I cycle in worry or finding worry when wonder is always in this moment of what is and what will be.
Take this 10 minutes to sit quietly with your breath.
Begin slowly to unravel your thoughts in two deep breaths.
Pause and come into the space and the comfort of a position.
Slowly count silently from 10 until 1.
Relaxing after each breath more and more.
10,
Silently letting go.
9,
More relaxed.
8,
A little bit more.
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
More and more relaxed.
3,
2,
As relaxed as you can be.
1.
So drop,
Drop into the embrace of gravity.
Sits bones reach down to the earth.
Tailbone is long.
Spine is reached to the sky.
The crown of the head reaching high.
So worry and negative thoughts and even seeing ourselves as weak or unable to cope with something or even not being a good meditator come up in our mind.
And at this point we need a sense of kindness and lightness to ourselves and the practice.
And we do this by learning to breathe.
Breathe into our heart,
Letting go of self judgment.
Go to the place where you hold the worry,
Either in your body or your mind.
Your deepest worries,
Call them together,
Place them all in an imaginary basket.
And now put it on a very high shelf to come back to after this meditation.
Feel the release.
There's nothing you're going to control or change or alter for this 10 minutes.
We're feeling the breath in the body.
I know this can trigger anxiety sometimes when we focus on the breath.
We can be taking in too much air or pushing the breath.
But just remember that the breath is unconscious.
If we focus on it too much,
It can be unsettling.
So let go.
Just feel the breath in the body.
I find it helps to follow the breath from the beginning,
The in-breath all the way to the end,
And then the out-breath all the way to the end.
Of course,
Thoughts will come.
You can notice them,
Appreciate them.
And you will also notice that they will go as quickly as they came.
Just let go.
Feel this letting go in the body,
In the mind.
Meditation is a mind of no preference,
A beginner's mind.
You transform as you sit and you practice.
Wonder is revolutionary in the face of pain.
And calm is revolutionary in the face of silence.
The calm of this awareness sitting in this silence.
Just remember you can choose different versions of yourself,
Your mind for every moment.
This is a precious insight.
Watch your thoughts,
But be continually staying with the breath,
The feeling of the breath in the body to release the thoughts.
These moments of pause and mindful breath give you a place to begin again and again.
Your breath is your friend.
You are not alone when you have the breath.
It is your quiet guide within you.
Just follow it.
Our willingness to breathe into our heart,
Stay in this space,
In this silence,
Breath by breath,
Shows us our strength and our courage to go on.
Being alone in meditation can be recuperative.
Solitude is an opportunity to ask yourself,
Who am I?
You do not live inside your worry.
Pause,
Release it for these moments and have self compassion.
Meditation helps us to tolerate discomfort,
Less craving,
Being open to the little things that might be revealed later.
What is arising in the field of awareness?
We have to believe the answers will come.
Worry wants to own our thoughts,
But we are not our thoughts.
Be in the letting go,
In the spaciousness of the letting go.
This might be a beautiful feeling,
A light,
An attention somewhere between your eyes or in the darkness behind your eyes.
It might be beyond the room.
Hopefully you will discover something personally that is just for you that you need.
But don't look for it.
Meditation is not about finding something.
It's about staying with the moments,
Staying in the present moment,
Unlocking pieces of your own calm.
Thank you for your practice.
