As you find your position for meditation,
Whether that's sitting or laying,
Take a moment just to breathe gently,
To sense your body related to your position or your posture is putting in place whatever you need to get situated for practice today.
Once you feel settled,
Let's take some breaths with the intention of grounding or inhaling into your nose or mouth,
Bringing a comfortable breath in.
And imagine or sense your exhale sweeps down your body in the direction of gravity towards the ground or the earth where any excess energy is released with your exhale or after your exhale.
Take a few breaths that way,
Breathe,
Ground,
Settle,
Kinds of breaths.
These can be really wonderful ways to breathe coming into a meditation or in daily life or at any point during the meditation where you feel kind of more energy that maybe could be a little overwhelming.
You can always breathe,
Ground,
Settle,
Coming back to this breath.
And as you are breathing,
Grounding and settling,
You can sense your body,
Just having a sense of your physical body,
Your sensations right now,
Allowing yourself to notice,
To sense your physical body and also a kind of a witnessing space around your sensations.
And next,
Let's tune into hearing or tune into sound.
As you listen,
As you tune into sound,
You might kind of notice there is a becoming aware of the space around your body,
Becoming aware of any sounds in your environment,
At the same time,
Breathing and settling physically and somatically.
So we're kind of cultivating this relationship with sound and with the sense of hearing.
We're cultivating a sense of relaxation and equanimity,
Letting the sounds that you might hear.
For me,
I hear a little bit of traffic,
Kind of people driving down my street,
Letting whatever sounds you hear rise and fall just as they do and letting yourself be breathing as relaxed as possible as you become a listener,
A listening antenna.
Let's take a few moments just to explore that,
Practicing letting go of any judgments or kind of evaluations of whatever sounds you may hear.
And now I invite you to sense your eyes and your eyebrow and forehead area.
Relax this part of your head as best you can,
Softening across your eyebrows,
Have the intention to soften around the inner corners of your eyes.
And imagine that each time you exhale,
That you can exhale forward from the front brain or from your eyes,
Just any tension that's been held there.
With each out breath,
Any tension can be kind of diffused or released or outward through the forehead,
The eye area,
Just back into space,
Back into the cosmos to be recycled.
Sense the top of your head.
And for the next few breaths,
I invite you to,
With your exhalations,
To imagine releasing any tension in your head,
Up and out through the crown of your head,
Kind of with the imagery of the way a whale kind of spouts when it breaches the water,
Exhaling up and out through the crown,
Releasing any held energy that wants to,
Is ready to be released,
Up and out.
Just let it be effortless.
No pressure to get any of this kind of right or come towards the practices more in the attitude of an experiment,
An exploration.
And now I invite you to sense your chest somewhere,
Maybe including your breastbone and back towards your spine,
Through this whole upper part of your torso,
And sense or rest your awareness in this area with the intention to attune with how you are emotionally right now,
Listening or presence thing,
Sensing or feeling your emotional body in your present state,
What movements are happening,
You can notice things like if it's easy to connect or attune with your emotions,
Or if that feels more distant or challenging in some way,
However it is,
Just let it be,
Breathe gently,
Soften to make space for your emotional body for the next little bit.
Coming in now to your wholeness.
You can stay connected through your heart center,
Just kind of a mindful,
Heartful presence of how you are,
What is your present experience,
Leaving space to be with,
A kind of a softening towards your experience,
Cultivating acceptance and beingness.
Now I invite you to experiment with attuning to stillness,
Not necessarily with the intention to quiet anything or change anything,
More kind of like attuning an antenna or radio something like that,
But yes,
There are sensations and maybe emotions,
Energy,
Thinking,
Sounds.
Those things are here just as they are,
They're kind of rising and falling just as they are,
And somehow through that all or around that or behind that,
This will be your own experiment.
There is a field of stillness that is also present,
Just be curious about that,
And I invite you to explore attuning with that field of stillness,
Giving permission,
Making space for whatever arises when you do that,
When you intend to connect with stillness,
Making space for whatever happens next,
Allowing yourself to be informed by the stillness.
Maybe you listen to the stillness or sense or feel the stillness,
Maybe receive something or something opens,
Explore making yourself available towards stillness as best you can,
Releasing any self-judgment or ambition or trying hard,
Just humbly orienting towards this field of stillness,
Deepening breath,
Sense your body,
Maybe finding some little movements to begin a transition,
Bringing meditation practice towards a close,
See if there are any little stretches you want to make or a place in your body you want to send your breath.
Let's join the palms together at the heart center and taking a moment to feel our connection.
When we practice together,
We create a kind of a field of shared practice that is a resource allowing us to feel we contribute to that and we also receive from that such a blessing.
Namaste.
