Hello,
Dear one,
And welcome.
My name is Sade Simone,
And it's such an honor and a joy to be your guide today.
And if you are just waking up,
Good morning.
I'm going to make sure that you are prepared to have the best day of your life today.
So let's begin by setting up our posture,
A posture that balances awakefulness and relaxation.
Ideally,
You would be sitting up,
Your shoulders will be rolled back,
Your chest is wide,
Your palms are facing down or facing up,
Whatever feels most comfortable for you.
Your spine is straight.
It's upright,
Not uptight.
And then if you like,
You can gently close your eyes.
And to begin,
I want you to think of an intention.
This is one word that represents something that you'd like to welcome more of into your life today.
It could be one word,
It could be a sentence.
It could sound something like,
I want to become more creative,
I want to welcome more joy.
Whatever it may be,
Attaching our attention to an intention,
Magic happens.
It's at that perfect intersection that we open up to a field of boundless potential.
So just bring that intention into your mind's eye.
Whisper it a few times with all of your attention.
And then I invite you to part your lips as if you had a straw hanging from your lips.
And this is called straw breath.
It's one of my favorite breathing techniques to help bring relaxation and ease into our nervous system so we can really work with our minds and open our hearts.
So part your lips as if you had a straw hanging from your lips,
And we're going to breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose.
So all together,
Breathing in through the mouth.
Once you reach the top,
Hold here for a moment.
And then breathe out through the nose.
In through the mouth.
In through the mouth.
One more sip here.
Hold.
In through the mouth.
In through the mouth.
Hold.
And then allow the natural breathing rhythm to occur.
And then notice,
What is it like inside?
Do you notice a change from how you felt when you woke up to how you feel now?
All right,
So let's start our practice.
This technique is called mental noting or labeling.
And all we're asked to do is to spend a duration of time,
Which for us will be maybe about five to seven minutes,
Opening up a working space in our minds to become aware of the quality of every experience that arises in our lives.
So every feeling,
Every thought,
Everything that comes through our mind,
Right?
And using the practice of labeling pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
And neutral to label it.
And it's in this gentle and extremely powerful practice of labeling what comes through the mind,
Right,
That we are able to be with it,
But not be it.
You know,
We are able to recognize that a part of us is unpleasant,
But that's not who we are.
It's just a part of us.
So when an unpleasant thought arises,
When an unpleasant feeling arises,
We're able to say unpleasant.
And then the next experience will arise in the mind,
And the next experience will arise in the mind.
As we do this,
What you're going to notice,
Dear one,
Is that more stillness and relaxation become more of the default of the mind.
And in this practice,
You're highly encouraged to bring this into your day to day.
Because when we judge a negative thought or we judge an unpleasant feeling,
What happens?
We give it more energy.
So more and more of that feeling or that thinking pattern will prevail.
So with this transformative and ancient practice that has enormous amount of scientific evidence to prove to work,
To help us to disentangle ourselves from negative and unpleasant feelings,
Thoughts,
And emotions.
So gently,
When you're ready,
Open up as if you're sitting in a movie theater and you're watching your mind on the screen.
So just practice noticing anything that comes into the mind and using one of these three labels,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
And neutral.
So in a lot of practices,
We're using the breath or a mantra as the anchor.
We're now using our internal experience as our anchor.
So we're welcoming.
We're not running away.
We're not avoiding.
We're not neglecting anything that comes into the mind.
And in that recognition,
Dear one,
What happens is the most beautiful thing.
Each time you're able to label it,
You are actually uncovering more of your best qualities.
You're becoming wiser,
More compassionate,
Loving,
And joyous because you're not completely overly identifying with the passing experience.
Therefore,
You're awakening what's really innate,
Not a transient experience.
Does that make sense?
So keep practicing in this way.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
And neutral.
What is it like inside?
Notice if you've become entangled in the thinking process or in a feeling or any sort of experience that comes up in the mind.
See if you can apply one of the three labels.
Pleasant.
Is it unpleasant?
Is it neutral?
And keep expanding your field of awareness.
Allowing thoughts,
Feelings,
And emotions to be passing clouds without leaving any trace behind an instant in this practice that we recognize that we're not the clouds.
We're not the weather.
We are the sun shining bright,
No matter what kind of weather,
No matter how cloudy the sky may be.
And we're practicing this way for another moment here.
What is the quality of the feelings,
The thoughts,
The emotions that are passing by you?
Is it pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral?
What is it like inside?
Okay,
We're transitioning into the last part of our practice.
Now,
I want you to repeat it in your mind.
Today is the best day of my life.
Today is the best day of my life.
Even if you feel resistance around the set of words,
Just try to whisper it with intention,
With all of your attention.
You're welcoming your entire mind,
Body,
Heart to a new baseline that today can actually be the best day of my life.
I'm here as a force of good.
I'm here as a force of good.
Everything's working out for the highest good of all.
Everything is working out for the highest good of all.
Everything is working out for the highest good of all.
Everything is working out,
Best case scenario.
Everything is working out,
Best case scenario.
And dear ones,
Every time you're able to pause throughout your day,
Notice when you're entangled and you're completely ruminating in the past or worrying about the future.
And you're able to pause,
Recognize the transient nature of all phenomena,
Meaning all feelings,
Thoughts,
And emotions that are passing by your mind.
And you're able to label it,
Oh,
It's pleasant,
Oh,
It's unpleasant,
Oh,
It's neutral.
In that moment of pause,
You're opening up to the potential that everything is working out,
Best case scenario.
So now as we bring our practice to a close,
I invite you to bring your hands in prayer in front of your heart.
And just take a moment to express gratitude for your effort,
Gratitude for your practice.
And then we wish that the little mini moments of enlightenment,
These mini bite-sized moments of freedom that have landed for us during our practice,
That may you reach the minds and hearts of all people everywhere with no exception.
And in your own language,
You can say,
May all people everywhere be happy,
Healthy,
And safe.
And may all people with no exception live with ease.
All right,
Thank you so much.
I'm wishing you a wonderful day.
