Choosing a comfortable meditation seat,
Maybe on a cushion on the floor or you may be sitting on a chair or lying down,
Just making sure the back is nice and straight.
If you're sitting on a chair that your feet are firmly on the ground,
Your hands can be on your knees or resting in your lap.
We just take a moment now to feel gratitude for ourselves for logging on today.
That we really are doing ourselves a great favor,
We're making ourselves a big offering by being here,
Present,
In the moment and exploring ideas of mindfulness.
Very powerful ideas,
Mind,
Transformation,
Peace of mind,
Relaxation,
So beneficial to our mental health.
Settling the nervous system now,
We're just going to take three deep breaths,
Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose initially,
Breathing in and then exhale out the nose slowly,
Just letting go of what any anxieties you experience.
Let's breathe in again,
Breathing in through the nose and slowly release out the nostrils,
Letting go of what doesn't serve you today.
Last breath,
Breathing in through the nose,
Filling those lungs and then release out the mouth,
Sigh the breath out.
Let it go,
Let it go.
Good,
Coming now just to a normal breath,
A calm breath.
Just riding the waves of your breath moment by moment,
Resting in awareness.
Experience life unfolding here and now in your breath and in your body as you breathe.
Merits.
And now softening our focus on the breath and body and just keeping it there but just relaxing that focus,
Moving it into the background or just rest in the wings,
Still very much present but less featured.
And now we just invite the whole domain of thoughts and feelings and mood states just to be that center stage in our field of awareness.
Just for a short time now tending to the stream of thoughts rather than being carried away by the content or maybe the emotional charge of individual thoughts,
Just rest comfortably on the bank of the thoughts of the river or the thought stream.
Just allow individual thoughts if and when they arise to be seen,
To be felt,
To be recognized and known.
Just as thoughts as events in the field of our awareness just sitting there on the banks of this river that's constantly flowing.
Just seeing that whatever flows through mental events,
Occurrences,
Are just like secretions of the thinking mind,
Independent of their content and their emotional charge,
We can see them as like bubbles or eddies or currents within the stream rather than as real facts or the truth of things.
Whatever the content,
Whatever the emotional charge around it,
Whatever the urgency or tendency to reappear or if they may be pleasant or seductive or unpleasant or repulsive or neutral and just harder to detect.
Just let any and all thoughts come and go,
Whatever sounds come and go,
Whatever sensations come and go in the space of non-judgment,
Not really preferring some to others or pursuing some over others or just anything,
Just resting in awareness of thinking itself and the spaces between those thoughts moment by moment,
Breath by breath as we sit here.
Just let any and all thoughts come and go,
Whatever sounds come and go in the space of non-judgment,
Not really preferring some to others or pursuing some over others or just anything,
Just anything.
So many of our thoughts are manufactured or fabricated,
Opinions,
Ideas,
Beliefs,
Our plans,
Memories,
Stories,
They can so quickly multiply if we feed the one thought then morphing into the next and then the next and then we're carried downstream once again or even no longer aware of the stream itself.
Just resting in awareness of the arising and the passing away of thoughts and feelings,
Getting used to sitting on the bank of the river,
Staying dry and just watching and observing the flow in front of us.
Moment by moment,
Breath by breath as we just sit here.
Just let any and all thoughts come and go,
Whatever sounds come and go in the space of non-judgment,
Not really preferring some to others or anything.
Coming now to the end of this practice,
Let's drop the chin down to our chest and taking one beautiful big breath once again,
Filling the lungs,
Breathing in through the nose and slowly release out the mouth,
Just sigh the breath out slowly.
Just observe how you feel right now compared to when you logged on.
And even if we felt like it wasn't a good practice,
Just to realize that that's just a judgment.
If we weren't focused,
If we weren't present,
Let go of that judgment,
It is what it is.
It's a form of loving kindness as we approach ourselves with non-judgment.
And now lifting your chin and slowly opening your eyes.
Great.
Thank you.
