Wherever you are I want you to settle into the space,
Feel yourself connected to the ground whether you're sitting,
Lying down,
Inside,
Outside,
Really feel your body getting connected.
You may want to kind of move your arms and legs around slightly,
Get all of that nervous energy out of your body as you just settle in to here,
To now.
And when you're ready I want you to go ahead and feel free to either close your eyes or just drop your gaze down to a fixed point without distraction,
Something that's not moving.
And if you do choose to close your eyes you'll start this process of going inwards.
And in terms of mindfulness meditation that's really where the journey begins.
And so the first thing that we're always going to come and start with is the breath.
And it may be one of the first times that you're really dialing and tuning into the conscious breath.
Breathing in through your nose,
Out through your mouth,
Slow,
Controlled,
Rhythmic.
Find the rhythm of your breath that works for you today.
That inhale through the nose should be relaxed,
Calm,
Not rushed.
And the exhale through the mouth.
You can even be a little bit audible with your exhale.
Let that air just flow out.
And through that exhale we're gonna be just letting everything in our body,
Our mind,
Our brain,
Our energy,
The tension,
We're gonna let it all go.
And to bolster that we're gonna focus on always taking a slightly longer exhale than we do our inhale.
So perhaps inhale for three seconds and exhale for six.
The one technique we're going to introduce today is this idea that as you're simply focusing on the inhale followed by the exhale,
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth,
Three seconds in,
Four seconds in,
Six seconds out,
Maybe eight seconds out.
If there's a point where you feel like you get distracted,
Your mind is pulled away from the breath,
Is pulled away from those simple counts in and counts out,
I want you to think about this simple visualization that we can bring into play right now.
And that's visualizing yourself in a forest,
Out completely immersed in nature,
Walking down to a beautiful little creek or stream.
Maybe imagine one of those favorite places that you've seen before,
Whether it was in childhood or a favorite stream to visit in the forest.
I want you to imagine taking that thought,
That distraction,
Might be an emotion,
A feeling,
A doubt,
An anxiety.
I want you to package it up and toss it right into the river,
Right into the stream.
And just keep the visualization going and watch it float down,
Getting smaller and smaller,
And eventually there's that bend in the stream or the creek and it slowly floats out of vision.
And with that,
You can simply let it go and then come back to that inhale for three seconds through the nose,
Six seconds through the mouth.
I'll let you take three to five breaths on your own at this point.
Now with the next inhale,
I want you to wiggle your toes,
Wiggle your feet,
Your hands,
Your arms,
Maybe shrug your shoulders up.
And with your exhale,
Go ahead and open up your eyes.
Let your eyes readjust to what's around you.
You get bonus points if you think of one thing in this moment of presence that you're grateful for in life.
End off your practice,
Your meditation,
Just with acknowledging that one moment of gratitude.
Great work.
Day one complete.
I'll see you back here tomorrow.
