Hi,
My name is Neil Shepherd and I'm from Inner Synergy.
This session is a mini meditation.
What I mean by that is it's when you've only got a few to several minutes available.
This is a really handy thing to do to help us settle,
Slide back into neutral,
Reset a bit.
The hard part is often noticing before it's a little bit too late and we feel quite untidy.
Try and catch yourself before.
So sitting comfortably in your chair,
Invite you to close your eyes or if you don't like closing your eyes have a soft gaze down on the floor in front of you.
This helps reduce our sense stimulation especially when we're starting out with our practice.
I invite you to sit with your back as straight as you can but not striving or straining.
We're allowing our body to relax while keeping our mind alert.
Not over alert but certainly not under alert.
You don't have to do anything or be anywhere just for the next little while.
So I invite you to just let go of your day,
Your week,
Your month and rolling your shoulders backwards and down.
Releasing,
Relaxing,
Calm.
Noticing if there's any tension in your body,
Consciously allowing,
Giving permission for that tension to release.
We hold a lot of tension in our body,
We don't even know it.
I invite you to take three slower deeper breaths down into the belly,
Preferably not chest breathing like we do when we're stressed.
We're teaching our body to relax more naturally by triggering our natural autonomic nervous system's relaxation response in the parasympathetic nervous system.
Many of us have the habit of having a busy mind and I use the word habit,
It is a habit.
Let's give the mind a short break from incessant thinking and needing to do something.
It might feel a bit odd at first but it's one of the best things you can do for your mind and your body,
Giving it a break.
Letting go of our busyness,
Giving your mind permission for some down time,
Just being for a change.
This may seem quite unusual for some at first,
As we sometimes don't slow down at all until we're able to do it.
It just takes practice,
The more you do this the easier it gets and the better at it you get.
Mindfulness in a simple term is basically having the ability to sustain our focus and to be able to do something.
For extended periods without being distracted,
We're terribly distractable when we get stressed and fused in thought and in survival mode.
Another thing that we can do is to let go of our busyness and let go of our stress.
And then we're in survival mode.
Another slightly deeper,
Slightly slower breath down into the belly.
Body releasing,
Relaxing,
Calm.
Mind awake and alert.
I'd like to suggest that you could remember this feeling and come back to it as many times as you need.
Finishing up shortly,
When it's time for you,
Open your eyes,
Stretch,
Rub your face,
For most of all smile.
How was that?
My name is Neil Sheppard from Inner Synergy.
Making a difference.
All the very best with your practice.
