Welcome to this meditation.
I invite you to find a comfortable seated position with your spine upright,
Creating a sacred space for you wherever you are to really settle into the power of this meditation.
You may like to light a candle.
Just checking that you're free of distractions in a safe place.
Just starting to settle your sit bones down into the seat into the ground wherever you are.
Taking a nice big deep breath in and exhaling through your mouth.
And again inhaling deep into the belly and exhaling through your mouth with the sigh.
And one more inhaling deep into your belly and exhaling through the mouth.
Allowing your breaths to encourage the settling of your nervous system.
As you feel the ground beneath you notice the stability of the ground,
The hardness of the chair or the support underneath you,
Its stability,
Its stillness.
Allow your body to melt down into that support.
Allow all of those edges of tension from underneath the bottom of your legs and your sit bones to soften and release.
Meeting the support underneath you,
Meeting the earth underneath you.
And if you do have some support behind your back maybe you like to settle into that support behind your back along your spine.
Otherwise just feeling that downward flow of energy of your body settling and softening down into the ground.
Become aware of your shoulders,
Softening your shoulders down,
Allowing them to drop.
Noticing the muscles around your neck,
Softening your neck muscles,
Your jaw,
Your cheeks,
Your face.
And dropping further down into the belly,
Softening the belly,
Softening the pelvic area.
Just take a moment to listen to the sounds around you,
The repetitive sounds around you.
Just scanning from one sound to the next.
And now withdrawing your awareness from the external to the internal.
Noticing the movements of your body with your breath.
Noticing how your body breathes,
How your body moves with your breath.
Becoming aware of the inherent sense of safety within your body,
Within yourself,
Within your surroundings.
And just allowing that calm to resonate through your consciousness.
To begin to notice just the repetitive motion of the breath,
Inhale and exhale.
The inhale and the exhale.
So we're going to start to count the natural flow of the breath.
Inhale,
One,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Two,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Three,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Four,
Exhale.
And continue all the way up to ten,
Counting just the natural breath.
So I might have been counting too fast or too slow.
So just counting your natural flow of breath.
Being mindful if you are trying to control the breath in any way.
Just trying to let go of that control or force or pressure.
Just allowing yourself to count that natural flow of breath.
Once you've reached ten,
Return to one and continue.
The practice of meditation can become boring to the mind.
It can be very challenging because there's a lack of stimulation.
We're so used to being entertained and being distracted and things going on around us in the external environment that it can be very very difficult to practice this type of meditation.
It takes practice so if you're struggling just take your time.
Be gentle with yourself.
Be non-judgmental with yourself and just keep practicing.
Keep coming back to the counting.
Each time your mind wanders,
Bring your attention back to the counting.
If you lose count,
Return to one.
Counting the natural flow of the breath one to ten and return to one.
If you notice your mind has wandered,
Bring your attention back lovingly to the counting,
To your breath.
If there is thoughts,
Any thoughts of frustration,
Anxiety,
Wanting to give up,
Thinking that this is not worth it or not going to give you anything.
All of these thoughts,
Allow them to be there.
Give them presence.
Give them acknowledgement and then just simply come back to the breath.
Keep counting.
Watch the thoughts.
Let them go.
Acknowledge the thoughts.
Let them go.
If your mind has wandered again,
Just bring your attention back lovingly to the counting.
If there is some strong physical sensations arising in your body,
You can also acknowledge them just like you acknowledge the thoughts.
Acknowledge the sensations.
Feel them.
And then come back to the breath.
Come back to the counting.
There are different types of meditations where we can sit with the sensations,
Hold our presence with those sensations for an entire meditation.
But for this practice we are just focusing on developing our awareness,
Our concentration,
Our focus.
So just continuing for two more minutes.
This practice of meditation is about developing our awareness of when we are thinking.
And it's like a practice or a muscle that we are developing.
Each time you notice yourself thinking,
You bring yourself back to the counting,
Back to the breath.
And this is the practice of meditation.
Learning to become aware of the thoughts.
Coming back to presence.
This practice of constantly and continually doing this becomes easier.
And through that practice you become more able to stay present in your life as well as when you're in meditation.
So now letting go of the counting.
I'm just coming into a space of complete stillness.
Letting go of the technique.
Letting go of any need to do anything.
Resting in pure presence.
And this is the goal of meditation.
To hold this space.
So now we will come to a close of this meditation.
Starting to wiggle your fingers and toes.
Bring a little bit of movement back into the body and take some deeper breaths.
When you're ready gently open your eyes and just scan your environment,
Your surroundings.
Noticing where you are.
Bringing yourself back into the room to wherever you are in your world.
Namaste.
