Pema Chodron Inspired Simple Meditation

Based on the teachings of Tibetan Buddhist monk Pema Chödrön, this meditation builds your capacity to cultivate stability and foster a friendly relationship with your mind. It uses breath, posture, and mindful awareness to strengthen your inner stability and wellbeing. I highly recommend all of Pema Chodron's books. Relax and enjoy.
Music by Christopher Lloyd Clark | Photo by Abhijeet Gourav

Transcript

What Pema Chodron helps to teach us through her meditations is to find stability in the midst of uncertainty.

To begin with,

You can find a posture that's comfortable for you.

It helps to be upright and just find some balance.

You can imagine like a drop line going from your head down to your spine,

So you're upright and relaxed.

So the body is teaching the mind how to relax and be open.

And noticing if you're balanced right to left and front to back.

And just becoming very grounded in your seat.

With your heart area open.

Just feel the strength of your heart.

In your amazing capacity for love.

And around that open heart just letting the whole body soften.

Letting your face soften.

Letting your upper eyelids just rest very gently on the lower lids.

Your lips gently touching or apart.

Letting your jaw relax.

Letting the whole body be at ease.

And feel your stability.

And bringing your attention now to your breath.

Just noticing it.

Not trying to change it.

And bring your awareness particularly to the out-breath.

Just riding the waves of the exhalations.

As if you are moving out into the room with your breath.

Just feeling more and more space.

Just relaxing into the exhalations.

And when your mind wanders just gently bringing it back to the breath.

Letting your breath root you here,

Stabilize you here in this moment.

Just enjoying each breath.

And when you notice your mind wander you can simply name what's happening.

Thinking.

Just notice thinking and bring yourself back to the breath.

Feeling the steadiness of your body,

The flow of your breath.

Surprised the mind.

The mind might wander over and over.

That's fine.

Each time with great gentleness towards yourself and great precision you just bring it back to this breath now.

Breathing in the breath.

No matter the weather of your life,

The storms,

The really difficult days.

You can always come back to this stability.

Just always here.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be at peace.

May all beings be free.

Reviews

This is a wonderful way to begin my day; connecting to my breath, and guided by a clear voice into the present moment.

I’m very happy to come across your tracks and look forward to listening to more of them. Thank you.

Gorgeous! Deeply settling and softening 😊 Thank you Tess 🙏💫

Loved it. The type of insight meditation I am used to and prefer. One of the best short meditations on IT.

Perfect and I don’t usually like guided meditation

This was such a beautiful and deeply calming meditation, thank you!🌞💚🌺

Lovely smooth meditation to check in with myself on a Sunday afternoon 🙏🏻

Perfect both as an introductory piece or for a guided tune-up. Thanks for helping me return to the stability that was here all along.

I was soothed by the general approach to moving the minds focus back to the beach. Thank you

Thank you! I appreciate the simplicity of this meditation.

Stability, calm abiding. Greatly appreciated as the wildfires are raging out here in the L.A. area. Thank you 🙏

What a lovely meditation to begin my day filling me with peace. Thank you.

Simple, yet exactly what made me fall in love with meditation. The centering on the breath which keeps one from spiraling. Thank you!

Peaceful, balanced awareness practice that helps to start the day with equanimity. Thank you!

Thank you Tess for this gentle meditation. I feel good now.

This was a wonderful way to set the tone of my day. Thank you for this calming meditation.

Beautiful meditation with a gentle voice and peaceful cadence. Thank you.

Thank you
This was very calming on this Election Day 2024
Go Kamala and Tim!

Thank you so much. Although I felt quite distracted today in my meditation I’m definitely going to return to this as really enjoyed it x

Calming and grounding. Simple and powerful. Thank you.