The first step is to become aware of your breath.
Gently hold your breath in the centre or the foreground of your awareness.
No need to make any effort to concentrate or focus.
So be open to everything else that's happening,
Don't try and exclude sounds or thoughts.
Let everything happen around the breath.
Just really notice the physical sensations in the body associated with your breath.
The second step is to not change the breath.
So however you find your breath as you bring your awareness to it,
Allow it to continue just as it wants to.
So don't try and breathe more deeply or more slowly.
Simply explore your breath as it is and as you feel it in the body.
The third step is to see if you can get a sense of flow with the breath,
Allowing the breath to flow freely through the body,
Enjoying that rise and fall of the breath.
The fourth step is just to check that we're not,
Maybe without noticing it,
Restricting this flow of breath in any way.
So for example when you breathe in,
Maybe just have that thought to really allow the breath into the body fully and freely,
Without any limits.
And as you breathe out,
Really releasing,
Letting go of the breath,
Just checking you're not holding on to the breath at all.
So allow the breath in,
Let go as you breathe out,
Just checking we're not restricting that flow of breath through the body.
Remembering to allow everything else to happen around the breath,
Just keeping the awareness nice and easy,
Light and open.
Allow the breath in,
Let go as you breathe out,
Feeling the flow of the breath through the body.
And the fifth and final step for the breath is to see if you can get a sense of the body being breathed by the breath,
Rather than feeling as if you were doing the breathing.
So the breath is happening to the body automatically,
Naturally,
Spontaneously.
So still not making any effort to change the breath in any way,
Just maybe changing our view of the breath,
And maybe our experience of the breath by feeling the body is being breathed.
Okay so for the next five steps we're going to apply these same principles to our thoughts.
We tend to be a lot more attached to our thoughts and to the content of our thoughts and identify with our thoughts.
The invitation is to see if we can treat the thoughts now in just the same way as we've been approaching the breath,
Just something else that's happening within our experience.
Simply become aware that you are thinking.
And see if you can really feel the difference in experience to just that normal process of thinking when we're really paying attention to the thoughts,
Holding the thoughts in the foreground of our awareness,
Allowing everything else to be in the background.
Notice how that changes the experience of thinking.
And as we did with the breath,
The second step,
Just check that you're not trying to change your thoughts in any way.
Don't try and think more slowly or more deeply,
Don't try and think less,
Don't try and stop your thoughts,
Don't try and change the content of your thoughts,
Don't try and redirect your thoughts.
So be aware of your thoughts as they are and although you could try and change them if you wanted to,
Just notice how it feels to experience your thoughts choosing not to change them in any way at all.
This should allow us to move on nice and easily to the third step with our thoughts and that's to get a sense of the thoughts flowing freely through the mind,
Just as the breath flows freely through the body.
So what does it feel like to have that experience of allowing your thoughts to flow freely through the mind?
One thought after the next.
And as we did with the breath,
See if you can get a feeling of the thoughts happening to you,
Of coming to the mind without you making any effort to think.
The thoughts just like the breath happening automatically,
Spontaneously,
Naturally.
You're not deciding what your next thought is going to be,
Allowing your thoughts to flow freely,
And feeling as if the thoughts are happening to you rather than something that you are actively doing.
And just check that you're really genuinely disinterested in the content of your thoughts,
So it really doesn't matter what the thoughts are for this meditation,
And it doesn't matter how long they stay within your mind,
Within your awareness.
Give them complete freedom just to be as they are,
And to hang around for as long as they want.
You have no interest in the content of our thoughts and in trying to change them at all.
So we are aware of the thoughts,
But completely disinterested in the content and what the thoughts are about.
And the final step for the thoughts before we move on to the relaxation,
Is to turn your interest and your attention,
Keeping it light and open to what your next thought might be.
So whatever your current thoughts are that you can be aware of in your mind,
Because we're disinterested in the current thoughts,
This is an invitation to be really interested in what the next thought might be.
So keeping your awareness open and light and welcoming,
See if you can be alert enough and open enough to catch the arrival of the next new thought when it pops into your mind.
When the next thought comes,
That becomes the current thought,
And we're not interested in those,
So just allow that thought to do whatever it wants,
And turn your attention and your alertness and your openness to see if you can catch the arrival of the next thought.
And each time a thought comes,
It doesn't matter how fast or slow or how repetitive or different,
Keep being alert for the next thought,
The new thought.
If you notice you've attached yourself to some particular thoughts,
Taken an interest in them,
Reorientate your alertness and openness and interest to wondering what the next new thought might be,
And see if you can be alert and open and catch the new thought coming.
Okay,
So the next step is to pay real attention to the process and the experience of relaxing a part of the body,
Something we all know how to do naturally without thought,
So I just want you to do that with a bit more awareness,
A bit more attention,
Just to really get the feeling of that relaxation response in a part of the body.
So I'd like you to practice that on two or three parts of the body,
From the shoulder downwards,
The shoulders,
The arms,
Hands,
Legs,
Feet.
So pick a part of the body,
So for example I'm going to pick my right hand,
And because I'm feeling quite relaxed anyway,
I'm going to tense,
Clench that right hand first,
Tighten the muscles and then relax.
Really feel that relaxation response in the hand,
Really notice how that feels,
How good that feels.
So I'll give you a few moments to do that a few times,
Then repeat it with the same part of the body or try a couple of different parts.
Just notice what you do to instigate that relaxation and notice how it feels.
Okay,
And then when you're ready,
If you bring your attention to your face,
And all the muscles across the face,
Around the jaw,
Mouth,
Eyes,
Forehead,
And in your own way,
In your own time,
Allow your face to completely relax.
Really enjoy that feeling of that relaxation response across the face.
Bringing our attention to the top,
Back and sides of the head,
The scalp and the skull.
Again in your own way,
In your own time,
Allow all these parts of your head to completely relax and really enjoy that sensation,
That relaxation response in the body.
Just treating your brain in exactly the same way as any other part of your body,
Allow your brain now to totally relax.
Enjoy that feeling of a completely relaxed brain.
And be aware of the whole head,
The face,
The skull and the brain.
Allow your whole head to totally relax.
Feel that relaxation response,
That wave of relaxation throughout your head and brain.
And finally,
Allow your whole body to relax and allow your thoughts to flow freely through your relaxed brain.
Free flowing thoughts,
Free flowing breath,
Your body and brain completely relaxed.
