Grounding and somatic practice for the middle of the working day welcome to this experience thank you for coming for some minutes we will experience our body a somatic practice is an opportunity for you to reconnect with yourself just for a few moments so that you can restart your day,
Reset your mind and reset your focus this particular practice is designed for the middle of your working day so I imagine you started your work a few hours ago maybe and then you feel kind of stressed out or depleted of energy or angry or frustrated with something and you decide you need a break the quality of your work breaks will define the quality of your day of your mind,
Of your whole life we're gonna start by bringing yourself to this moment bring your awareness to the meat suit,
To the suit you wear everyday to your body try to think of little bits of you that are around somewhere in the minds of other people,
Pasts,
In the future,
In your plans,
In the way you were in the way people thought about you,
In the way you used to think about yourself little bits of you,
Of ideas of you and bring yourself into this moment,
Your whole self the whole little bit of you everywhere try to summon a gathering energy gather yourself in the now now that you are here,
Let's practice the muscle of attention let's play a little with your attention I imagine that you might be sitting in a chair at work and so maybe you wanna close your eyes for just a moment maybe you are at your break and you are able to close your eyes in a nature environment or maybe just look at the sky or maybe put a screen saver at your computer and just for a moment,
Be here we're gonna start with some points and I'll invite you to gather up your attention scientific research has shown that focusing your attention improves the quality of your experience throughout your work improves your organizational happiness,
Your well-being maybe for a moment,
Just give it a chance I know the scientific results might sound a little overwhelming and too positive to be true but believe me,
Stay with me for a moment you will see the fruits of your work in a few minutes so let's start by grounding ourselves in our body a somatic experience is just that an opportunity to get in touch with your soma that means body in the Greek language you've worked your eyes,
You've focused your eyes or you closed your eyes and now we focus on your shoulders let them simply go down for a moment feel your neck relaxing,
Feel your hands becoming softer feel your eyebrows becoming softer and softer as we progress in this somatic experience let your attention focus on your breath,
The breath of life breathing is experiencing life at its fullest observe the quality of your breath,
The temperature of your breathing the inhale,
The exhale and the pause in between inhale,
Observe the pause just for 2 or 3 seconds exhale and observe the pause again without air inside your body,
Just for 2 or 3 seconds feel your ribs opening up,
Feel your chest becoming wider and wider feel your eyelashes,
Your nostrils,
Your lips all becoming relaxed,
Without tension and now reconnect with the center of your body do that exercise,
Where is the center of my body?
Breathe into the center of your body keep your shoulders down,
Your neck down and your forehead soft focus on the center of your hands for 10 seconds cultivate the observer in you all day at our workstation,
During work hours we are focusing and observing other stuff clients,
Screens,
Phones,
Paper,
Everything around us and so,
Trust me,
For a few moments,
For a few minutes observe yourself,
You deserve it this is the path to a Zen and happy workday the Buddhist Zen practice is supposed to be in silent,
Absolute silence and we will do that just in a short moment but for now,
Let's finish up the rest of our body let's gather our attention and focus on our feet,
Our fingers let your brain play around for a moment take your brain to your legs instead of letting your brain,
Your mind wander we are just channeling your attention,
That's it,
That's meditation the full definition of meditation the self-intentional observation of your attention and cultivating the observer in you take your attention to your knees,
Your thighs and the way your buttocks rests on something or maybe your back,
The way your body is touching other surfaces inhale and exhale,
And for a moment pay attention to your whole body just for 20 seconds,
Be in silence full silence with yourself during these 20 seconds,
You might want to do 10 or 8 full inhales and exhales but if you prefer,
Just say to your brain,
Brain and now,
Think of whatever you'd like I'm here,
I'm listening,
I hear you,
I love you,
I respect you you,
My dear brain,
Are the reason I am here,
I am alive,
I am a thinking human sometimes you give me some trouble,
But most of the times you are a positive and wonderful organ and part of me so this moment is for you,
Brain,
Take a rest for the next 20 to 30 seconds approximately,
Just be and you,
My dear listener,
Just be yourself you are not your brain,
You are your own self the one that is observing right now this whole experience I will leave you,
I will come back in 30 seconds to finish up,
Let's take a moment for 5 breathings with a different technique let's close our mouth,
Let the upper lip meet the low lip and let's just breathe with our nostrils and breathe with our nose you don't have to breathe too much air,
Just observe the breathing don't judge,
There is nothing to achieve,
There is nowhere to go there is just you,
Your brain,
Your body,
Your emotions and this wonderful planet to be in,
You are a human being,
Not a human doing so let's just be for just a moment and so we inhale and exhale using just your nose for 5 breathings let's start,
Inhale and exhale through your nostrils you keep doing that for 4 more breathings feel your ribs filling up,
Feel your abdominal forcing the air out and for the last 2 breaths you will feel a focus,
An extreme acute focus this kind of breathing,
Ujjayi,
Helps you to focus when you exhale through your noses,
You feel a little tingling on the back of your throat explore that sensation for a few seconds if you are alone,
You might want to try making a little noise in the back of your throat and in this last moment of breathing,
Feel your whole body and be grateful to him,
Be grateful that you have feet and legs and arms and eyes and everything about your body,
I know that sometimes you might not like everything about your body but it's yours,
It's wonderful,
It lets you breathe,
It lets you live and experience this few so short years that we are here and to finish up this practice,
Now that you've redirected your attention inwards to yourself let's start to mix up with the attention of what's going on outside keeping that quality of being an observer,
That quality of not being your body,
Not being your emotions,
Not being your brain but being able to listen to everything,
To discern everything that is mindfulness,
That is inside meditation so for a few seconds,
I'll leave you in silence but this time,
Let the stimuli appear maybe a sound in the back and you try to reach your attention further and further and try to listen a distant sound and you feel your brain focusing and exercising this quality of the muscle of attention and then you bring it to your breath and then you bring it to a place in your body and then you go outside again and you keep this cycle no forcing,
Just let your attention go somewhere and then you take charge and you bring it to wherever you'd like it to go next that is pure meditation I will leave you for 30 more seconds to wrap up we finish up being grateful for the job and the work we are doing today it might be a bad day,
It might be a good day,
It doesn't matter really it's your day,
It's your life,
It's your experience good or bad are just two facets of the same thing and so we go back to our work,
We go back to our day and fully understanding of what it means to be grounded in our bodies,
Grounded in our breath focused in our minds,
Happy with ourselves and grateful that simply we are here have a wonderful,
Wonderful day
