And before we get started,
Taking a moment to pause and notice what task is perhaps grabbing your attention right now and inviting yourself to take a moment and set that task aside and turning off any other potential distractions,
Any other devices or closing a door that can be closed and giving yourself this gift of some time of self-care.
It is in caring for ourselves that we fill ourselves back up to be able to care for others as well.
And let's begin.
First bringing attention to body and inviting a posture which is kind and gentle to body as well as invites a awakening of mind.
And we cultivate this by placing feet flat upon the floor.
Feeling the support of the floor upon the soles of feet.
And then feeling the support to our thighs and bottom from our chair.
And deciding if we need the support of the back of the chair or inviting a rising up of spine on its own.
And you can still have upright spine even using the back of the chair,
Whichever you find more comfortable in your body needs in this moment.
Spine rising all the way up from our base,
Our pelvis,
Up through lower back,
Mid back,
Up through neck,
And up through skull,
Rising up to sky.
Not forced,
But a comfortable stacking of each vertebrae atop one another.
And maybe some shoulder rolls,
Noticing if there's any tension being carried in shoulders or neck in this moment.
Inviting a loosening and lowering of shoulders upon torso.
Arms draping down.
Hands finding a comfortable resting place,
Perhaps on thighs or cupped within laps.
Sliding head back atop spine and shoulders.
Again,
Not forcing,
Just allowing the spine,
The neck to support at the weight of our head instead of muscles in the back of neck.
Loosening of jaw,
Another common area that we may carry tension.
Lips can either be gently touching or slightly parted,
Whichever you prefer.
And eyes either opened or closed.
If you choose to keep them open,
Inviting a receptive or receiving mode of the sense of vision in this moment,
Just receiving the light and letting your gaze fall naturally in front of you.
Or if you prefer,
Eyes closing.
Feeling how gravity invites a settling in of sorts.
At the same time.
Inviting this opening of chest with each in-breath also tends to promote this uprightness of spine and a wakefulness of mind in this moment.
If you find it helpful.
Moving attention through body,
A sweeping of sorts,
Down in toes and feet,
Just a checking in of sorts.
Maybe noticing if any shifting of posture is needed for a kind and eased body.
So continuing up through calves,
Thighs,
And hips,
Just to check in.
If there's any discomfort,
Acknowledging that,
And if there's anything you can do to ease that discomfort,
Please do so.
Continuing up through belly and low back.
Ribs and mid back and chest and upper back just checking in.
Bringing some ease and kindness to body.
Checking in now on shoulders and arms.
Forearms and hands.
Noting what's there and inviting a Sense of acceptance or allowing if there is some discomfort that's just part of the experience.
Or letting go if there's any tension.
And coming back up through neck,
Rising up to back of head.
Cross to face and up to crown.
Just noticing,
Checking in.
Inviting a gentleness into relationship with body in this moment.
And then bringing attention to body breathing.
Wherever you find it easiest to experience body breathing,
Perhaps the rise and fall of chest and belly.
Or the movement of air through nose or mouth.
And for some folks,
The sensations of body breathing just don't work,
And that's okay.
This is not about some perfect breathing.
It's about finding a sensory-based way of inviting attention into this moment.
So you can also use something such as feet upon floor,
Hands resting upon thighs,
Choosing a way of inviting your attention fully into this moment.
Through a sensory-based focus.
And remembering.
As human beings with brains producing this experience of mind.
We should say brain and body as well.
That's all part of this experience of mind.
Our focus will drift at some point.
That's okay.
That's just a natural occurrence,
No need to fight it or judge it.
Your focus has drifted away just acknowledging where have you drifted off to just a simple noting oh look This particular project,
I find myself lost within it.
Maybe a to-do list.
Maybe a recent encounter with another human being,
Pleasant or unpleasant.
Our minds will drift and that's okay.
Especially in our meditation today,
We're going to be exploring this experience known as mind.
So noticing where you've drifted off to.
And then for now,
Gently,
Kindly ushering your focus back to the body breathing or whatever you choose for your sensory anchor.
Reclaiming our capacity of directing our attention.
And in this case,
Directing our attention back to the space-time of here.
Sensations are only found in this moment,
And so they make a wonderful way of reclaiming this capacity of focusing on.
This time,
This space.
And now,
Having practiced a bit with reclaiming our focus,
Our capacity to direct our attention,
We're going to do a further exploration into this experience of mind,
Which may seem really nebulous,
Maybe even scary,
But we're going to keep this real simple.
And if you look at some of the major theories of psychology or counseling,
They all come back to really mind as a starting place.
We really don't have much direction or understanding over our lifespan of what is mind.
So let's take an opportunity to explore.
The way we're going to do this is with a metaphor of a landscape.
Landscape and weather.
And so envisioning mind as a landscape before us and inviting a sense of broadness to this landscape.
So whatever landscape you want to envision,
It could be something known and familiar you've directly gone to and visited or something in your mind's eye creates.
But a landscape that has depth,
So a far off horizon.
And breath very wide as well.
Just trusting whatever comes to mind is what you're going to work with in this moment.
So inviting a sense of landscape and this landscape before us will be our mind in this moment.
And if we start to speak to state of mind,
A helpful way of exploring that is with the metaphor of weather.
In this moment,
What weather pattern best reflects your current state of mind?
Perhaps a broad,
Open,
Blue sky.
In a calm state of mind.
Is what you find yourself experiencing in this moment.
Or maybe kind of cloudy state of mind.
Maybe a few clouds or just fully covered over a cloudy weather pattern.
Reflects your current state of mind.
Or maybe even stormy.
Some rain,
Some thunder,
Some lightning.
So in this moment,
What weather pattern fill in your landscape?
Reflects your current state of mind.
I'm making this complicated.
What just rolls in?
You don't have to analyze it.
You don't have to think about it.
Just what presents itself in this moment.
What weather pattern fills your landscape?
Always having the breath body to come back to,
To resettle,
Reground,
Refocus.
And also,
Just like weather,
State of mind is not solid or permanent.
It shifts and changes,
Even as you're observing it.
What effect does this have to take a step back?
Another metaphor here is like a computer systems operating system in the background.
That's what mind is like.
It's always functioning,
Sometimes in our foreground,
Sometimes in our background.
Mix little metaphors and what effect does that have to just step back and pause.
Check-in and state of mind in this moment.
Remembering to bring in the attitudes of mindfulness,
Suspending judgment or striving,
Allowing.
Kindness towards self and its current state of mind.
A curiosity.
Exploring experience of mind,
State of mind in this moment.
And now coming back to body breathing once again,
Letting go of checking out state of mind.
And want some gratitude for the courage to show up and take a look at mine today.
And inviting ourselves for the remainder of the day,
If we start to feel like we're struggling in some way.
Pausing,
Checking in,
State of mind.
Seeing what effect that might have.
Perhaps even shifting that weather pattern.
In a way that'll benefit us and others.
Now opening eyes if they were closed,
Inviting in the light and surroundings,
Maybe a little stretch and movement.
And thank you.
Thank you for joining me and hanging out in mine today.
And may you have a peaceful day.
Goodbye now.
