Welcome to the Stillpoint Meditation.
Today I'm going to be taking you through a short breath awareness meditation that uses counting as the anchor to help us to stay focused on the breath.
This style of meditation is perfect for beginners or if the mind is feeling very active and overloaded and sitting for an extended period of silence just doesn't feel possible.
So we begin by finding your seat.
A comfortable position that allows you to sit tall with a straight spine but still at ease.
And place the hands wherever feels natural on the legs,
In the lap.
Close down the eyes now and begin the journey of bringing your awareness from the external world to the stillness that resides within you.
Start by listening to the sounds that you can hear around you.
Listen for sounds that are close by and far away.
Send your awareness out in all directions to hear sounds that are both loud and very faint.
Keep listening to sounds for a few moments longer,
Rotating your awareness from sound to sound to sound.
Good.
And now start to tune into the feeling of your body sitting in stillness.
Notice the sensations you might feel on the surface of your skin.
A soft breeze,
Maybe the light touch of clothing,
The feeling of the floor or the carpet underneath the feet.
And then begin to tune into the muscles and the tissues that lie under the skin and surround the bones.
Let them get really soft now.
Feel a wave of relaxation wash through the body that allows all muscular tension to just drop away.
And then drop your awareness inwards further still to the bones.
Start to feel the weight of your bones.
Let them get really heavy.
Allow yourself to sink,
To let go into this depth.
Good.
And as you're resting easily in this softness,
This heaviness in the body,
You begin to notice the ebb and the flow of your breath now.
So as you inhale,
You might start to feel parts of the body swell,
Fill up,
Expand.
And as you exhale,
You notice a gentle drawing in,
A contraction.
And see if you can observe these sensations happening naturally in the body rather than trying to control or manipulate them.
Almost as if you're noticing yourself being breathed rather than you doing the breathing.
Just a few more moments here,
Connecting with the rise and the fall of the in-breath and the exhale.
Now that we've connected to our breathing rhythm,
We're going to start to add a count to the inhale and the exhale.
We're going to start at the number 21 and slowly make our way back to zero.
Perhaps.
The goal of this meditation is not to reach zero.
The purpose is just to be with the breath and we're using a count as a way to help us to do that.
So just take your awareness back to your breath now.
And starting to tune in once again to the natural rise and fall of the inhale and the exhale.
And we're going to begin to count the in-breath and out-breath from 21 back to zero.
So on your next inhale,
21.
Exhale,
Also 21.
Inhale,
20.
Exhale,
20.
And so on.
These numbers should just be a whisper in the mind.
A hint of awareness,
Not a shout.
If you find that you get to zero,
Just start again.
And if you find that you forget what number you're at,
Also just start again.
If you're finding here that you're drifting into thinking a lot and forgetting your count,
That's okay.
The mind is designed to have thoughts.
Getting angry at ourselves for thinking is as futile as getting angry with an ocean wave for slipping past our cupped hands.
Just softly smile to yourself and say,
Ah,
Thinking.
Come back to the breath and then start your count again.
Just a few more moments with your breath.
There's no rush at all,
But after your next exhale,
Let go of the count and sit in stillness.
Just noticing here how you feel after spending these few moments being and breathing.
Be aware of any shifts and changes in how you feel physically,
Mentally,
Perhaps even energetically.
And just thanking yourself for taking the time to nourish and calm yourself in this way.
Your practice of meditation is now complete.
Namaste.
