And let's begin.
First,
Settling into your seat and bringing some attention to body as not only a way of inviting wakefulness but also an act of self-care.
And so placing your feet flat upon the floor and feeling the support of the floor upon the soles of your feet.
And feeling the support of the chair upon thighs and bottom.
Determining what your back needs today.
Perhaps it needs some support of the back of the chair.
Or perhaps you want to sit unsupported today.
So sliding forward a little bit.
Towards the front of the chair and either way inviting spine to rise up tall towards the sky.
Not something forced or rigid or uncomfortable,
But simply Feeling each vertebrae stacking atop the other,
Rising up through low back,
Bit back and back.
And finally to skull and crown rising up to sky.
Perhaps a few shoulder rolls to relieve any tension being carried in the shoulders and inviting shoulders to loosen and lower on torso.
Arms draping down from shoulders.
He ends finding a comfortable resting place,
Either upon thighs or cuffed within lap.
Danny Arguetty): Allowing the spine and shoulders to support the weight of head by sliding head back over spine and shoulders.
Loosening of jaw.
Lips,
Either gently touching or slightly parted,
Whichever you prefer in the moment.
And eyes either opened or closed,
Whichever you find to be of more comfort and ease and sense of safety in this moment.
If you're choosing eyes open,
Then.
Danny Arguetty.
Danny Arguetty.
And suddenly then.
.
.
Feeling the gentle.
Downward invitation of gravity settling,
Grounding body in this moment.
Danny Arguetty.
Soft or receptive front and a strong back.
Bringing that.
Balance together of softness or opening and strength through our posture.
And from this balancing of openness and strength.
Bringing your attention to body breathing.
Danny Arguetty.
Then a slow,
Gentle release on the exhale.
That can help to promote a sense of wakefulness.
Danny Arguetty.
And then trusting our bodies will breathe as needed,
Allowing.
Breath to fall into a natural rate and rhythm whatever.
Our body needs in this moment.
Continuing to allow body breathing to fill our awareness in this moment.
Not pushing anything else aside,
But more so the sense of.
The sensations of body breathing filling our focus,
Our range of attention in this moment.
By bringing our attention to something present-centered,
It invites our full awareness into this moment,
Into this space.
And at the same time,
Recognizing this tendency of our minds to drift away from the central focal point of body breathing.
Perhaps into memories of the past or worries of the future.
Or something else.
Simply recognizing this is okay,
This is what our minds do.
It's actually an amazing feat that we're capable of,
Both memory as well as anticipation.
And in this moment,
Choosing to redirect back to body breathing once again.
I frequently find when introducing folks to mindfulness for the first time.
One of the key early aspects to explore is expectation management.
What should be happening if I meditate correctly?
And there's so much literature and research out there of the benefits that we tend to.
Walk in with a bit of a setup.
Well,
If I meditate,
Then this should happen or that should happen.
And as we talked about last week with striving,
It's okay to have something that we desire or want when we enter into the practice.
In much the same way that when we step through the door into a mindfulness activity,
We leave striving at the door as best as we are able.
Another quality or characteristic of mindfulness is non-judging.
This one tends to be one of the hardest for folks new to mindfulness,
The sense of stopping something from happening.
Stopping our natural tendency to evaluate or to formulate an opinion around something.
And with most things,
The best way to,
There's an evaluation right there,
One way to begin to practice non-judging is simply notice when judging is happening.
Notice the presence of something.
And so if you find that shoulds start to appear when you're practicing one,
That's a natural tendency.
I shouldn't be thinking about that.
I should be focused on my breath the whole time.
Just start to notice the shoulds when you're practicing mindfulness.
Just noticing.
And you can even apply a labeling technique that when a should shows up,
Just a simple mental note of should,
Shoulding,
However you want to label it.
Always having the breath as a familiar friend to come back to to resettle,
Reground after you've done the labeling.
Danny Arguetty.
Noticing,
What do we begin to cultivate when we simply notice this tendency of judging or evaluating,
Formulating opinions?
This capacity of witnessing that which is unfolding.
You can't be fully in something and pointing to it at the same time.
As we begin to practice this pointing out moments of judging,
Evaluating.
Notice how that allows a one step back and observing the process without being lost within the process.
So this is how we're not pushing judgment away.
And the way that I like to frame it up is we're suspending judgment simply by noticing its occurrence and then stepping back.
So with anything that you find presenting in this moment during practice,
Notice the tendency to almost immediately deem it good or bad or right or wrong.
Basically label that judging.
Danny Arguetty.
Danny Arguetty.
What opportunity or freedom may be found in this moment when we free ourselves with the necessity I'm judging and evaluating.
And simply practicing observing things as they are.
What have we been missing out on?
What do we start to notice?
I think there's an important last aspect here that we're not going to be judging judging either.
There is a space in our life and our day.
For discernment.
But in this way,
Perhaps we are doing it with a clear window of observation.
There are times we do need to determine if something.
Is of whatever standard.
That's okay,
But this is doing it from a place of groundedness and clarity.
So during the day today,
Notice when we slip into a unconscious mode of judging good or bad right or wrong.
Then stepping back.
Is that really needed in this moment?
Does it serve me and others or is it simply a habit?
And what happens when I simply allow myself to be with something as it is?
What opportunity may be found within that?
Danny Arguetty.
Danny Arguetty.
And then maybe a little gentle movement or stretch as a way to carry this suspending judgment back into.
Your activity of the day.
Thank you for joining me.
As always,
I appreciate any feedback or request for particular topics for our guided meditation.
May you be well.
Goodbye now.
