Establish your meditation posture,
Either sitting or lying down.
Position your body so be as comfortable as possible.
Having your back,
If you're sitting on a chair,
Away from the back of the chair.
And having your head,
Neck,
Back in alignment.
And having your feet firmly on the floor,
Hip width apart.
And being able to embody a relaxed and fully awake posture.
Let your body settle,
Whether you're sitting on the chair,
The floor,
Or the bed,
For the whole duration of this practice.
And as we settle here,
Just notice the sense of touch of your body sitting on the chair,
Or lying on the floor,
Or bed.
Noticing those areas where we may have that more contact with where we are sitting or lying.
And noticing the flow of breath through the body.
So through the nostrils,
Down our throat,
Down into the abdomen,
And out.
Noticing the breath from the middle of our body,
The sides,
The back.
Allow the breath to be saturated with kindness towards yourself.
And as that breath flows through your body,
Seeing if that kindness can flow through to saturate your whole self.
Now can you allow all aspects of the experience just to come and go,
Moment by moment.
Just to notice that kindness come in and go,
Rise and fall.
And this time if you were to focus again on your breath and notice the cold air as we breathe in,
And then that warm air as we breathe out.
Simply follow the breath.
Let's just notice those physical sensations of our breath.
Noticing the slight pauses between the in breath and the out breath.
And then from the out breath to the in breath,
And the in breath to the out breath.
Just narrowing that focus just to those slight pauses in between our breath.
And if you notice your mind's wandered,
As minds often do,
Just being able to congratulate yourself that you've noticed.
And being able to return it back,
Back to you breathing and notice that closed tension of your breath.
Mind wandering gives us an opportunity just to nurture patience for oneself and compassion.
And frustration that we often can feel in our day to day life.
We may feel by noticing our mind's wander.
This is okay that we can keep bringing it back time after time.
Reconnecting back to the here and now.
Noticing what's here in our body and our breath.
And this time we're going to move the focus of our attention away from our body and sitting here.
More to our thoughts,
Connecting what's here in our minds,
The workbench of our minds.
So not necessarily changing any of our thoughts.
Just noticing what's here in this moment.
As it may be all different thoughts that are here.
As we may have worries about the day or past events.
Things that are coming up.
Our minds are often busy throughout the day.
It's not necessarily changing any of these thoughts.
It's just noticing it and just allowing it to experience it as it is.
Allowing it to be here.
We may be able to imagine our minds almost being like the ocean.
So our thoughts may come and go like the waves of the ocean.
And the intensity of the thoughts may shift as thought comes in.
And the thoughts pass.
You may notice that more of the intensity of the emotions in the body.
Where that might be.
Just allowing these thoughts to be here moment by moment.
These thoughts are already here.
And just being compassionate and patient with ourselves.
Just allow them to come and them to go.
And if you find that it ever becomes too much.
You can always return back to your anchor points.
Back to our points of touch.
Feet on the floor.
Notice sitting on the chair.
Lying on the bed.
Or our breath.
Just noticing that we can always return back to these anchor points.
Whenever the thoughts or the emotions become too intense.
We can always return back to our anchor points.
And now if you were to return just our whole body just sitting here.
Perhaps you might have noticed that your posture has become more relaxed.
Or you might have noticed your body.
And if there's any areas of tension or discomfort.
Just seeing if you're able to breathe into those points.
Seeing if you're able to soften and let it go on the out breath.
Just connecting to our body.
Noticing what's here.
And the final moments of our practice.
And as this practice draws to a close.
I'm just going to ring the bell to signify the end of the practice.
But just give yourself a few moments to be able to come back around.
Just to become more alert of where you are.
The surroundings that are close to you.
What's there in the room.
And when you feel ready.
To be able to open your eyes.
And come back round.
Thank you.
