Taking a moment to wrap up the task at hand and freeing yourself from other potential interruptions.
So turning off other devices,
Letting other folks in the household know you're taking some time for self-care.
If you have a door you can close,
Then closing the door so you can give yourself some me time right now.
And let's begin.
And settling into your meditation posture,
And there's no perfect way to be sitting,
There's some general guidelines to consider.
If you are seated in a chair,
Then feet flat upon the floor,
Feeling the floor supporting the soles of your feet.
And then deciding as far as what is your back need today?
If you're a little stiff and sore like I am,
You may need a little more support from the back of the chair.
Or sitting,
Scooting forward a little bit,
And with an unsupported back.
And either way,
Inviting a comfortable rising up of spine towards the sky.
Then perhaps a few shoulder rolls,
Easing any tension carried in the neck and shoulders and arms draping down.
Hands finding a comfortable resting spot,
Maybe cupped within lap or resting upon thighs.
Inviting head to slide back atop spine and shoulders,
And so the weight of the head is carried by the spine,
The neck region,
Instead of muscles in the back of the neck.
Inviting a loosening of jaw,
Lips either gently touching or slightly parted.
And eyes either opened or closed,
Whichever you find of comfort and ease.
Settling in to a posture that balances gentleness to body and wakefulness to mind.
And we'll do a slow,
Easy checking in with body in this moment.
Starting at the crown,
The top of head,
And inviting attention to move slowly downwards across face.
Back around the sides,
The ears and jaw on the back of head.
Just a checking in,
Noticing any tension or tightness,
And inviting a letting go as best as you can.
Inviting a further moving of attention down through neck and shoulders,
Down into arms and forearms and hands.
Noticing the presence of any tension or tightness and inviting a letting go as best as you can.
And you may hear Fizzy,
Our cat,
Joining with a few meows,
And just letting that be part of the experience as well.
Further sweeping down through body with our attention through chest and upper back,
Ribs and mid-back,
And belly and lower back.
Noticing the presence of any tension or tightness,
And inviting a letting go as best as you can.
Further sweeping through body,
Bringing our attention through the hips and thighs,
Knees and calves,
And feet and toes.
Noticing the presence of any tension or tightness,
And inviting a letting go as best as you can.
Once again,
Feeling the sense of grounding,
Of feet resting upon floor.
Now having practiced some self-care by tending to body,
Directing your attention to the sensations of body breathing,
Perhaps feeling the rise and fall of chest and belly,
Or the movement of air through nose or mouth.
And if you find it helpful,
Inviting a few fuller breaths,
Not forcing,
A little deeper inhale.
Noticing the pause and a little fuller letting go on the exhale,
Not forcing,
Just inviting a few fuller breaths to invite our attention,
Settling in further to body in this moment.
And now trusting our body will breathe as needed,
Allowing breath falling into a natural rate and rhythm as needed in this moment.
And when,
Not if,
But when you notice your focus has drifted away from body breathing in this moment,
Which natural occurrence happens to all of us,
Whether you've been meditating today for the first time or 20 plus years like myself,
Focus will still drift typically into thoughts at some point.
It's not a problem,
It's not,
I didn't do it right,
It's just how our minds function.
And when you notice you've drifted off,
Very typical into memories of the past or worries of the future,
Just acknowledging,
Oh,
Look,
I've drifted away.
And then with gentleness and kindness towards self,
Bringing attention back once again to the sensations of body breathing.
And if you notice some sounds from the environment which pull your attention towards those sounds,
That's okay too.
It's simply acknowledging your current experience.
And any other sensation,
That's okay.
It's just acknowledging and then coming back once again to body breathing.
And for today,
We're going to practice embracing emotions.
Emotions sometimes can be a bit challenging in a muddy up life,
Especially depending upon where they fall on the spectrum from pleasant to unpleasant.
So we're going to be exploring pleasant emotions today.
And at any time,
If you feel a sense of distraction,
Confusion,
Uneasy,
A couple options.
One is to come back to body breathing.
And the other one is coming back to feet resting upon the floor and that literal experience of grounding.
So having both of those as a place to come back to for ease and comfort and safety.
And if you'd want to just stay with the body breathing,
That's cool too,
Whatever you feel comfortable with.
And if you so choose in this moment,
Inviting yourself to bring to mind a happy,
Pleasant or joyful memory,
Perhaps,
Or an event from this past week or further back,
If you so choose.
Some event which you would label as happy or joyful or fun,
Bringing that into your mind's eye in this moment.
Where did this event occur?
Was it indoors or outdoors,
At home or elsewhere?
And then who was present for this pleasant,
Happy,
Joyful event,
Populating the scene?
And now inviting the story to unfold of this event.
What did the other people do and say?
And what did you do and say during this pleasant,
Happy,
Joyful event?
Letting it unfold in your mind's eye.
And even though this event happened in the past,
Notice how recalling it in this moment invites in some emotions,
Typically found down within body somewhere.
Directing your attention to your experience now of the emotion showing up,
Typically as some sort of sensation within body.
And inviting a space for this emotion to simply unfold,
The sensation to be present.
And again,
Not forcing anything or if any moment you feel you need to return back to body breathing or feet upon ground,
Please practice that act of self-care.
What's it like to create some space for this emotion to be?
What does this emotion feel like?
Where is it in your body?
And is it still or moving?
What's its temperature,
Hot,
Warm,
Or cool?
If you find it helpful,
Applying a label to this emotion,
What best fits?
Creating space for this emotion to do whatever it does,
Which typically emotions are not solid.
They have some sort of flow or movement.
What's it like to create a space,
A safe space for that to occur?
And so often in life,
We rush past these pleasant moments and practicing savoring this pleasant emotion in the moment.
Much the same way you'd savor a favorite food,
Savoring this pleasant emotion.
And noticing as well as all emotions do,
Perhaps it's fading away.
Recognizing that's the lifespan of an emotion.
They arrive,
They crest and fade away.
And at any point coming back to body breathing once again.
And recognizing that this mindful approach to emotions can be used with any type of emotion where it falls on the spectrum from pleasant to unpleasant or somewhere in between.
And using mindfulness as a way to be with,
Perhaps even befriend,
All sorts of different emotions in a safe,
Comfortable way.
There's no wrong way to do this.
It's whatever you feel safe and comfortable with,
Always having body breathing to come back to.
Now opening eyes if they were closed,
Inviting back in light and surroundings.
Maybe a little gentle movement or stretch is a way of transitioning from this meditation into the activities of your day.
So thank you.
May you have a peaceful day.
