Holiday De-Stress With Mindfulness Of Now

This meditation was recorded live during a meditation class in Austin Texas so there is a bit of background noise. The first 5 minutes is a talk about what is mindfulness and awareness meditation. The meditation begins at 5:15.

This meditation will help you learn to stay present in the now by paying attention to your breath. Using "noticing" how your breath feels in your body, you will be able to find a quieting of your mind and body.
We end with open awareness and setting an intention.

Transcript

Welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us today for meditation at Austin Yoga Tree. So if you're all like me, You're feeling the little bit of pressure and stresses of the holiday season pressing down on us, Starting to ramp up here just a couple of weeks before Christmas and New Year's and everything that goes with Hanukkah. There are there's another one. What am I missing? Kwanzaa. Thank you. So again, Like we did last week, I'm thinking that we're just going to go with some mindfulness, Awareness, Relaxation, And hopefully reinforce some of what we learned last week and keep in. You've been here before, You understand, You know what we're up to here. So the specific meditation that I want to do today is mindfulness. It is awareness of what is now and it's a great practice to use when you've got that chaos and swirl and everything that is kind of crazy around the holidays. You're dealing with all kinds of people, You're dealing with all kinds of energies. And if you can even take five minutes to remove yourself from it and go find a quiet place to sit down and do a quiet mindfulness practice, You'll find that your equanimity comes back. You're able to center and come from a place of non-reactivity, Of simply being who you are and being grounded in the midst of whatever's going on. So you guys have all heard the term mindfulness before. It's being used a lot now and really all mindfulness is, Is awareness. It's just being simply aware of what's going on around you, Of what's going on inside you, Of what's going on with your physical body, With your emotions, Everything around you, Your energy. So having awareness is really what this is about. So one of the best ways to come into awareness, And we all know this from yoga, Is through your breath and being completely focused and aware of how your breath is. And when I first started this kind of practice, I remember realizing that my breathing was uneven and having never noticed that before, It was kind of a revelation. And working on that through the years has allowed me to steady it, And I don't even have to really focus on making sure that it's even now. So that's one of the things emotion can do to you, Is make your breath uneven, Ragged, And you don't get enough oxygen, Frankly. So these are things to bring into your awareness when you're looking at the breathing practice and how you can change that for yourself. It's all a choice. We can choose how we are going to react to things in any given moment. So the key is really to put your entire awareness on the object of your focus. So we're talking breath today, But it really could be anything. If you want to light a candle and set it in front of you and take a soft gaze at the candle flame, That's also a wonderful awareness practice to just completely immerse yourself in that for a few moments. It will bring all the levels down. Another thing to be aware of in an awareness practice is your mind will wander. Minds do that. It is how we are all wired. They don't stay focused easily. So when it happens, Just notice it and gently bring your awareness back to the breath. So let's just, I guess, Just get started. So if you're feeling like you're not completely even on your cushion, Go ahead and adjust yourself. Get comfortable. If you need to move in the middle of the practice, It's okay. Move and make yourself comfortable. So we're going to start by just taking a few intentional breaths to bring ourselves here in this moment. We're going to do that by breathing in from the back of our hearts, Taking a nice deep breath in, And breathing out through the front of your heart. Through the front of your heart. Let's do that again. Breathing in and breathing out. One more through the back of your heart and breathing out through the front. So go ahead and begin to notice, Just allowing your breath to be natural and begin to notice the breath flowing in, The breath flowing in, How your body actually breathes. If you notice any stray thoughts, Don't engage with them, Just let them drift by and keep noticing your breath. Bring your attention to the tip of your nose and as you breathe in, Notice the coolness of the air flowing around the tip of your nose. See if you can follow it, The air. It flows into your nose, Up through your nasal passages, Down your throat, Do you notice if it's warming as it flows down through your throat? Are you still feeling the air? Are you still feeling the coolness there at the back of your throat? Continue to follow your breath on down into your lungs. Notice it expanding the tops of your lungs. Expanding the center of your chest. Expanding all the way down to your belly. Can you allow the breath to really expand and notice the expansion of your body? Notice as the breath flows out, The reverse of what we just noticed. Notice your waist comes in, Your belly comes in, Ribcage settles back down. Top of the chest relaxes back down. Can you notice as the air travels up through your throat that it's warmer? Can you notice back at the tip of your nose again? How the air feels as it leaves your nostrils? Any thoughts of your day or whatever happened before pop again? Just notice. Let them drift on by. Come back to feeling your breath. Now let's play a little with our breath. We're going to count the breath as we flow in and again as we flow out. We're going to count in to four and we're going to count out to five. Breathing in, One, Two, Three, Four, And breathing out, One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Breathing in, One, Two, Three, Four, And breathing out, One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Go ahead and do a few of those on your own. One more. Release the counting. Allow your breath to return to its normal pattern. Now let's notice the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. When you breathe in, There's a pause, And as you breathe out at the bottom, There's a pause. Breathe again, And breathing out. Just allowing yourself to notice, Not forcing, Not changing, Just allowing. Again, When the thoughts come, Just notice. Allow them to drift on by. Come back to noticing the breath. Now we're going to take a breath in through our mouth and out through our mouth, And notice the difference. Keep breathing in through your mouth and out through your mouth. How's that different than when you breathe through your nose? Does breathing out through your mouth allow more relaxation? Does it allow you to let your shoulders fall and release tension? Be curious about your breath and the different effects it has on your body. Maybe breathing in with your nose and out through your mouth. Just noticing. Breath by breath. Now that you're fully here in your body, With the in-breath, Say to yourself, I am here. With the out-breath, Now. Breathing in, I am here. And breathing out, Now. Breathing in. And breathing out. Notice how you feel now. Different than when you first sat. And from this place of intentional awareness, Being here, Now, Can you call to mind an intention, Maybe for the rest of your day or for the rest of the holiday season? Maybe awareness. Maybe presence. Maybe love. Compassion. For yourself and for those around you. Whatever your intention word was, We're going to take a few more heart breaths. And as you breathe in, Say to yourself your intention. So breathing in. And breathing out. Allow that intention to flow out into your aura, Your energy field. And infuse you. Breathing in. And breathing out. One more from the back of your heart. Allowing your intention to fill you up. And breathing it out from the front of your heart. And now bringing your hands to prayer position, Front of your heart. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you have peace. Namaste. .