Welcome to this simple meditation exercise.
The Meditation A,
B,
C.
The purpose is for you to create three simple steps that with practice will allow you to cultivate openness,
Calm and focus in mere minutes.
Take a comfortable seat.
Take a long and slow breath in.
And a longer and steady sigh out.
Gently close your eyes.
We will now follow the acronym ABC,
Which stands for A.
Align,
B.
Breathe,
And C.
Center.
We start with A.
Aligning our body.
Let's start with placing the hands mindfully onto the knees.
Allowing our shoulders to reach wide.
Lightly pressing into the hands to open up our arms.
And then bring your awareness to your sits bones.
Actively press your sits bones into the surface of your seat.
Stack each vertebra on top of the next.
Building from the ground up.
Building from the ground up.
All the way from the lower back to the middle back.
To the place between your shoulder blades.
And then as you move towards your neck,
Gently pull your shoulder blades towards the ears.
And then drop them down and back.
Gently pulling the pointy ends of your shoulder blades down.
Opening your chest.
Widening your collar bones.
Align your chin horizontally.
And move your head so that it is just above your shoulders.
Now breathe.
Feel where the breath starts and where it ends.
And when you feel like you can breathe freely,
You're ready for the next step.
B.
Breathe.
Let's make sure we breathe out to the full length of the exhale.
And then take a long and slow inhale through your nose.
Filling up the belly,
Side ribs,
Chest.
And when you feel like you're at the top,
Slowly release.
Slowly inhale through the belly,
Side ribs,
Chest.
And a steady exhale,
Releasing chest.
And a steady exhale,
Releasing chest,
Side ribs,
Belly.
Slowly inhale through the belly,
Side ribs,
Chest.
And a steady exhale,
Releasing chest,
Side ribs,
Belly.
Now as you continue breathing like this through your nose,
Slow and steady,
I'd like you to take your heartbeat as a reference point.
Counting six beats in.
Count six beats out.
Six in.
Six in.
And six out.
As you continue following your heartbeat,
You may notice that your heart rate increases and becomes more intense as you inhale and slows and becomes slower.
And as you continue breathing,
It increases as you inhale and slows and becomes lighter as you exhale.
Follow that lightness and slowness in the exhale.
Let it steady you.
Let your breath become slower with every round and lighter with every round.
Just allowing the natural flow of your lungs and your heart to lead the way.
So now that we're aligned and breathing efficiently,
We are ready to center our attention.
The last part of the acronym ABC is C for center.
Center your attention on your hands.
Narrow it down to your right thumb.
Feeling all the sensations in that thumb.
The heat or the cold,
The nail,
The dryness or humidity of the air around it.
Any tingling or perhaps pain.
Perhaps you can even feel a heartbeat there.
Now broaden your attention to all your fingertips.
Radiating out towards your whole hand,
Lower arm,
Upper arm,
Chest,
Left arm,
Left hand,
Neck,
Head,
Face.
Widening to the lower body,
Including your core,
Your back,
Your hips,
Legs,
Feet,
And toes.
Feel your body radiating like a large cloud of sensations.
Paying attention to nothing in particular,
Just allowing all the sensations to be noticed in waves of signals in your center of awareness.
Now invite you to come back to the external world.
When you open your eyes,
Bring your attention to one spot in front of you.
That is quite close.
Notice the object in front of you.
Keep your gaze on the tiny little details of this object.
Narrow and center your attention here.
Now start to notice the space between you and this object.
Notice the space around it.
Allow your visual field to widen as you focus more broadly,
Looking further away,
Wider away.
Just letting the play of light come into your awareness without forcing your attention onto anything.
Until everything you see is just a big field of colors,
A cloud of visual sensations.
Thank you for taking the time to practice today and getting to know yourself a little bit better.
Remember that the next time you feel stressed,
Tired,
Anxious,
Or unable to focus or activate,
You can sit down and follow your A,
B,
C.
Align your body from your sits bones up.
Take a few simple,
Slow,
And steady breaths through your nose.
And then center your attention on one spot in your body.
Slowly widen it and notice how different you feel.
Have a lovely rest of your day.
Namaste.
