Find the seeds.
Whatever makes you comfortable.
We will start very soon.
It's going to be a short take.
I don't know,
For some people it might be short,
For some it might be long,
30 minutes,
But I hope you will.
.
.
Enjoy it.
So I'm also a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and I would love to be your guide this evening with meditation about how we can connect with our body.
The why the session is so special this evening is pretty much because I just launched my mindfulness platform,
One Kind Voice,
This month.
This month also is the Mental Health Awareness Month.
So that's a special privilege that I got to launch together.
During this month and I would like to.
Kick off with the three meditations about how we can connect with our body.
And the reason I have chosen that is because we feel so much,
We sense so much through our body,
But sometimes we actually forget to literally connect or to remind ourselves about the parts of our body.
So I hope this will be useful for you.
And I will stop the video,
I will just keep my photo here so we don't get distracted throughout the meditation.
So first and foremost,
I welcome you here.
And I want to say that we are aiming here to create a space that's inclusive.
That promotes kindness,
That's one of my first and foremost goals,
And a space where we can approach mindfulness,
Meditation with a beginner's mind,
Really.
This is an opportunity for myself to create a community and actually kind of co-creating with you all a practice or an oasis for those with similar interests.
Minutes serve like as a sort of mini break for yourself just before sleep.
And it's a way actually to distance ourselves from the moment.
We just had before now and for what's going to come after that.
We will start.
Through gong,
Maybe this time you will hear me better,
I did a test before but.
Let me start again.
And the purpose of this sound here is literally to have kind of a wall between the time we were before.
One of the best way to implement this distance between time or moments is actually to create in a few times.
You might be lying down,
You might be sitting in a chair,
But just feel free to breathe and breathe on purpose few times.
You might even take it with a sound.
Nothing forceful.
Just find your own rhythm.
And become aware of the breath.
Take it sort of a notch above shallow.
What I mean by shallow is actually what we do on a daily basis.
We don't really feel or we don't sense any special sensation when we are breathing.
It's something so natural,
Becomes one with us.
In order to notice your breathing,
You can literally.
You know,
Hear the sound.
Thank you,
Mary.
Take him out.
So the meditation today is a guided meditation,
Which means that you will keep hearing my voice throughout these 30 minutes.
And we are centering actually around very simple ways to reconnect with our physical body.
Why is that important?
It's because through our body,
We actually can feel all our emotions.
We can feel different sensations.
We can feel pain.
We can feel pleasure.
And we want to actually bring the attention on a very,
Very simple parts on our hands,
Hands on our feet to help us ground.
Especially in our body,
Which is a very simple way and method of grounding.
In the next meditations on 20th and 25th,
We will work more with breathing or we will actually perform a full body scan.
This one is a lighter one.
And because I was recently back home and,
You know,
I could watch my niece,
I have this example in my mind,
You know,
We always kind of teach young kids,
Right?
Like,
Where is your nose?
Show me your mouth.
Where is your head?
Show me your hand.
Give me five.
Show me your feet,
Show me how you dance.
So when we are teaching the kid actually the body parts,
At the same time like teaching them you know English language or teaching them any language,
We also train ourselves again and we become familiar again with whatever we are teaching a kid.
And in this case,
You know,
Can you show me your nose,
Right?
This is what we ask to a kid.
Where is it?
Or can you wave at me,
Hello,
With your hands?
Can we wave bye-bye?
And,
You know,
We watch the kids so happy that they can imitate us and they can perform the same.
Action through becoming aware of their own body.
And one way actually to get really settled and be firm is pretty much to consider our posture for this very meditation.
I think for many of us,
In my case right now,
The moment I said posture,
I kind of become straight up.
I realized I was really deep in my cushion on my chair.
You don't have to do necessarily that,
But what would happen is that actually everything becomes a reflex.
So for many of us,
Comes first to mind when thinking of meditation is actually maybe a lotus position with our spine perfectly up straight.
But to be honest,
We don't have to do any of it.
We just have to lie down,
Relax,
Or we just sit in our chair.
I find sitting in a chair during a meditation particularly helpful.
I'm not inclined to sleep away and I can still control a little bit or relax or kind of get in contact with my body during any meditation.
And In this very simple way,
You can connect with your body by adjusting your sitting position to your liking.
And while you sit up,
Or you sit on the floor,
You actually,
By performing this natural,
Let's say,
Adjustment,
You may close your eyes if you feel good,
Or if it doesn't feel so good,
Just keep the gaze open.
Take a posture really in a nutshell that seems natural to you and they might also keep you awake.
Of course,
It will be a pleasure if you feel so relaxed and you fall asleep.
During this meditation,
But that would not be really the aim for it.
So.
.
.
The idea is to find yourself at home in your own space.
And while this seating works for you,
And you found the place,
The space that's perfect for you.
Keep a little bit of spine,
A little bit straight,
But not rigid,
You know,
It's just so.
You kind of release all the tension in the body.
Feel your shoulders,
They also relax and they drop down.
I think the moment I say drop down our shoulders,
Some of us,
We send some sort of tension.
And we are holding this tension already.
Facial muscles,
You know,
Unclench,
We might feel some tension,
You might smile or we might breathe in and out again.
Shake hands a little bit and just notice if you have any sensation of relaxation.
By slowing down.
By taking a minute.
Just to adjust our posture.
We actually just came into contact with parts of our bodies.
And this is definitely nothing new.
There is a new way of connecting.
There is a new level of awareness.
What did we do?
We paid attention.
We paid attention on purpose.
And it is not that we do not know we have a body,
Of course we do,
But most of the times we might treat our body for granted until perhaps one day pain kicks in and we can see the difference.
So my intention for this evening is to create gradually moments of pause and silence,
Not very large because this is not really a silent meditation and embrace the space in between these lines,
These simple instructions and reconnect with your body.
There would be some moments of silence.
But until you hear me say goodbye and you hear the gong again,
Please know I'm still with you.
The very first instruction.
I will ask you To remember,
I mentioned at some moment,
Please try to smile.
Try to smile in the most natural way.
This is very relaxing for the body,
It can help your nervous system.
And when you smile,
You can consider that you also welcome yourself.
Here,
I did welcome you before,
But you can welcome yourself here.
You can simply become that kid whom we were teaching to be friendly and wave hello.
You can just wave an imaginary hello if you wish to.
Of course,
It might not feel natural at first.
However,
We are here,
Nobody can see us,
Hear us,
So keep the smile up.
And Listen to me.
What we do next,
It's another calming moment.
Sort of exercise in the sense that I invite you to rub your hands against each other.
Warm your hands a little bit.
After you rubbed your hands against each other,
Please place them on your eyes for a few seconds.
Not many.
There is a sensation,
There is a sensation of warmth.
Again,
If you are tempted to fall asleep.
Please still bear with me.
Move your hands now on your ears for a few seconds.
The sound dissipates.
You might not hear me well,
This is fine.
Move your sound on.
Your hands on your cheeks.
Take your hands,
Place them on your shoulders.
Simply as a hug.
Light touch.
We establish a simple gesture as a point of connection.
And we acknowledge.
Our body.
Keep your hands on your shoulders.
Going back to your hands,
Release them.
And I invite you now to a little sort of not imaginary,
But a very gentle dance.
Place your hands on your knees or on your legs wherever you are most comfortable.
Palms down.
And this is a new point of contact with your body.
You can feel new sensations.
You can move your hands a little bit.
You can still feel perhaps the warm.
You can feel some tension,
Some resistance.
It is normal.
I would invite you to take this well-earned moment into silence.
And bring into this space for all of us a simple intention.
Why have you wished to be here today?
Of course,
Partly for me,
For my launch,
And thank you,
But definitely for yourself.
Maybe you want it to calm down after a hectic day.
Maybe you are curious and open-minded.
Maybe you just wanted a break.
With your hands resting on your knees.
I invite you to lift them up.
Gently,
Everything that we do today is a gentle movement.
To feel the air.
Move the hands a little bit around.
Imagine whispering a gentle melody and playing alongside with your hands.
Now.
Turn the palms down,
Returns to first place and rest arms on your knees or on your legs.
We repeat,
We leave,
We flow,
We feel the air brushing against your hands.
All in the softest and slowest rhythm.
I hope we are not feeling any pain,
But if it is so,
Please place the hands wherever is more comfortable.
If you have your eyes open,
You actually can watch your hands perform this simple instruction.
Lift,
Move,
Flow.
Feel the air.
Think of a melody.
Place the hands down on your knees.
With every movement,
With every palm on the knees.
We feel a new sensation.
A new sensation.
One suggestion would be to stay away from thoughts about your hands,
Especially if you open your eyes.
We tend to judge our forms,
Our shapes,
So brush those thoughts away.
Return just to simple action of sensing your hands moving and making contact with your body.
As silly as this may sound,
I would ask you again to remember the smile in the first moments.
And just place it there and watch the hands.
Continue easy breathing naturally in and out.
We might simply return to where we are here and now.
And listening to my voice.
But the most important is actually to become aware of our multitasking hands.
Just resting here.
Away from any task in contact.
Relaxing.
And I will move into the last instruction for today.
If you are comfortable to actually feel your feet on the ground,
If you are sitting,
That's very easy,
But just make sure you spread your toes.
If you're actually lying down in the bed or on the floor,
Lift a little bit your knees and make sure you firm your feet.
On the bed or on a yoga mat.
Just notice the sensation of grounding yourself.
Are you in contact with a bed,
With a carpet,
With a chair?
Is it cold?
Is it warm?
Maybe your feet are a little bit restless or you can feel.
Their energy still bouncing from the day maybe you have walked all day long.
Make sure.
You expand the surface of connection and ground yourself as much as you can.
Course it would be lovely to be in a garden and do this together.
In a garden.
On the soil,
On the earth.
Take this grounding deeper now.
And place your hands also on the floor if you are lying down or on the chair.
In my case,
I'm on the chair.
I can feel my palms.
On the chair.
I can also feel my body.
And I feed toes,
How I expand them to shore recover.
A lot.
And everyone will become aware of different sensations.
This is something very personal,
Of course.
Tingling,
Restlessness,
Warmth,
Cold,
Tension,
Relaxation.
Stay there,
You know,
One,
Two minutes,
Leaning,
Leaning into grounding.
You are here for yourself,
Creating some time for yourself.
You are safe.
Transform these instructions,
Personalize them to your own setting.
Space,
Room,
Garden.
Whatever gives you the sensation of feeling grounded and safe.
If you can smile from time to time.
It will help you out.
In the most natural way.
These simple gestures increase our awareness and our realization that our body holds so much for us.
It is a sort of treasure.
A miracle worker on automation.
That holds so much and does so much for us every day.
Stay with the body and wonder at this miracle that we might know so little about.
Say thanks to your sensations.
We can feel them.
Say thanks.
That you can become aware.
I leave you with Two minutes of silence.
If you feel like still moving your hands in this little.
Concertino we played,
Please do it.
If you want to just remain grounded,
Remain grounded.
Everything arises from what we touch.
From what we hear.
From what we smell and see.
Everything can be perceived at the physical level.
All our emotions,
Perceptions get filtered.
Through our body.
We say thank you.
I would like to close with this quote by Bema Chodron,
One of my favorites.
Buddhist teachers.
She says It is helpful to realise that is very body that we have.
That is sitting here right now.
With its aches and its pleasures.
Is exactly what we need.
To be fully human.
40 away.
For DLI.
