly.
Notice the movement that your breath is creating in your upper belly,
Just below your rib cage.
Try to feel your inhales and your exhales in your upper belly,
As well as the pauses between breaths.
Try not to control your breath in any way,
Just let it flow in its own rhythm.
Keep feeling your breath in your upper belly,
Just below your ribs,
And at the same time feel the soles of your feet.
Keep feeling your breath in your upper belly,
At the same time feel the palms of your hands.
Stay aware of your breath,
Feeling the fronts of your hips.
Feel the sides of your hips.
Feel the backsides of your hips.
Feel the area that surrounds your tailbone,
Which is your sacrum.
Feel your buttocks.
Now feel your entire hip and pelvic area.
Keep feeling your hip and pelvic area,
At the same time notice your natural breath,
Coming and going freely.
Feel the weight of your pelvis,
Pressing down into whatever supports beneath you.
Whenever your body takes its next exhale,
Lengthen your exhale until you're all the way empty.
Whenever you're empty,
Pause and hold.
Constrict the back of your throat for a sounded breath,
Sipping the inhale in nice and slowly for four.
Sip as slowly as you can for three,
Two,
One.
Hold your breath.
Keeping your throat constricted,
Sounded exhale for four,
Three,
Slowly as you can,
Two,
One.
Holding your breath,
Sounded inhale,
Sipping your breath in four,
Three,
Slowing down your inhale,
Two,
One.
Hold your breath,
Sounded exhale slowly for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Pause and hold.
Sounded inhale for a count of four,
Sipping your breath in even slower this time.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Sounded exhale for four.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Sounded inhale for a count of four,
Sipping your breath in slowly.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Sounded exhale for four.
Pause and hold your breath.
Sounded inhale for a count of four.
Pause and hold your breath.
As you hold,
Feel your hips and your pelvis.
Keep feeling your hips and your pelvis as you exhale for a count of four.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis.
As you feel your hips and pelvis,
Sounded inhale for a count of four.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis.
Sounded exhale for a count of four,
Sipping your breath as slowly as possible.
Pause and hold.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis.
Sounded inhale for a count of four,
Sip your breath nice and slow.
Pause,
Feeling your hips and pelvis.
Sounded exhale for four.
Pause and hold.
I want you to keep feeling your hips and pelvis the whole time.
Sounded inhale for four.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Sounded exhale for four.
Pause,
Hold your breath.
Sounded inhale for four.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis as you inhale.
Pause and hold.
Sounded exhale.
Pause and hold.
Sounded inhale.
Pause,
Hold.
Sounded exhale.
Pause and hold.
Just two more breaths.
Keep feeling hips and pelvis.
Sounded inhale for four.
Pause and hold.
Sounded exhale for four.
Pause and hold.
Sounded inhale for four.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis.
Pause and hold.
Sounded exhale for four.
Final hold.
Keep feeling your hips and pelvis.
As you release your hold,
Let your breath come back into its natural rhythm.
Stay mindful of your breath flowing freely.
At the same time,
Be aware of the energy moving through the area of your hips and your pelvis.
Now become aware of the front of your belly.
Concentrate on the sides of your belly.
Feel your lower back.
Feel the backside of your ribs.
Feel your shoulder blades.
Become aware of the space between your shoulder blades.
Focus on your chest.
Feel the front side of your ribcage.
Notice everywhere in your body that's moving when your breath comes in and out.
Notice your body moving when your breath comes and goes,
And notice when your body is still during the pauses in between breaths.
Try to stay aware of your breath without controlling it,
And at the same time sense your fingers.
Focus on the palms of your hands.
Feel the insides of your wrists.
Concentrate on the insides of your forearms.
Feel your inner elbows.
Feel your biceps.
Feel the fronts of your shoulders.
Focus on the sides of your shoulders.
Become aware of your triceps.
Become aware of your outer elbows.
Feel the outsides of your forearms.
Feel your outer wrists.
Feel the backsides of your hands.
Notice your fingers.
Now become aware of both your arms and both your hands at the same time.
Sense the blood and energy that's circulating through your arms all the way to your fingers.
As you're sensing your arms and your hands,
Notice your breath come and go in its natural rhythm at the same time.
Now become aware of the front of your throat.
Concentrate on the sides of your neck.
Feel the backside of your neck.
Relax your jaw and keep sensing your jaw.
Sense your lips.
Sense your cheeks.
Feel your nose.
Notice the sensation of your breath coming in and out of your nostrils without forcing your breath.
Focus on your forehead.
Relax the muscles around your eyes,
Sensing the weight of your eyelids.
Become aware of your ears.
Become aware of the back of your head.
Feel the crown of your head.
Now reach your awareness into your entire body,
Sensing all the way from the crown of your head down to the soles of your feet.
Become aware of every sensation arising throughout your whole body.
Keep feeling your whole body and at the same time notice your body breathing effortlessly on its own.
If there was just one thing that you should never give up on doing in life,
That one thing would be dreaming.
And when you take time to dream about your life and all of the possibilities that are before you,
It brings you back to a place of magic and wonder.
And the truth is that everything that mankind has ever created started as an idea that was dreamt of.
And believe it or not,
The hardest part isn't having faith in your dreams,
But rather it's knowing what to dream of.
One way to find your dreams is to ask yourself this question.
If anything was possible and what you dreamt of became your reality,
What would you begin to dream of?
And before you open your eyes,
Take this time to visualize and imagine all of the dreams you have for yourself.
Whenever you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
