Welcome to practice.
Today is all about embracing stillness and slowing down.
We're letting go of the need to do,
To produce,
To achieve and focus on creating a sense of inner stillness.
So let's dive in.
Start by finding a comfortable seat.
Allow yourself to settle,
Feeling the support of the ground beneath you.
Let the spine gently lengthen,
Lifting tall while the shoulders drop down and soften.
Take a moment to notice where your body is holding tension.
No need to fix or change.
Simply notice.
Take a deep breath in through your nose,
Filling your belly,
Filling your chest and release it slowly through the open mouth.
Let's do that two more times.
Inhale deeply and exhale releasing any tightness or effort.
One more time inhale through your nose,
Exhale through open mouth.
Now allow for the breath to find its own natural rhythm.
Smooth,
Effortless,
Soft.
Begin to bring your awareness to the movement of your breath.
Follow the inhale as it flows through the nose and fills your body and following the exhale as the breath gently leaves,
Softening,
Emptying.
Let your breath be your anchor.
Sense,
Feel,
Imagine how each inhale brings you deeper and deeper into presence and each exhale releases you into stillness.
You feel and observe the body quietly,
Breathe itself.
It is nothing more than you just watching and observing the breath.
You're not trying to do anything to control or shape the breath.
So just for the next minute or so,
Notice the quality of your breath.
Notice the quality of your mind and notice that the mind feels relatively clear and calm,
Balanced maybe.
Or maybe the mind feels lethargic and heavy.
Or maybe it feels really active,
Jumping all over.
You continue to simply observe with curiosity and without attaching any meaning to what it is that you notice.
And you now begin to see,
Sense,
Imagine the mind at the level of the brain as a crystal clear,
Perfectly still lake.
No ripples are moving across its surface.
If and when a thought comes,
You see the thought as a small ripple and then you see it merge back into the calm,
Still waters of the lake.
Now at the back of your head,
I want you to begin to visualize a full moon and you see a luminous,
Full moon,
Bluish in color,
Shining brightly as if hovering in the sky just above the lake.
And you see the reflection of that full moon in the surface of the perfectly still lake.
And still each time a thought comes in,
You notice that gentle ripple on the surface of the lake.
And you see it slowly,
Slowly merge back into the calm,
Still waters of the lake.
You don't get involved with a thought.
You just see it as this ripple across the lake and see it merge back into stillness.
Allow yourself to feel the sense of peace and stillness that is just unfolding in the body and the mind.
You can continue to meditate or remain present here for as long as you like.
If and when you're ready to come back,
Start by deepening the breath,
Bow chin to chest and gradually bring yourself back to life outside of you.
