I invite you to begin by finding yourself in a suitable meditative position,
A position that will feel comfortable,
Alert,
Perhaps an aligning of your spine and a relaxation around that alignment.
Letting your hands be comfortable in your lap,
However,
They happen to fall.
Your eyes either closed or open with a soft gaze.
Taking a few moments to tune into the flow of your breathing,
Sensing your whole body expanding and contracting with each breath.
And you might remember that this breath has been with you all your life,
A constant companion through all the ups and downs,
The joys and the sorrows and is with you even now.
And while you're aware of your breathing,
You might notice if there's any part of you that's grasping or clinging to past or future,
To judgment or story,
Perhaps the mind,
The thoughts are caught up in the past or the future,
Or if not the mind,
Then your nervous system or your energetic system might be not yet arrived or already out the door.
You might sense or imagine that the mind or the nervous system is like a fist holding on,
Grasping on to past or future,
Judgment or story.
Feeling the subtle tension in the mind or the body.
And then you might imagine or invite that fist to open up,
To let go,
To whatever degree will naturally occur.
And to whatever degree the mind,
The nervous system,
The energetic system is freed up.
You might invite a shepherding of those experiences more and more towards the core of your being so that you find yourself a little bit more embodied,
A little bit more present.
And then inviting a lowering of the center of gravity of your attention,
Letting the attention wander down out of the head,
Out of the chest,
Down to the lower part of your torso.
Maybe you tune into the felt sense of the breath at the belly or tune into the sense of contact with your seat,
Or maybe tune into a point about two inches or five centimeters below the navel,
Or maybe even tune into the experience of your legs and your feet and the earth beneath you.
As you hold the attention low in this way,
You invite a sense of groundedness,
Stability,
You invite the possibility of a calming of your nervous system.
You might imagine that your nervous system is like the snow in a snow globe.
And as you've been navigating your day-to-day life,
You've been jostling that snow globe all day long,
But now we're putting the snow globe down.
And all the bits of snow,
The jangliness in the nervous system can begin to settle.
And the mind and the heart space are like the fluid in the snow globe.
And as the bits of snow settle,
As the nervous system settles,
Finding the mind and the heart space clear,
In a few moments,
I'll be ringing the bell to end the meditation.
I invite you to form the intention that before you open your eyes,
You can bring any groundedness,
Any settledness,
Any clarity of mind and heart with you so that they become part of your experience as you continue on with your day.
