Welcome to part 1 in this 8 part Stay with yourself meditation series on the practice of being who you are,
Where you are.
Part 1 is about posture and breath.
Start by sitting in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor and your hands gently resting in your lap.
Bring awareness into your body,
Your posture.
Feel how the back of your body,
Your bottom and the back of your legs are supported by the chair beneath you.
Feel your feet firmly planted on the floor being supported and held by the ground.
Feel the back of your body,
Your spine,
Tall and upright.
Feel where your body is supported by the chair and your spine.
And now allow the rest of your body to soften and open.
With your spine tall and upright reaching all the way up to the back of your neck,
You can tuck your chin just slightly.
And allow your shoulders to relax and drop.
Allow your heart space to soften and open.
With the back of your spine tall and strong,
Your heart space is free to let go.
Your shoulders can let go.
With your bottom and the back of your legs supported,
Allow your hips to let go.
Bring awareness into your face.
Relax your forehead,
Your eyes,
Relax your jaw.
If you need to,
You can open your mouth wide and release tension in your jaw.
Allow it to open up.
And when you close your mouth again,
Keep your jaw relaxed,
Your teeth and your lips slightly apart.
Relax your ears.
Relax the sides and the front of your neck.
Keep your chin tucked slightly.
Bring awareness into your arms.
Allow them to relax as your shoulders drop and your heart space opens.
You can place your hands on your knees facing downward for a more internal and reflective posture.
And you can turn your hands facing upward if you would like for a more open and receptive posture.
You are also free to just rest your hands in your lap or bring them into prayer position,
Whatever is comfortable and feels right for you.
You can adjust your posture every day that you meditate to meet your needs at that time.
The important thing about posture is that your body is comfortable and supported,
That it's upright and held so that you are alert while also being relaxed.
Continue scanning downward in your body into your belly and your hips.
Feel that your belly needs to work just a little bit to hold your spine tall and upright,
But allow your hips to relax.
On the back of your legs and your thighs,
Relax your knees.
Bring awareness into your calves and your ankles.
If you need to roll them around a bit,
You can before placing them firmly on the ground.
And relax your feet,
Your ankles,
And your calves.
Now just feel your body,
Feel how it's supported and feel where it's soft and take some time to make adjustments as you need.
If you need to pause this recording in order to take more time to adjust,
To put a pillow under your bottom or behind your back,
You can do that.
If you are choosing to not do this meditation sitting in a chair,
But instead prefer to lie down or sit on a meditation cushion or stool or rolled blanket,
That is perfectly fine.
You can still apply these principles and these methods of posture to your practice.
As you continue to sit and just be aware of your body,
Where you can soften it and where you can keep it alert and upright,
I want to talk about the importance of posture in meditation.
Our bodies and ourselves often are creatures of habit.
And often the more we do something over and over repetitively,
The easier it becomes and it sends signals to our brains and to our bodies that we are about to enter into a certain activity or state of being.
When you meditate and you come into similar postures and go through a similar routine of straightening your spine,
Opening your heart space,
Relaxing your hips,
Feeling where you are grounded,
Where you are held and where you can soften,
Over time,
Anytime you adjust your posture in these little ways,
It will activate calming centers and muscle memory and emotional memory within your body,
Heart and mind.
So even when you aren't meditating,
But instead sitting in traffic or standing in line or in a stressful work situation,
You can take a deep breath,
Straighten your spine,
Feel where you're grounded,
Relax your muscles and your body will begin to prepare for peace and calm and meditation.
In some ways,
Posture is the first place to start and to bring focus when you are meditating.
It is something you can come back to the same as breath,
If you notice you're slumping or becoming anxious or antsy,
You can come back,
Straighten your spine,
Relax where you're building tension and breathe.
I hope you are feeling comfortable in your posture.
Let's begin breathing.
Start by just noticing your natural breath.
Feel it in your chest,
The back of your throat,
Your tummy.
Bringing awareness to your nostrils,
Feel your breath moving in and out of your nose.
And notice,
Are you breathing deeply into your belly or you're breathing a little more shallow just into your upper chest and throat.
However you are breathing and is perfectly okay,
We just need to be aware.
Now with your posture set,
Your spine straight and your heart and tummy softened and open,
I want you to start by taking a deep breath in through your nose,
Carry it all the way down into your tummy.
Feel your tummy expanding,
Hold your breath there for a couple beats and then exhale through your mouth.
Practice with this deep breath for several breaths,
Breathing deeply in through your nose,
All the way down into your tummy where you can hold it here.
And then exhale,
Release tension.
Breath in through the nose,
Into your tummy,
Hold it and exhale.
Find a rhythm and a count that works for you.
You can imagine that your tummy is an empty balloon being filled with air every time you inhale,
Inhale,
Balloon fills with air in your tummy.
And when you exhale,
Imagine that balloon releasing air becoming soft and loose.
You can think of your breath as a massage for your tummy.
Some people during breathing practice,
Deep into their bellies,
They become self-conscious and aware of their tummies.
But this is a safe space where you are free to relax and let go,
To allow your tummy to soften.
Breathing and allowing your tummy to expand on each inhale,
Holding it there and exhaling,
Releasing tension is called diaphragmatic breathing.
Diaphragmatic breathing is how we came into the world breathing.
You can imagine a sleeping baby,
Their tummies filling and rising as they breathe and then falling back down with their deep exhale.
Cats and dogs breathe the same way,
Deep into their tummies.
You can see their centers rising and filling with air like a balloon and then exhaling.
So if this image of a sleeping baby,
A napping cat or a dozing dog helps you,
Breathe in the same way.
I encourage you to use that vision.
Deep into your belly through your nose,
Expanding,
Exhaling.
Breathing deeply into your body is how you're meant to breathe at all times.
As I said,
It's how you came into the world breathing.
It's how all of nature breathes.
It takes practice to come back to it,
But you can train your body to breathe more deeply.
And with each inhale,
You can also breathe into other parts of your body where you carry tension,
Carrying that big expansive breath into your neck,
Holding it there and then releasing tension on your exhale.
You can do this with any part of your body that is tense or in pain.
Bring it fresh,
Life-giving air.
Breathe all the way down into your feet,
Your ankles.
Fill your legs with air.
Expand and relax.
You can do the same with your arms.
Expand,
Relax.
Learning to breathe this way will bring you a deeper sense of peace and calm in your life.
It helps relieve anxiety and stress.
It can also help you sleep better at night.
And it can improve your brain function where you feel more clear and aware and conscious.
Breathing deeply allows you to slow down and be.
This combined with your posture can be used anywhere that you go,
Anywhere that you are.
Just like with posture,
Practicing deep breath like this will become a signal to the brain and the body every time you do it,
That it's time to release tension,
To relax,
To find calm.
So you can carry this breath into any part of your day in anything and everything you are doing.
I would like to leave you with several minutes of soft music that you can listen to and practice breathing all on your own.
Self guided breath and posture meditation and practice for you now.
First we will end with three more deep breaths before you practice on your own.
Deep breath in through the nose,
Hold and out through the mouth.
Deep into the belly.
In breath.
One more.
Thank you for sharing your meditation practice with me today.
May you stay with yourself today and always.
