Take a moment now to find a comfortable position,
Either seated on a chair or lying back on your mat,
Hands resting gently on your lap or on your thighs,
And with your eyes gently closed,
Begin by taking in a deep breath,
Settling into your posture,
Feeling at ease with wherever you are right now.
Just take a few moments here to feel a sense of gratitude for where you are,
Feeling the ground beneath you,
And for the gift of being able to be in your body and for the breath that you enter in and out of your body.
Allow your breath to flow in and out of your body gracefully.
It is not forced or pushed in any way,
And there's a wonderful exercise that will help you relax and be present in your meditation.
So what we want to do here is to begin to start by just counting our breaths,
And we do this by silently counting.
At the end of each out breath,
You count from one to 10,
So breathe in,
Breathe out,
Count one.
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Count two.
Breathe out,
Count two,
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Count three.
Breathe out,
Count three,
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Count four.
And I invite you to do a few breaths on your own here.
So let's just do a few breaths on our own,
Beginning with breathing in,
Breathing out,
Five,
And on your own now for a couple.
Right,
Good,
That was great.
And eventually,
You'll do this all the way to 10.
Let's do it again just to lock in this exercise,
Breathing in.
Breathing out,
10.
And if you forget where you are while you're doing this exercise or get distracted,
Just bring your attention back to the breath and start again at the number one.
By counting the breaths this way,
You're able to keep your mind focused and calm.
You do nothing,
You do nothing but give way to the waves of relaxation and the wonderful feelings of calm that come over you as you do this practice more and more.
If a thought comes,
See it as just a thought and let it go.
Watch it float away.
If you continue with this,
What you'll notice and start to notice more and more is that your mind will become quieter and everything will feel more peaceful.
And if you wish,
You can do this all over again,
Counting from one to 10 and back again.
Some people like to go all the way up to 10 and then backwards the second time.
So when you've finished a whole sequence,
You can start by counting 10,
Breathe in,
Breathe out 10 and then go down to 9,
8,
7,
All the way back to 1.
All you have to do during this meditation is stay with the breath.
Keep your mind focused and one with the rhythm of the breath.
You do nothing but give way to those wonderful waves of relaxation,
The waves of serenity and calm as your muscles begin to ease off further and further,
More and more.
You are calm and serene,
More calm and serene than ever before.
And once you've really done this a few times,
All the way to 10 or all the way to 10 a couple of times,
However you wish to do it,
You can actually stop counting and just watch the breath.
So what starts to happen is that as you do this,
You aren't as aware of breathing in and out,
As now it's all happening naturally and it's almost as if you are being breathed.
Stay with this after you finish for a few more moments or for as long as you wish and whenever you're ready,
Gently come back into the room,
Back to an awareness of the cushion or the chair beneath you or the mat or bed underneath you and whenever you're ready,
Gently open your eyes,
Opening and closing them until you're ready to keep them open and really come back to present moment awareness.
And just feel a sense of gratitude that you're able to do this and you can dedicate this meditation to all beings everywhere or just thank yourself for giving yourself this sacred time and space to meditate,
Which is such a special gift.
Wiggle your fingers and toes,
Stretch,
Yawn,
Smile and whenever you're ready,
Open your eyes fully and enjoy the rest of your day or evening,
Remembering to always take one step closer to finding your bliss.
