A short meditation to begin your day.
This meditation is guided by Elisa Riutta,
South Coast Mindfulness.
Welcome to this short meditation to help you to ground,
Pause and prepare for the day ahead.
Finding a quiet place to sit or lie down,
Or perhaps stand.
It can be inside your home or in a calm outside spot like a garden.
If you like walking,
You can walk slowly before beginning this meditation.
And when you're ready,
Stopping and beginning to pay attention to how you're feeling.
Inviting your body to soften and arrive.
Beginning to notice how you feel from head all the way to toes.
Not worrying about how you think you should feel,
But seeing if you can directly sense anything that's in the body now.
Perhaps greeting softly the feeling in the body,
Any energy that is lingering here at the start of your day.
Allowing all kinds of sensations to be,
Giving them space,
Whether they are heavier in their nature,
Lighter,
Or even if there doesn't seem to be much happening right now,
This is okay.
Whenever you notice you're thinking about how you're feeling,
Or worrying about next moments,
This is okay and it's natural,
Allowing space for these feelings as well.
Now you only need to bring your attention back to the experience on the body level the best you can.
Breathing in and breathing out through the body,
Letting your shoulders drop,
Letting your face to soften,
Feeling the ground beneath you.
Now we will together approach each part of the body with care and curiosity.
If anywhere feels tight,
Inviting this area to relax if it wants to,
But without needing it to change either.
The main thing of mindfulness practice is allowing whatever is here to be here,
Without it needing to change or go away either.
So starting at your feet,
Holding your feet in your awareness,
Perhaps sensing their warmth or coolness,
Like sensing the feet from inside out all the way to the core and to the skin level.
Moving up to your legs,
Pausing here on your legs,
Your lower legs,
Knees and thighs,
The length and the volume,
Their weight and anything else you sense in this area.
Letting go of the legs and moving to your upper body,
To your back and to the front of the body,
Your belly,
Any sensations there,
And to your chest,
The rib cage,
The heart area.
Just taking in any sensations here,
Now sensing down to your arms,
All the way to your hands and your fingers,
Again like sensing the hands from inside out,
Holding them in your awareness,
Just how they actually feel,
Without judging,
Without thinking.
And now moving back through the arms to the shoulders,
Neck and your head and your face,
The tiny muscles on your face,
Just noting whether they feel soft,
Whether there is any relaxation there and space,
Whether there is some tension and tightness present.
Again allowing this to be what it is,
If it feels ok,
Perhaps inviting some softening on the face as well,
The brow,
The eyes,
The cheeks and the jaw.
Now letting go of the sensations on the face and head and just for a moment sensing your whole body here.
Again from head to toe,
Toe to head,
Your sides,
Front and back,
In this moment.
And now bringing another element of the moment to your awareness,
Which is sounds around you.
For a moment just receiving from your environment any sounds that arise.
They might be close or further away,
Without thinking about the sounds again,
The same way as just sensing your body and your breath,
Receiving sounds one by one from your environment,
Perhaps noting their tone,
Pattern.
And if it's quiet,
This is ok too,
Perhaps just tuning in to the quietness.
Rather than going to search for any sounds,
Just being here where you are,
And like an antenna,
Receiving,
Receiving sounds from your environment as they come and go.
You might notice there are sounds you don't really like being there,
Or some sounds that make you curious and thinking,
And just noting this mind's tendency to want to know as well,
The mind's tendency to have opinions about things.
So just gently letting go of any further investigation and just remaining where you are,
Allowing sounds to travel to you.
Now letting the sounds to shift back to the edges of your awareness and becoming aware of the breath in the body,
The sensations moving the body,
Chest,
Belly,
Nose,
Or somewhere else where you feel the flow of the breath coming in and going out,
Inviting your shoulders to drop,
Relaxing your face again,
Letting this air bring new energy to the body as you will be moving to the next moments of your day,
Breathing in and breathing out,
And seeing if perhaps a soft smile forms into your lips as a thank you for taking this time for yourself to re-center and look after yourself and your being.
May you go well.
