Hi,
Thanks for joining me.
This is a meditation to help you bring awareness,
Curiosity,
And explore whatever is happening in your life right now.
I'd like to begin by inviting you to arrive and settle in this moment.
There's nowhere else to be,
Nowhere else to go.
Allowing yourself the gift of your own kind attention.
Taking a deep breath in and exhale.
Deep breath in and exhale.
Doing that one more time.
Deep breath in and exhale.
Letting your breath return to its normal rhythm and cadence.
I'd like you to bring your attention to the body.
Whatever position you're in,
Just noticing sensation.
That might be points of contact,
It might be air temperature,
Or there might be sensations that you're aware of in the body.
You're not trying to change anything,
It's just bringing the attention and awareness to this moment through the body.
You can never be in a future sensation or in a past sensation,
So the body is a great anchor of attention for the present moment.
You might notice thoughts that arise as you're paying attention to the body,
And that's great,
That's what the mind does.
There's no need to change this or make this different.
But you'll say,
Not right now thought and come back to the direct felt sensations.
This brings your attention to the present moment.
And if the body is difficult to be with,
Focusing on the breath,
This is your practice.
It's not about being or making yourself uncomfortable,
It's about really sitting with yourself,
Offering yourself your own kind attention and awareness to whatever is happening,
Much like you would with a dear friend or loved one.
So as the mind wanders,
Coming back to the breath or the sensations in the body,
Points of contact.
And allowing again,
This moment to arrive and settle.
If there's sensations of tension or tightness,
Seeing if on an exhale,
You can invite those areas to relax just a little bit to maybe draw the shoulders away from the ears.
And when you feel ready,
I'd like you to bring awareness to a challenge or difficulty you've been having recently.
Don't make this like the hardest challenge.
Maybe like a level four or five on the challenge meter,
If it goes up to 10.
This is a practice.
So bringing something to mind,
That's awareness.
You might be flooded right now with stories about that awareness and that's okay.
You can come back to those but just naming a challenge or a situation.
And then getting curious.
What is coming up when I think of this,
And noticing if it's in the future,
If it's in the past,
And then coming right back to the present moment.
Because with awareness and curiosity,
You can begin to explore.
And by explore,
I mean,
What size is it?
Is it in your body?
Where does it live in the body?
And if you can find it,
Is there a weight to it?
Or maybe there's a lightness or a tension or a tightness.
Bringing curiosity to this exploration.
You're not trying to change anything or make anything different.
You're simply naming by bringing awareness,
Getting curious about what's going on,
And exploring.
Maybe putting a color or a size to whatever is happening in the body when this challenge or issue is in mind.
Providing a spaciousness or an inquiry to what's happening already.
Seeing if you can offer compassion to whatever is arising,
If there's challenging things that are coming up for you.
Maybe even noticing if there are stories,
What would you say to a friend or a small child if they were having these same stories?
How would you respond?
And seeing if you can turn that kinder response to your own experience.
So through awareness,
Curiosity and exploration,
You're able to start seeing the stories that are attached.
And when you see that,
Then you can start questioning those.
You know,
Is this useful?
Or is it even true?
And allowing yourself your own kind attention to whatever is going on in this moment.
And as you feel ready,
Letting go of that challenging thought or idea.
Coming back to sensations in the body or focusing on breath.
Maybe taking a couple of deep intentional breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
One more time,
Deep breath in and exhale.
Bringing some movement to the body,
Maybe wiggling the fingers and toes or taking a stretch if that feels good.
And opening the eyes if they've been closed.
Maybe giving yourself a little moment of congratulations or appreciation for taking this time to meet your experience and bring awareness,
Curiosity and the spirit of exploration to what is happening in your life right now.
Thank you so much for your practice.
