The following practice has been brought to you by the School of Kamma,
Empowering students through mindfulness meditation.
Before you begin,
Find a safe and comfortable space where you won't be disturbed.
For safety,
Do not listen to this recording whilst driving or operating machinery.
Hi,
I'm Matt and I'll be your guide for this following period of meditation.
Take a moment to make yourself comfortable.
You may want to sit upright with the back straight or if you're a little low on energy or new to the practice,
Feel free to lie down.
And whenever you're ready,
Just bring the eyes to a gentle close.
And we're just going to start by bringing our awareness to the area surrounding the nostrils and just connecting with the flow of the breath in and out through the nose,
Feeling it cool as you breathe in and slightly warmer on the exhale as you release any tension,
Stress and heat from the body.
I invite you as you do this just to check in with how you feel,
As can often be the case when we are preparing to undertake a new task,
Continue with an existing one or even plan for a new project or assignment.
Whatever it may be,
We can sometimes be met with resistance in the mind.
We may find that we have difficulty concentrating,
We find that the mind may direct us to other tasks or concerns which are not relevant to the thing that we feel would be most beneficial for us.
We might find ourselves feeling an impulse to check our phone,
Check our social media apps,
Taking a small delight in those quick hits of dopamine as we scroll from one video to the next.
We may even find ourselves moving from one application to another which is almost exactly the same.
One stream of videos and clips containing nothing of urgency or importance to the next app which gives us virtually the same.
Maybe as we're settling here we we notice the mind jumping from thought to thought.
Thoughts concerning things that we might just want to do first and then we'll concentrate.
We may feel the need to check our messages,
Refresh our emails.
All of these things are perfectly natural and the mind is just simply trying to run through every potentiality that is not the thing that we ought to be focusing on.
Maybe we just want to allow the mind and give the mind permission to dance between these different ideas and thoughts.
We know we're not going to miss anything if we don't refresh our feed every five or so minutes.
We know that the world will not fall apart if we do not reply to group chats.
And we know that if there really was something that did demand our attention,
Maybe an emergency of some sort,
That we would be able to respond accordingly.
And so we can just rest in this certainty that the things the mind wants to attend to at this moment can be delayed just a little while.
So the reason that we find our attention being captured by these many different aspects of the world is probably because we know the thing that we really need to apply our attention to is uncomfortable and maybe even a little frustrating at times.
And of course deep down we know that these uncomfortable tasks are so because they are forcing us to grow,
To expand our knowledge,
To cultivate understanding and wisdom,
Which will aid us in being our very best selves.
We only have to look at things like doing some exercise or cooking a meal.
It's not the case that we always want to do these things,
But ultimately we know that by doing them,
Even when we don't feel like it,
Will benefit us in countless ways.
And over time,
As we see the results of these things,
We know we receive energy to be more consistent,
Even in the times where all we want to do is relax and have a scroll or binge a TV series.
When we find ourselves caught in procrastination or delayed engagement,
We know deep down that we have to do it anyway because it will make us feel more accomplished and our self-esteem will increase.
Positive emotions.
And we may even feel like we are procrastinating right now,
Here listening to the sound of my voice,
Doing nothing.
And this is perfectly fine.
We're simply creating a space where we allow the body to feel however it feels.
We gently familiarize ourselves with the feelings associated with frustration or a lack of energy and zeal for a particular task.
We familiarize ourselves with the racing patterns of thought,
All the endless to-do list,
Things which are unimportant and things that we know are just taking our time away from us.
And we just allow this container of everything that is true for our experience to hold all of these conflicting thoughts,
Feelings and emotions in the knowledge that when we do so,
The more familiar we become with our patterns and routines and the way that they manifest in the body and the mind,
They will generally lessen in their intensity.
And so we can just rest in this space,
Allowing the mind to drift and go wherever it wants and just give ourselves time to generate the energy that we need to focus.
And so I invite you now just to take a few minutes of silence and just be in this moment without trying to change anything or induce any particular kind of feeling.
And it may be useful to bring your awareness to the lower region of the abdomen and just invite the breath in,
Feeling the abdomen expand as it fills with a freshness and vitality,
Releasing tension and stress from the body with every exhale.
Be here and when you hear my voice again,
We'll begin bringing the meditation period to its conclusion.
Coming close to the end of the meditation period now,
Take a moment to check in with how you feel and you might even want to set an intention for this upcoming period of productivity.
It doesn't have to be something that's unrealistic,
Just a modest and achievable goal.
You will now hear the bell ring three times and on the third ringing of the bell,
Gently begin to open the eyes and return to the room.
