Before we get started,
Taking a moment to turn off any potential demands upon your attention,
So other electronic devices.
And if you can,
Perhaps let other folks know in your location that you are going to take these 15 minutes as a gift to yourself.
Close the door if that's possible.
And giving yourself a gift of this time and space dedicated to your well-being.
Filling up our own cup so that we may be present for others throughout the day.
So giving yourself this gift,
Whatever you need to do last moment or so.
And now let's begin.
First,
Bringing your attention to body and noticing how you're seated in this moment.
Ideally,
Feet are flat upon floor if you're seated.
In a chair,
Feeling that sense of grounding through the floor.
And then depending upon what your back needs,
You can either sit back and use the back of the chair to support your back or scoot forward a little bit and inviting a unsupported seated posture,
Feeling the support of the chair upon thighs and bottom.
And either way,
Inviting a comfortable rising up of spine from your base through low back,
Mid back,
Through neck,
Then all the way up through top of skull,
Pointing skywards.
Not forcing,
Just a lifting of body upwards towards sky.
And then perhaps a shoulder roll or two,
Noticing and inviting a letting go as best as you can,
Any tension in your shoulders.
Arms comfortably draping down from shoulders and hands finding a place to rest,
Either cupped within lap or resting upon thighs.
Head supported atop spine and shoulders,
Inviting a loosening of jaw.
Lips either gently touching or slightly parted.
And eyes either opened or closed,
Whichever you find more comfortable and of ease in this moment.
From this posture,
Balancing gentleness to body and wakefulness to mind,
Bringing your attention to body breathing.
Not needing to manipulate or change your breath,
Simply feeling this rhythm,
This gentle rocking from within with each inhale and exhale.
Allowing your attention to come to rest upon the physical sensations of body breathing.
And at any time during this meditation,
If your focus drifts away from this moment,
Perhaps into memories of the past or worries of the future,
One,
Recognizing that's just a common human experience for our focus to drift,
Especially into thoughts.
We're going to actually work directly with thoughts today.
And the breath is always here to call us back into body and to mind.
This moment.
And a further anchoring of our attention into body in this moment,
We'll do a simple sweep,
Sweeping of our attention through body.
So starting down at toes and feet,
Just checking in,
Noticing any tension or tightness and inviting a letting go as best as you can.
Continuing this sweeping of attention up through calves and thighs and tips.
Just noticing any tension or tightness,
Inviting a letting go as best as you can.
Continuing this sweeping upwards through belly and low back,
Ribs and mid back and chest and upper back.
Just noticing the presence of any tension or tightness and as best as you can,
Inviting a letting go.
Bringing your attention now into shoulders and arms,
Down into forearms and hands.
Noticing tension,
Inviting a letting go.
Continuing this sweep,
Rising up the back of head and across the sides,
Head and around the face,
Rising up to the crown,
The top of head.
Noticing tension,
Inviting a letting go as best as you can.
And then coming back home once again to body,
Breathing.
Allowing your attention to come to rest upon the sensations of body breathing.
Remember,
They're easiest for you to notice in this moment,
Maybe the rise and fall of chest and belly or the movement of air through nose or mouth.
Just being with these sensations in this moment.
You find yourself encountering a sense of struggle in any way,
Just noticing that,
That sense of struggle and how it presents.
And then allowing that to fade into the background and coming back once again to body breathing.
Remember,
There's no wrong way to do this.
It's impossible to fail at mindfulness meditation.
Simply,
When you notice your focus is drifted,
Just noticing that and then allowing the breath to call you back once again.
Back to body,
Back to the space time of here,
Now.
One of the most common experiences or phenomenon that can pull our attention is the world of thoughts.
And a helpful way of working with thoughts is the metaphor of thoughts are like clouds drifting across a clear blue sky.
Our field of awareness is that endless clear blue sky.
The thoughts are simply a mental event,
Which appears within our field of awareness.
And simply noticing the appearance of these mental events,
These thoughts,
Just like clouds drifting across.
Not needing to do anything beyond simply noticing,
Observing the presence of these mental events.
Drifting across.
We don't have to push them away,
We don't have to wrestle or analyze,
Just noticing the presence of thoughts.
Always having body breathing to come back to once again.
If there's a sticky thought that we get stuck on,
Get dragged along by,
Or a stormy thought,
Maybe that's a stain with the metaphor.
And a helpful tool or practice to reinforce this simply noticing is that of labeling.
You can keep it real simple and just label the thought,
Thinking.
Just put a little sort of tag on it as it drips by.
Or another option is to label the category of the thought.
Is it remembering,
Analyzing,
Worrying,
Whatever category best suits.
A reinforcing of simply observing the presence of the thought.
Can be quite fascinating with using category labels to notice,
Where do I spend most of my day?
Because where we are in meditation frequently is where we spend most of our day as well.
So playing with this observing of thoughts as mental events,
And if you want to use labeling,
Keeping it simple,
Or adding a layer to that of categorizing what thoughts are appearing.
In the spirit of a deeper knowing of self,
How do I present,
How do I show up in this moment,
In my life?
No right or wrong,
Simply observing.
Always having body breathing as a home base to come back to.
And inviting ourselves to continue this practice,
Even after this formal meditation ends.
Throughout the day,
Inviting moments to pause.
Especially moments that I find myself perhaps in struggle.
Using the breath to arrive into body and the moment.
And then shining the light on what types of thoughts are present right now that may be feeding into this experience of struggle.
Noticing the power of observing,
What effect does that have,
Just to shine the light on what types of thoughts are present in the moment.
Now beginning to bring this formal meditation to a close,
Opening your eyes if they were closed.
Reorienting visually to your surroundings.
Maybe a little gentle stretch or movement to begin to orient or transition from stillness back into activity for the day.
And thank you.
Always a pleasure to hang out with you.
May you carry this practice into your day and into your week.
Thank you all and be well.
