Welcome,
Welcome.
My name is Shannon and I'm going to take you through a simple beginner's meditation.
The word meditation can almost be scary today.
I think it comes with a visual of a person sitting cross-legged and completely calm and nothing floating into their mind.
And that's just not true.
It's not what meditation is.
Meditation is time for you.
Time for you that doesn't involve scrolling on a social media app or sleeping or talking with friends or doing the dishes.
It's time for you to simply be.
Just exist and breathe.
And here you are and you're doing it.
And so whether you're sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat or whether you're walking in the park or sitting in a parking garage after you've driven home and you're not quite ready to go inside to the kids,
You could be laying in your bed.
It doesn't matter.
You're here and you're listening and that's what's important.
So wherever you are,
Stop in your breathing and let all the air out of your lungs.
Now take a big breath in through your nose and let it go out of the mouth in a sigh.
And do a couple more like that.
And even if you're somewhere where you might be embarrassed that people can hear you,
Do it anyway,
Just a soft one.
And notice when you breathe like that,
If you feel a small bit of release in your jaw or your neck and shoulders,
Maybe your low back,
Let the breath move through your whole body to soften you even if it's just 1% more.
And this is it.
You've meditated.
It's a simple few breaths.
James Clear,
The author of Atomic Habits says that when we're trying to build a habit,
It's not so much about doing that thing every day for a long period of time.
It's really in just doing it,
Even if it's only for 30 seconds.
So here's a nice short meditation to get you started,
Do it as many times as it takes to totally sink in to the whole three minutes that you're here.
I'll tell you a secret.
I'm building my meditation practice too.
I have to force myself to do it sometimes and then I remind myself that I only have to do it for a couple of minutes and then it doesn't feel like a chore.
And then I start to realize that I feel so much better when I make space for those three minutes.
And so maybe together we can move up to five minutes and 10 minutes.
We'll see what happens.
Thank you for being here.
As above,
So within.
