What's good,
Legend?
Author Anne Lamott says that almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes,
Including you.
So many of us are constantly on the go.
We're eating meals,
Standing up,
Running in between meetings and phone calls.
We're here,
But not really here because we're focused on the next thing that needs to be accomplished,
As opposed to marveling in the beauty that is right now.
This meditation is a gentle reminder that sometimes you need to go slow in order to go fast.
We can't pour from an empty cup,
So it's important to stop every once in a while to see what we're working with.
Let's unplug out of the matrix and enter our own inner world with a quick body scan.
We'll kick things off by getting into a nice,
Comfortable meditation position.
This could be sitting on the end of a chair with your feet rooted into the ground and your spine in an engaged,
Upright position,
Or you may be more comfortable laying flat on your back with your gaze up towards the ceiling.
This is your meditation.
Find what's right for you.
I invite you to gently close your eyes,
And let's take three collective breaths together.
We'll go for a five-second inhale,
Five-second hold at the top,
And a five-second exhale through the mouth.
Let's kick things off with a deep inhale for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Breathe in.
Hold.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
One last breath.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Breathe out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Now release that technique,
And let's just find a normal cadence of your breath.
You're not speeding anything up.
You're not holding anything.
You're just doing what comes natural and what feels right to you here.
Next,
We're gonna do a little body scan,
And the goal is just to observe the sensations that arise without judgment.
If we feel a sensation,
We don't label it as good or bad.
We just acknowledge it,
And we let it go.
We tend to label so much in our lives,
And this in itself brings about so many feelings and emotions.
The sensations that you may feel throughout this are impermanent,
And that's how we wanna look at them.
Just like the moment that just passed,
They will come and go.
Let's start at our feet,
And just see what it feels like to have feet.
Like,
What does that sensation feel like?
And if you're sitting,
Maybe the bottom of those soles are weighing into the ground.
If you're laying down,
Maybe the back of those heels are sinking into the ground.
Now let's scan up towards our calves.
What do they feel like?
Let's move up towards the front of our thighs,
And the back of our thighs.
What does this section of our body feel like right now?
What I even want you to do here is,
I want you to squeeze those quads,
Like create tension,
As much tension as you can.
Hold it,
Hold it,
Hold it,
Squeeze,
And just release that tension.
What does the area of our core feel like from the front to back here?
Now same thing,
I want you to brace your abs,
Like somebody's gonna come and judo chop you in the stomach.
Engage,
Hold that tightness,
And just release and relax.
Focus your attention in on your hands.
What does it feel like to have hands right now?
Maybe wiggle those fingers and toes.
Then I want you to ball up your hands in a fist,
And squeeze,
Right,
Generate tension,
And just release that tension and stress,
And let it just go.
What of our biceps and triceps,
Right,
The front of your arms and the back of those arms,
What do they feel like right now?
I want you to squeeze and make a nice muscle,
And just release that tension and relax.
What does the area of your upper torso feel like right now,
Your chest,
The front of those shoulders,
Your upper back?
Are you holding any tension there right now?
I want you to just take those shoulders,
Maybe pull them up towards your ears,
Depress them,
Then maybe make some gentle circles going forward,
Right?
Gentle circles going backwards.
Now what about our neck,
What does that feel like?
What tension are we holding onto?
Maybe give yourself a little stretch here,
Right?
Look to the left,
Look to the right,
Look up,
Look down.
Now what about our jaw,
What are we holding onto here?
What does it feel like?
From the front of our mouth to the back of our head,
What sensations are we feeling?
Now what about our eyes and our nose,
That area from the front to back extended?
Maybe as you breathe,
You're feeling that cold air rub up against the area between the top of our lip and the bottom of our nose.
Now we're at our crown,
We're at the top of our head,
What does this feel like?
I want you to imagine right now,
I want you to imagine a blinding light that's starting at the top of your head and it's beginning to gently scan down through your body.
It's coming down past your eyes,
Past your nose,
And it's relieving and rinsing away all tension past your mouth,
Down past your nose,
Down past your neck,
And your shoulders,
And your chest,
Down past your abs,
And your lower back,
And your whole core area,
Down through our lower body.
Right,
It's scanning,
It's eliminating stress,
It's eliminating discomfort.
Down past our knees,
Past our calves,
Past our ankles,
It's wiping away the stress past our toes.
And now let's take a moment to end this meditation with just one collective breath together.
Deep inhale for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
You can gently open your eyes,
Wiggle your fingers and toes.
Just remember,
Author Henry David Thoreau says that the price of anything is the amount of life that you exchange for it.
We live in a go,
Go,
Go world where we're always focused on the next thing we need to accomplish on one end of the spectrum or another end of the spectrum,
We treat time as if it's limitless.
Where are you falling in this range?
Are you exchanging life surrounding yourself with people who bring you down and doing things you don't really wanna do or enjoy doing?
Are you marveling in the beauty that is present in each and every moment that you've been gifted?
Time matters,
You matter,
Get out to the world,
Go and crush it and have an amazing day.
