A Guided Meditation For Calmness - How To Choose Silence

Do you want more silence in your mind? It is normal for us to spend almost all of our time giving attention to thoughts and feelings. This guided meditation is meant to help bring you calmness by taking you to silence and stillness.

Transcript

Hello, My name is Noah Elkrief and today I'm going to lead you through a guided meditation for calmness. So I invite you to close your eyes and focus on your breath. You don't have to breathe in any particular way. Just notice how your breath is naturally moving. Notice the breath coming in and notice the breath going out. Notice any thoughts coming up. It's going too fast. It's going too slow. It's totally okay however your breath is moving. It is not supposed to be any particular speed. It's all welcome. So we are here together just sitting and breathing. Nothing else happening. Just breathing. Notice what else enters the scene. Notice the thoughts. Notice the feelings. Thoughts arise. Feelings arise. It's okay. It's all welcome here and now. Allow them to come up. Do whatever they need to do. Whenever they feel like subsiding, Just let them subside. Anytime something feels important, Allow that it feels important and promise that you'll get back to it in an appropriate time because I'm setting aside time right now for the next however many minutes, 15, 20 minutes maybe, To just explore different parts of myself and different parts of being here now. When thoughts arise and emotions arise, They always feel important. They want our attention. That's normal. That's okay. And there's a time and a place for giving them all the attention that they want. Your mind is trying to help you and your feelings need your love, Affection, Intention, And warmth. We want to be there for both our mind and our body. But in this moment, We're exploring a different part of ourself. So when our emotions are craving our attention, We just tell them, I see you, I hear you, And I'll come back to you later. In this moment, I want to experience calmness. I want to experience a calmness that is a part of me, That is a part of the present moment. But maybe I don't often experience because my attention is on my thoughts and feelings. So come back to your breath. Come back to my voice. Come back to your inhale. Come back to your exhale. Come back to my voice. Come back to the sounds of what's here now. Now now. Everything is okay here and now. You are okay here and now. Notice anything that disagrees with that is also okay. The thoughts that say, But this and this and this is not okay. I hear you. I hear those thoughts and we'll give them all the attention later. But we come back to here and now. Now now. It's okay. Whatever feelings are arising, It's okay. And the part that says it's not okay, But I feel this and I feel this. I hear you. And there's a time and a place for meeting those feelings, Exploring them, Expressing them, Healing them. But it's not here and now. Right now, We're coming back to our breath. Bring your awareness to your breath. To the inhale and to the exhale. Nothing to do here and now. Nothing to solve here and now. Nowhere to get to here and now. So notice your experience. Notice what's alive in you. Whether you feel calm or whether it keeps feeling like something is pulling your attention. Some part of your experience, Your emotions or your thoughts are demanding your attention. And when they demand your attention, What do you do? Do you give them your attention? Or do you get mad at them and say, No, I'm not giving you attention. I'm angry at you. Let me be. Stop thinking, Stop feeling. Right now, We want to take a different approach. Instead of the normal way of giving our thoughts and feelings all the attention in the world, Or the opposite way of denying them, Abandoning them and treating them unkindly, We want to sort of respectfully see them, Hear them and let them know we also need time away. Just like if you have children, You love them, You respect them, You need to be there for them. But there are also times you need to be there for yourself and away from your children. So let's say like your thoughts and your feelings are kind of like your children. They need time, Love and attention. But in this moment, It's okay to step away and come back to your breath. Come back to stillness, Come back to silence. You have all the permission in the world to let go of all the seemingly important thoughts and emotions. To bring your awareness back to the stillness and silence of the here and now. Emotions and thoughts can be pushy. They can be demanding. They can be angry at you just like children. Give me attention. You're bad if you stop giving me attention. You're mean if you stop giving me attention. I hear you. I get that. But you need to understand that sometimes I need time away from you. Connect back to the core of stillness and okayness within the center of my being. I will come back to you. I care about you and I respect you. And I also care and respect myself and my need to come back to my core of stillness. Now, Part of you might feel like you're leaving the known world. It's so familiar to live in the world of feeling, Feeling, Feeling, Thinking, Thinking, Thinking. And to disconnect from those worlds can feel like you're leaving your normal world. It can be scary, Uneasy. That's okay. That's okay. Take your time and be gentle with yourself. But I'm here to assure you and reassure you that when you leave those worlds, It's peaceful, Calm, Still, Always. This is like the rock, The sturdiness, The safety and the steadiness that's always here. And when you're connected to this place, It's much easier to relate to your thoughts and your feelings. I invite you to the silence. I welcome you to the stillness. This is home in a way. Come back to your breath. Come back to now. Come back to my voice and notice what else is pulling your attention. The feelings demand your attention. It's time to tell them who's boss. You are boss. You are the decider of whether you give emotions attention or whether you come back to rest in the peace and calmness of your core. No, I'm putting up a boundary. No. I'm taking my attention, My awareness and my presence away from my emotions and my thoughts and coming back to the stillness of my moving breath. And I allow any resistance to just move through me, Any fear to just move through me. It's totally allowed, Totally acceptable that the fear or the sadness of leaving the familiar, Of leaving the emotional body. There are many parts of you, You know. There's the emotional body, Your mental body and your core of stillness, Silence, Presence and awareness and many other parts. And right now, This meditation is about connecting to the calmness of just being aware, Just being here and now. It is not better or worse than any other place to rest. But we are just opening access to this calmness so that when emotions arise, We are not a prisoner or a slave to them, That we have to feel them constantly. And when thoughts are moving, That we are not a prisoner or a slave, That we have to pay attention to them nonstop. But we have an alternative to come back here to this stillness that is unimpacted by the thoughts and the feelings. And don't worry, When thoughts and feelings arise in the future, We can meet them in whatever way feels right to dive into them, To give them all the attention, To give them love, To explore their causes and reasons for being here or anything else. But here and now, We're coming back to our breath, Coming back to stillness, Coming back to my voice, Coming back home to ourselves. You're welcome here in the land of infinite space and stillness. It can be clear here. There is some wisdom and discernment here. But don't stay here too long. We also want to give love and attention to all the other parts of ourselves. Yes. Just be with yourself as stillness. And we will meet there. We will meet each other in stillness, Getting to know different parts of ourselves and others. You can stay here for as long as you desire. And it's always available to you. It's nice to take breaks sometimes from the thoughts and the feelings, To take a step out of it. So you're not constantly at the mercy of all of it. And so you can see it from a different vantage point. When you step out of it, Sometimes you can see it more clearly, The more easily give the emotions what they need, Or more easily give yourself what you need to maybe let go of the thoughts, Beliefs and emotions that aren't really yours. Okay. I'm gonna go, But you can keep your eyes closed. You can stay in this. Thanks for listening. And I wish you well. Bye.