Please close your eyes or have them downcast towards the floor if you prefer.
Making yourself comfortable.
Keeping your back straight.
A stable posture without straining.
Invite you to take three slower,
Deeper breaths through the nose down into the belly.
You may like to try experimenting with a slightly longer out breath.
This has the effect of helping to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system relaxation response a little quicker.
As you're breathing out,
You may like to ask yourself,
What focus is important right now?
Settling your body.
Noticing where you are.
Sensing your weight on the chair.
Letting any tightness or tension dissolve.
Noticing any coolness or warmth of the air.
Just acknowledging any sounds,
Smells or any other sense inputs without judgement or reaction.
You may notice your body and mind may be remembering a sense of calm from other practices.
Gently allowing that to flow over you.
Softly allowing presence to arise.
Focusing in,
Starting with your feet.
Noticing both big toes.
Feeling your feet on the ground.
Maybe moving your feet slightly,
Wiggling your toes.
Awareness moving up your body.
The ankles.
The calves.
Releasing.
Your knees.
Your bottom.
Your back.
Your chest.
Relaxing.
Your shoulders.
Your neck.
Calm.
Relaxing your face.
The brow.
Eyes.
Mouth.
Tongue.
Jaw unclenched.
Releasing any tension in your shoulders and neck by rolling your shoulders backwards and down.
Consciously allowing your body to relax.
Keeping your mind focused in this practice.
Growing skills of self-awareness and emotional management.
This practice is helping you to integrate.
Accepting.
Connecting.
Being kind with yourself.
Learning to be okay with whatever arises.
And being okay just being.
Everything is transient.
All things will pass.
Taking another conscious breath in.
Releasing.
Relaxing.
Calm.
Body relaxing.
Mind focused and aware.
Remember to use the circle of thought to build the observing part of our mind.
It helps us build metacognition.
Focusing the mind.
The mind wandering,
Which is very normal.
Catching the mind wandering.
And refocusing the mind.
Over time,
You'll get quicker catching the mind wandering off.
Without awareness,
The mind wanders off around 50% of the time.
Stuck on autopilot.
Not really noticing what is actually happening.
Caught up in the habit of reaction and routine.
Noticing your environment.
Not reacting to the environment can be liberating.
Growing self-awareness skills.
And sharpening your focus.
Without overthinking or analyzing.
Let your intuition arise in your meditation.
Are you kind with yourself?
Like you would be kind to a friend.
We can tend to be very hard on ourselves with our inner critic.
Every day we have choices to make.
Within those choices we can decide whether we react or we calmly respond in situations.
Noticing more.
Observing more.
Calmer.
Body relaxing,
Releasing tension.
While the mind is focused and aware.
As an exercise,
Think about what inspires or uplifts you.
What do you appreciate or have gratitude for?
Using your intuition now.
Is there anything that comes up that you could focus on that's of benefit to you?
Another conscious breath in.
Body relaxing.
Mind focused and aware.
Calmly reflecting on any values that may be important to you.
Could you acknowledge and step into any ideas that are coming to you?
While fully accepting that you are fine just the way you are.
Learning and growing.
What might an inspirational and beneficial future look like for you?
Sitting quietly in reflection with this for a short while.
Catching the mind if it wanders off and gently pulling it back to your reflection.
What might an inspirational and beneficial future look like for you?
Using your intuition,
Allowing it to arise.
What might an inspirational and beneficial future look like for you?
What might an inspirational and beneficial future look like for you?
How did you go?
Are there any intentions to set towards what benefits you?
Don't worry if nothing came up this time it's still also an amazing mindfulness practice and intuition grows.
As we get further into our mindfulness practice.
Taking another conscious breath.
Releasing.
Relaxing.
Calm.
Mind focused and aware.
Building our observing mind.
This could be thought of as a journey.
A journey that evolves over time.
What steps are required to keep this journey active for you?
Finishing up our meditation shortly.
Taking another conscious breath down into the belly.
You may like to remember how you feel right now so you can return to it.
And notice the quality of your mind.
To sustain this going forward.
When it's time for you open your eyes.
Look around.
Maybe stretch.
Maybe even a smile.
Wishing you well with your journey of learning and growing.
Remember to be kind with yourself.
Thank you.
