Welcome to this 10 minute pause meditation.
With me Simon Howes,
We're going to follow this pause to the letter,
Inviting some stillness and calm into our being.
So let's begin.
P is for posture.
Let's check in with our body for a moment and realign.
Sitting comfortably.
Resting hands palms upwards in your lap.
Spine straight but relaxed.
Soften into your shoulders.
Close your eyes if you prefer or gently lower your gaze.
With eyelids half shut.
A is for awareness.
Bring your awareness.
Notice the sensation of your buttocks against the chair,
Mat or cushion you are sitting on.
Now together let's slowly scan the body from the crown of the head down to the feet,
One part at a time.
Notice if any areas of tension or discomfort arise.
With compassion,
Tenderness,
Make a mental note of these areas.
Simply acknowledge what's going on in your body for now.
Present with all sensations.
The fabric of your clothes against your skin.
The weight of your hands resting in your lap.
Notice the cool in-breath as air enters the nostrils.
The warm air leaving the body.
The warmth of your nose and mouth.
Brushing the top of your lip as it does so.
Again not trying to change the breath in any way just yet.
Stay with the breath exactly as it is for a little while.
Before we move on to our next we can also accept.
Let yourself simply be in this moment.
You are in this room at this time.
A tiny dot on a huge spinning rock.
Acknowledge,
Briefly acknowledge the wonder of your existence.
On to our next letter now.
You for unburning.
Thoughts and images from your everyday life will bombard you as you meditate.
Today shall we notice how busy our minds can be.
Rest in this state as the silent observer.
Watch your thoughts melt like clouds in the water.
If you've got swept up in the current of your imagination,
Simply bring your awareness back to the breath.
Ourselves from the judgment.
The judgment that often comes.
Expectations around our meditation practice.
Just like those clouds in the water,
Thoughts and worries and future concerns will dissolve away.
Just let it all go.
We're now going to slow down.
With each exhale gently softening.
Melting the tension away.
Tenderness now.
Breathe into any areas of tension that are still present in your body.
Melting the tension away like butter on a warm stove.
We can also slow down the breath now too.
Each breath becoming deeper,
Richer.
There's nowhere to go.
There's nowhere to be.
Use the breath as an anchor to hold your attention.
You wish to count the breath using numbers if this helps.
You could do 5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
On the in breath and then on the out breath.
We could do 1,
2,
3,
4 and 5.
Slow your breathing down to the number that you feel comfortable with.
Explore.
We'll stay with this for another minute.
It's also for space and stillness.
Remembering that the stillness is always within you.
Try too hard to be what you already are.
We merely forget that we are still the very fabric of space itself.
Stay with the breath.
Carving out that space.
Reconnecting with it once again.
To move on to the E of pause.
E is for explore and expand.
Noticing the thoughts that come and go.
We slow down.
Take a breath whenever we need to.
E is also for the end of our practice today.
Increase your awareness of the room around you as we come to the end of this meditation.
Reconnecting with the sounds and the ambience of the room.
Widen your awareness.
Noises from adjacent rooms.
Tune in to the sounds in your neighbourhood.
Distant conversations.
Distant conversations.
Returning your focus fully to the room around you now.
Opening your eyes if you have them shut.
As we move forward into our next activities,
We can take with us any feelings of calm and clarity we've gained from our pause practice today.
Namaste friends.
Stay zen.
Come back again.
For more meditations,
Mindfulness and qigong,
Visit www.
Qigongwithsimon.
Com and check out my new blog,
The Qigong Perspective,
On Substack.
