A meditation on the ocean of our minds.
Finding a comfortable place to sit.
Whether you're sitting on a chair with your feet on the ground or if you're sitting cross-legged.
Making sure your spine is nice and straight.
Tucking your pelvis in slightly.
Relaxing your shoulders,
Letting them melt down your back.
Closing your eyes.
Taking a nice deep breath in through your nose,
Filling your lungs and your belly.
And sigh it out as you feel your body relaxing,
Feeling grounded,
Settling.
Taking another deep breath in through the nose.
Breathing in peace and calm.
And as you exhale,
Releasing anything that no longer serves you.
Breathing in and out rhythmically through your nose.
Just allowing your breath to come and go like the waves of the ocean.
Without force,
Without control.
Breathing in and breathing out.
With every in-breath,
Bringing in relaxation and calm.
And with every out-breath,
Letting go just a little bit more.
I'd like you to bring a visualization to mind.
Imagine that you are sitting on the beach.
And you can hear the waves,
The ebb and the flow.
You can sense the sand touching your legs.
There's no one else on this beach except for you.
And there is nowhere else you need to be except right here,
Right now.
Taking a deep breath in and smell the beautiful smells of the ocean,
Of the sea.
Breathing in the beautiful sense of calm that the ocean brings.
Now bringing your awareness to the space between your eyebrows.
Imagine yourself going inwards from the space in your forehead into your mind.
Just from here observing.
As you breathe,
Notice the ebb and flow of your thoughts.
Without judgement,
Without attachment.
Just noticing them come and go like the waves of the ocean.
You are not these thoughts and they do not control you.
You are the observer watching with awareness,
With kindness.
Each wave of thought is just as it is,
It's not bad,
It's not good.
It's just a thought coming and going.
And you as the observer can decide whether to go with the wave.
Whether you wish to just take a step back and watch,
Seeing them come and go.
When we start a practice of meditation and mindfulness we often notice that our minds are so busy.
More busy than we thought and we think we're getting it wrong,
The practice.
But in fact this is exactly where it starts,
Is the awareness of the thoughts coming and going.
And the lesson is to observe without attachment and without judgement.
If you feel your thoughts taking you down the beach,
Just using your breath as an anchor,
Coming back and forth.
The ocean of our minds can sometimes be stormy with lots of crazy waves.
Sometimes they can be quite scary.
And then at other times they can be calm,
Beautiful soft seas.
And the trick is that below this chaos on the surface of the ocean of our minds,
Deep below that is always stillness.
The waves don't go,
They don't disappear,
But we are able to drop into that stillness.
We are able to sit with the beauty that lies beneath.
And we are able to see and feel this vast ocean that just expands beyond our imagination.
In this vast ocean this is our potential,
The potential of our consciousness,
The potential of our minds and of our very being,
Expansive,
Limitless and calm.
While the chaos of the waves and the storm still happen up above,
We can rest in the stillness,
Trusting in this vast,
Vast expansive awareness.
Again if you feel your mind drifting down,
Following a wave,
Coming back to this stillness if you need to,
Using your breath as your anchor.
Slowly bringing your awareness from the depths of your mind,
The depths of the ocean of your mind,
Bring your awareness back to your forehead,
Noticing the softening of your brow,
The corners of your eyes,
Bring yourself back to sitting on the beach,
And slowly with each inhale bringing your awareness back to your body in this room.
Notice any sensations in your fingertips,
In your toes,
Notice the sensation in your face,
Your cheeks and your jaw,
Noticing the ebb and flow of your breath,
Rhythmically in and out through your nose,
Feeling a sense of coming back to your body,
To this room,
Feeling your sit bones or your feet connected to the ground,
Noticing any sensations or tingles within your body.
When you're ready,
Taking a nice deep breath in through your nose,
Dropping your head slightly down,
Gently,
So that your chin rests down a little bit,
And in your own time,
Gently blinking your eyes open,
So that you may be aware of your presence back in the room.
Thank you for joining me today.
