Good morning.
Please find a comfortable seated position.
Lengthen your spine.
Relax your shoulders back and down so your chest is open.
Choosing your hand mudra,
However you'd like to place your hands.
And beginning to connect to your breath.
Inviting your attention to rest on the breath as you begin to deepen your breath.
Invite your breath to descend into your belly,
Expanding your belly,
Softening the muscles around your belly.
Receiving the breath and as you exhale you can draw the belly in towards the spine,
Helping the breath move up the spine and out through the nose.
So we'll take several breaths like that,
Deepening your breath,
Welcoming the breath into your body.
And notice the quality of your attention in this moment.
So your attention could feel scattered or perhaps not.
So just inviting your attention into this moment.
Inviting your attention to rest on the breath.
The breath being now the object of your attention.
And today we begin our meditation with deep breaths,
Really connecting to your breath,
Enjoying breathing deeply,
Noticing how your lungs expand with breath,
How your lungs empty fully.
And open your heart to this breath.
This is the breath of life,
The breath that gives us life.
So developing a relationship with this breath or deepening your relationship to it,
Your connection.
And now allow the deep breathing to go.
Notice the effects of the deep breathing in your body and mind.
And bring your awareness now to your seat,
To your bottom,
Your buttocks,
The back of your legs.
And just notice the connection with the earth and allow the weight of the body to release on the earth.
Allowing yourself to be held by the earth and through your tailbone connecting to the earth,
Grounding your energy into this moment.
And now notice if by doing that action of grounding and connecting to the earth,
It might have collapsed your spine.
So keeping that connection,
Lengthen your spine a little bit again from the crown of the head without becoming rigid.
And softening the shoulders down,
Keeping your heart open.
And notice if there is any physical tension.
Perhaps your jaw could be tense or your shoulders.
Sometimes we contract the belly.
So bring your attention,
Your love,
Your awareness to this part of the body,
Whichever part of your body that feels a little tense.
And use your exhalations and your intention to allow it to release.
Give it permission to relax.
So allowing your body to find its own natural rhythm to breathe.
Holding your attention,
Your soft attention at the belly,
Observing the movement of the natural breath.
Grounding your awareness into the body.
We tend to be rooted in the thinking mind.
So we're inviting our attention down into the body.
A gentle attention observing the natural movement of your belly.
And you'll notice you'll drift into thought.
And when you notice that that has happened,
You invite yourself gently back to the breath.
Gently back to the movement of the belly.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with you by drifting into thought.
It is the most normal thing that happens to all of us and where we're used to live and be throughout the day,
Usually in our thoughts.
Giving yourself permission to be still and in presence in this moment.
Nowhere to be.
Giving your mind a break of having to figure out life.
So this is not a time to sit,
Close the eyes and think.
It's a time to allow the mind to relax that thinking process.
So we're not trying to stop the thinking mind.
We are just opening our awareness so that we are not in the entanglement of the thoughts.
But we allow the mind to be what it is.
The nature of mind is activity.
Today the invitation is that we hold our awareness,
Our attention on the gentle movement of the belly,
The natural breath.
As you notice you drift into thought,
You gently invite yourself back to the breath.
A soft attention,
Observing the natural breath.
And not just observing the breath but offering your attention to this breath of life.
Just noticing the importance and the magic of this breath that is giving life to all living beings.
And you're offering your love,
You're offering your attention to this breath of life.
It's a inner gesture of reverence,
Of honoring.
I invite you to pause during your day to honor your breath or to take deep breaths and to be in presence with your breath.
Even if it's little moments throughout the day or as you're cooking or doing something,
Just little pauses.
Have a wonderful day.
Thank you.
