So let's begin this meditation today by beginning with closing the eyes,
If that's comfortable.
And if you don't want to have your eyes closed,
Have a soft downward gaze a few feet in front of you,
Not really looking at anything,
Just a soft gaze.
And begin by noticing sound,
The sound of my voice,
Perhaps sounds outside of the room,
Sounds inside the room,
Just becoming aware of our surroundings.
And then noticing the body will shift,
Sensing your feet on the ground,
Noticing your feet inside your shoes,
Touching the floor,
Just feet.
And then becoming aware of the legs,
The bend of the ankles and the knees,
How the legs come up into the hips.
And noticing the sensation of the backs of the legs,
Making contact with the chair might be a sense of pressure,
Or maybe some pulsing or the sense of weightiness of the body.
Just notice those touch points,
Same thing with the bottom of the body,
Noticing the sit bones,
The buttocks,
And then coming up into the back,
Sensing how the back is touching the chair also.
We sense the whole back body just sitting as you are.
And then becoming aware of the front of the body,
Especially the torso,
The belly and the chest and the shoulders,
And allowing this area of the body to soften or relax a little bit.
When the front of the body softens and relaxes a little bit,
There's a little more room to breathe.
Simply breathe and know your breathing.
Nothing special to do at all,
Just breathe.
And now bringing some awareness into the shoulders and the arms and the hands,
Allowing the shoulders to rest,
To drop a little bit,
Which naturally relaxes the arms and the hands.
Now sensing the face and the throat,
And allowing the face and the throat also to soften,
Any amount.
And then once again bringing the awareness to the back of the body and the spine,
And holding just enough energy in the back to stay in your sitting posture.
So not very tight,
Just a soft sitting,
A soft sense of being upright,
And then continuing to soften the front of the body,
Thinking of this as a stable back and a soft front,
And breathing inside of that.
And the mind may wander,
Totally normal,
Totally natural.
When you notice that the mind has wandered a bit,
Come back,
Feel the breath again,
The inhale and then the exhale.
Now the breathing happens on its own,
You don't have to do anything about it.
And now see if there's a place in your body where you feel your breath the most.
Might be the deep belly,
The way the belly expands and contracts with each breath cycle.
Or maybe it's in the chest,
In the side ribs,
The way there's movement when the lungs fill and empty.
Or it could be that you feel your breath the most right where the air goes in and out of the nostrils.
Or it might be that you don't feel your breath anywhere specifically,
But you just have a general sense of knowing your breathing,
And that's just fine too.
So now see if you can allow your awareness to settle in that place where you feel your breath most obviously,
And stay there.
Breathing the inhale and then the exhale.
You can even say to yourself in,
Out.
That can give the mind something to do.
Just breathing in,
Breathing out.
And we'll sit quietly for a few minutes,
Simply sensing the breathing just as it is.
Now if you can,
Pay particular attention.
Pay particular attention just to the inhale.
Noticing the beginning,
The middle,
And the end of the inhale,
And allowing the exhale to happen on its own.
Next time you get to the top of the inhale,
Shift the focus to the exhale,
Noticing the beginning,
The middle,
And the end of the exhale,
And knowing the inhale will happen on its own.
And the next time you get to the end of the exhale,
See if you can sense the very slight pause that happens before the next breath begins.
This is like a resting note in music.
There's this pause,
A moment,
A rest,
Where absolutely nothing is happening.
Then the next breath happens.
See if you notice that.
And now simply returning to breathing.
And now bringing to mind a time where you know you feel really well,
A time you felt well,
A place that's good for you,
Where the mind can relax,
Where you feel that true sense of okayness,
Knowing that you're okay.
Okay meaning that right now I'm safe,
I'm well,
Well in this moment,
Even happy,
Even some sense of ease.
Bringing that to mind and let it pervade your body in any way that seems accessible to you.
Sensing what it's like to feel okay.
And in that sensing of okayness,
Perhaps breathing in ease and breathing out peace,
Even if you just say to yourself ease and peace.
And sending a message to the mind to feel those things.
Any time that it's helpful for you to bring in this quality of okayness or ease or even to wish it for yourself,
May I be at ease in this moment,
You can do that.
Whatever is happening in the mind,
The heart or the body,
It's really always helpful and appropriate to wish ourselves ease.
Coming back to a sense of sitting,
Feet on the ground,
Body sitting in the chair just as it is.
Being aware again of sound,
Being in this room.
