I'll invite you now to find yourself in a meditative position,
Letting the back be upright and relaxed,
Your hands comfortably in your lap,
However they happen to fall,
Your eyes either closed or open with a soft gaze.
I'll invite you to begin by simply noticing the felt experience of your whole body breathing.
With each breath,
The body expands on the inhale,
Contracts on the exhale.
You might find that with each breath,
You become a little bit more present and a little bit more present.
So I'll invite you now to find with your mind a point we might call the belly center.
It's located a little bit below the navel,
Maybe about two inches or five centimeters.
And if you can sense this,
Maybe just in front of the spine,
About two inches or five centimeters,
Deep within the body.
But if that's not accessible,
It certainly can be at the surface at the lower belly.
And I'll invite you to bring some sort of felt sense imagery or visual imagery to this location.
The felt sense imagery might be an experience of feeling warmth or tingling or pressure,
Or maybe a sense of weight.
The visual might be a visualization of a ball of energy or some sort of anchor.
The purpose here is to create a sense of weightiness here at the belly center.
Now if that feels uncomfortable to you or inaccessible to you,
You certainly might instead pay attention to the felt sense of breathing down at the lower belly or the felt sense of contact,
Of pressure with whatever seat you're resting on.
Nevertheless,
The sense of the experience is that there be a sense of weight,
Heaviness,
And that you can bring your attention to this experience,
I'm going to call it,
Of your anchor,
Almost as if this weight,
This anchor,
We're resting at the bottom of the ocean.
For the next couple of minutes,
I'll invite you to simply keep bringing your attention to this anchor to feel the weightiness,
To visualize the weightiness of it.
As you keep your attention low,
A lowered center of gravity of your attention or awareness,
You might check in with the sense of your nervous system.
Sometimes when we keep the attention low in this way,
The nervous system tends to calm down.
That's not always the case,
But often will be.
So noticing,
Is that the case for you?
You might also notice as you continue to bring attention to the lower belly,
The state of your mind.
Sometimes people will find that their minds quiet down,
There aren't as many thoughts that may or may not be happening,
But something to check.
Now while you are bringing attention to the lower belly,
You might imagine that the mind is like a buoy,
Resting on top of the water,
And that it is tethered to the anchor,
That there's some imaginary chain or rope that connects the mind to this weightiness of the belly.
And that as each thought comes through,
Just like a wave,
The mind,
The buoy might rise and fall,
Move back and forth,
But as long as it stays tethered to the anchor at the belly,
It doesn't drift away.
Stays present.
In this practice then,
Most of your attention stays with the anchor,
Stays with the belly.
And only a little bit of your awareness is in the mind,
Watching as the thoughts go through without following them,
Without the buoy drifting away.
One moment.
You might sense as well that the heart is like a buoy,
Also tethered to the belly,
And so that every emotion that comes through,
Once again the buoy at the heart might bob up and down,
But it too doesn't get swept away,
Stays present.
We'll take the last few minutes in silence,
Inviting you to practice,
Keeping attention primarily at the anchor,
And staying present as best you can.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You you you you In a few moments I'll be ringing the bell to end the meditation I'll invite you now simply to reflect on what has been your experience during this time with this particular practice you
