Good morning.
Welcome to the Happy,
Joyous and Free Morning Meditation Group.
The next 30 minutes or so is your time.
The world will do just fine without you for half an hour.
I hope you slept well.
Don't be hard on yourself if you didn't sleep too well though.
Just try to relax into the meditation.
A word about today's meditation,
The mindfulness of breathing.
This form of meditation is practiced by the tratna Buddhist community.
But you don't have to be a Buddhist to do this.
We'll start by getting comfortable.
Centring ourselves and arriving into the space we're going to occupy for the next 30 minutes or so.
Enjoy.
Arriving in our meditation posture.
This can be seated on a chair or cushion,
Whichever you prefer.
And opt for a relaxed but alert posture.
Let your spine stand straight but not rigid.
Let your head find a balance.
Maybe gently move your hips,
Torso and head around to find a balance.
Try to let go.
Trust your body to hold its position.
Your skeleton is rigid and more than capable of holding your body in position without you controlling it.
Now that you're comfortable,
Let's take a moment to arrive.
Consider where you are.
I like to start by bringing an image of the bright blue earth floating in space.
That's our home.
Where are you on this beautiful planet?
Europe?
Asia?
The Americas?
Australasia perhaps?
Become aware of which country you're in.
Which town?
Village or city?
Which suburb?
And which street?
Which building are you in?
Now bring your awareness to the room and seat that you're on.
Feel your body resting on the chair or cushion that is held by the floor,
Which in turn is held safely by the enormous mass of this beautiful blue planet.
This planet's been here for four and a half billion years.
Remember,
This is your time.
Now bring your attention to your breath.
Without trying to control your breath,
Just observe.
Observe the flow of the air.
Breathing in,
Turning around,
Breathing out.
Just observe.
It's quite difficult at first to just observe the breath without controlling it.
There's a temptation to take over the control and to force the breath.
See if you can just observe the breath.
It doesn't need you to control it.
Now let your attention rest on your breath.
Feel the air coming through the nostrils.
And you sense the air touching the surface of your face,
Tip of your nose,
Or the edges of your lips perhaps.
Is there any change in temperature as the air moves into your mouth and into your nostrils?
Can you sense the air moving down into your body,
Into your lungs?
Try and follow every sensation as the air goes in.
When does it stop?
Will it pause?
Is there a point when nothing is happening?
When do you start to breathe out?
Feel the sensation as the air leaves your body.
It leaves your mouth,
Is it warmer now?
It leaves your nose,
Your nostrils.
It's a different sensation.
Bring your attention to your tummy.
You're breathing from your diaphragm in a relaxed way.
You'll feel your tummy rise and fall as you breathe in and out.
Just let it do its own thing.
It doesn't need you.
Just rest your attention on that nice wave-like form of your breathing as your belly rises and falls.
The first stage of the mindfulness of breathing.
Bring your attention to your breathing.
Stay focused on the breath.
After each out breath,
Just drop a count in.
One.
Then breathe in and out.
Count two.
Breathe in and out.
Count three.
Continue in this way up to ten.
And then gently bring yourself back and start to count again from one.
Remember to drop the count in at the end of each out breath.
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