Welcome to our practice of meditation today,
Today we're going to begin the practice of quieting our mind.
The mind's job is to work,
To sort things out,
Your mind is in a constant state of sorting things out,
The misconception is that we can stop that to gain focus and calm,
The true art of this practice of quieting your mind is to allow your mind to do what it does,
Let it sort things out,
Throughout the course of your day your mind encounters millions of images,
Stimulating ideas,
Thoughts,
Encounters,
And at night you dream,
And your dreams are your mind's way of sorting and filing all that you encounter every day,
All the time.
So to quiet your mind,
We're going to allow your mind to do its job,
And we'll simply turn the volume down on the activity,
That activity in your mind will fade to the background,
And in the foreground will be the quiet that you seek.
Take a lying down position,
Close your eyes,
Feel the surface below you,
We're going to create an environment for your mind and your body to relax and let all activity in the mind become background activity.
At your own pace,
You're going to take slow,
Deep inhalations,
And slow,
Deep exhalations,
Ten breaths in,
Ten breaths out,
Slow,
Forming a yellow blanket in the air above where you lie,
And each exhale makes that blanket heavier and float closer to your body.
Control your breathing,
And you can control your mind,
Fully inhale,
Control the exhale,
When you quiet your breathing,
You quiet your mind,
And your next inhale,
The blanket is bright,
It's warm,
It's heavy,
And on your exhale,
The blanket falls upon you,
And you feel it heavy,
And warm,
And you're relaxed.
Let's begin,
As you lay there,
So relaxed,
Your breathing is now controlled,
Slow,
Steady,
Inhale,
Exhale,
Relaxed,
It feels like your thoughts have slowed,
They've moved to the background.
I want you to imagine a feather,
This feather is bright white,
It almost gives off light,
This feather is laying on top of the yellow blanket,
And it spans from your toes to your head,
And you raise the feather off your body,
And it floats gently above you,
It's a large feather,
The larger and the longer the exhale,
The higher the feather floats above you,
Slowly,
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
And raise the feather to the ceiling above you,
Take your time,
Focus on this feather,
Your body is relaxed,
It sinks to the surface below you,
If your mind wanders to activities from the day,
To activities from the past,
Allow your mind to wander,
And bring the feather into the scene,
And the feather will bring you back to where you lay,
Calmly and relaxed,
Under the heavy yellow blanket,
Lying down,
Exhaling the feather to the ceiling,
When you find times during the day,
That you need to quiet your mind,
Find a moment,
Close your eyes,
Breathe slowly in and slowly out,
Bring your feather into focus in your mind,
It's a big feather,
Only a big exhale can get it to the ceiling and keep it there,
The feather is the only noise you need,
As we begin to bring the feather back,
Your body feels relaxed,
As you exhale,
All tension,
And as I count you back from 5,
The feather begins to descend back down to you now,
4,
Your feather is descending closer,
3,
In your mind's eye,
You see the bright white feather getting closer,
2,
You sense the bright light of the feather,
And 1,
Relax,
With quiet thoughts,
And a restful mind,
Move forward and be well,
And practice peace in your breathing.
