Welcome to the meditation.
First start by closing your eyes.
You want to start breathing slowly in and out through the nostrils.
In and out.
And as you breathe in,
Think to yourself,
Breathing in,
Breathing in,
Allowing your mind to start noticing things.
Noticing what you're doing.
Noticing what's going on around you.
What's happening.
As you breathe in,
Breathe in,
Breathe in,
And as you breathe out,
Think,
Breathe out,
Breathe out.
Breathe in,
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Breathe out.
And as you continue breathing in and breathing out and thinking of those words,
You may notice that you become distracted and you start listening to things.
Whether it be the hum of your air conditioner,
The birds chirping outside,
Or a noisy neighbor making a ruckus in their backyard.
When these things happen,
It's okay.
It doesn't hurt your practice.
In fact,
It can allow you to improve your practice as you become better at adapting and becoming more in tune with yourself regardless of distractions.
The same as you would with your thoughts.
You want to notice these other things.
If you start listening to something,
You think to yourself,
Listening,
Listening.
You may even start to think of different things in your head,
Like,
What am I going to eat for dinner later?
How is my date on Saturday going to go?
Will my boss yell at me on Monday?
Hopefully not.
But if these thoughts come into your head,
Just observe them.
Notice them.
Hmm.
Thinking,
Thinking,
Thinking,
Repeating what you're doing,
Being aware of what's going on.
And slowly bring it back.
Breathing in,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Breathing out.
Allowing yourself to notice these things is the first step to awareness.
Being aware of what you're doing in the most conscious,
Most material level there is.
It's the one we notice the most,
The one that's always talking.
It's our mind.
And we'll continue breathing in and breathing out.
As you continue to breathe in and out,
You'll notice your breath's getting deeper and deeper.
Sometimes you can breathe in,
Take an extra sip or two of air.
Really fill those lungs and hold it.
So when you breathe out,
It's just a little bit more satisfying.
And something I like to think about is using meditation to let go.
So often we have things holding us down,
Weighing on us.
And when you're meditating,
You're sitting using those sit bones to hold up your body and it can start to feel like your whole body is weighing down.
And so I like to visualize breathing in and breathing out,
Letting go of that weight to further this visualization.
You can think about those things weighing on you,
Being let go with each exhale.
Breathe in and you have your manager behind you yelling at you.
You breathe out and he goes out with the breath.
I know that this sounds silly at first,
But it's very helpful to just imagine those things that you feel might be holding you down,
Being let go with each breath.
Because at the end of the day,
Those things are not you.
They are things that are attached to the idea of you,
But the true you,
They are not attached to.
So allow that idea of you to shake off those things,
To push them away with each breath.
Breathing in and breathing out.
And as you breathe them out,
Hopefully you feel a little bit lighter,
As if those weights have really been taken off of you.
Remember,
This meditation space is your space,
Your safe space.
It is just for you.
Maybe you and a partner or you and some friends.
At the end of the day,
Even if you're in a group,
Everything that's happening,
Your practice,
It's all in your head.
It's all contained to your body,
To your small space.
So you have complete control of what's happening.
It's like having your own weight room where you can set up whatever exercise equipment,
Machines,
Weights you need,
And you can choose your visualizations.
I like to have my room set up sometimes where I'm just pushing things out and just letting things go.
And with each breath,
With each item weighing on you that you push away and push out,
You become stronger.
And maybe,
Maybe you run out of things to push out.
That's good.
And that's fine,
Because then you can go back to being aware,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Taking note of what's going on around you.
Don't try to avoid distractions.
Don't try to push things out that want to come in.
Sometimes things need to be allowed to stay.
If there's a particular thought that keeps eating at you,
Maybe you had a fight with someone and you can't stop thinking about what you'd like to say or what you wish you had done,
It's okay.
That thought can come in and we can work with it.
We don't want to fight against our thoughts.
If they want to go out when we push them out,
That's good.
You let them out.
So maybe not even pushing,
But just allowing things to go out.
Breathing in and breathing out,
Opening that door to let things out of your mind.
But some things are going to want to stay and that's fine.
They're welcome to stay because they don't hold power over you.
They are just thoughts.
They're just there.
Things that you observe.
Things that you watch over.
That you may not necessarily have control over,
But you can certainly observe and keep tabs on them.
And as you watch those thoughts,
You realize they're not that big at all.
Just like any other thought.
Just like the thought of what do I want to eat next comes in as a small thought.
It can be just a small thought to think what's gonna happen in my career.
That can become a small thought because at the end of the day,
While that may have bigger implications,
The actual manifestation of that,
The thought itself,
Is quite small.
It's just a thought.
There's nothing extra to it.
So don't feel like these things have larger bearing over you,
Like a larger grasp over you,
Just because they have bigger implications.
That's something that the awake and conscious mind outside of meditation can handle.
Your mind is perfectly capable of handling those things on its own.
And when we're meditating,
We just remind ourselves who we are at our core.
We're not worried about those rational and materialistic things that consume our lives.
So just continue breathing in,
Breathing out.
Slowly bring ourselves back to reality,
To the open world,
To the real world as some might call it.
Although I feel like when you're meditating,
That's the real world.
That's the real you.
But for now,
We'll step back into regular life,
Slowly opening the eyes,
Being mindful not to lose track of our breaths or what we've achieved in this session,
And being sure to take notice of what we've accomplished.
You've made it.
You've completed the session,
And hopefully along the way you let some things out,
And you notice some thoughts and realize that they're smaller than you thought they were,
And that they don't hold much weight over you.
Thank you for practicing with me,
And I'll see you next time.
