Hello and welcome to a breathing anchor for your wandering mind.
To begin this meditation,
First bring some kind awareness to how you're feeling right now and why you chose to press play.
This mindfulness practice is your breathing anchor practice where you're you root your awareness into the present moment like an anchor that roots a ship to one place.
This will help you to dissolve anxiety,
Decrease stress,
And allow your body to heal in a relaxed and peaceful state.
So to begin,
Adopt as comfortable as a position as possible.
It's often best to be sitting,
But you can do this in any posture.
Standing,
Lying down,
Sitting,
Or even walking.
My guidance will assume you're sitting,
But adapt these instructions to whatever posture you've chosen.
Sitting with your back upright,
Get relaxed with your spine following its natural curves.
See if you can establish a position that feels dignified,
Alert,
And yet relaxed.
Allow your body to settle,
To rest down into gravity,
Letting it be supported by the floor beneath you,
And gently close your eyes if that's comfortable.
This will help your awareness settle by lessening external distractions.
Gradually allow your awareness to gather around the sensations of the breath in your body.
Where do you feel the breath most strongly?
Be curious about this experience,
Letting go of anything you think should be happening,
And being with your experience without judgment.
Now very gently rest your awareness within the whole torso.
Can you feel your belly swelling on the in-breath and subsiding on the out-breath?
Can you feel any movements and sensations with your breath in the sides and the back of the body as well?
Gradually inhabiting your body a little more deeply with a sense of kind curiosity towards whatever you're experiencing as you breathe.
Remember to be accepting of whatever's happening,
And see if you can cultivate a precise awareness of the sensations and movement of the breath in the body as it happens,
Moment by moment,
Being careful not to strain,
Allowing your awareness to be utterly receptive as it rests upon the natural movement of the breath in the body.
Allow the breath to be saturated with kindliness as it rocks and cradles the body,
Soothing any stress,
Pain,
Or discomfort you might feel.
Now become aware of any thoughts and emotions.
Remember,
Mindfulness isn't about having a blank mind.
It's normal to think.
Mindfulness is the training where you cultivate awareness of what is actually happening physically,
Mentally,
Spiritually,
And emotionally.
All of this so you can gradually change your perspective and feel you have more choice in how you relate to life.
So with that,
Can you look at your thoughts and emotions?
Can you be aware of what you're thinking and feeling without blocking the experience or getting overwhelmed by it?
And remember,
These are not facts,
Even though we often think they are.
Let's take a moment here to pause.
As you develop perspective on your thoughts and emotions,
Including undermining ones,
Can you let go of being so caught up in them?
Can you notice how they're continuously changing one moment to the next,
Exactly the same way that your breath is always changing?
Your thoughts and emotions are not as fixed and as solid as you perhaps thought.
Using awareness of the movement and sensations of your breath in your body as an anchor for your mind over and over again,
And over and over again.
Follow that breath all the way in and all the way out.
And each time your awareness wanders,
As it will,
Simply notice this and return to the breathing anchor.
Time after time after time,
Moment by moment,
Making sure you're very kind and patient with yourself,
Even if you have to start again a hundred times.
It's okay.
This is what the training is all about.
And remember that each time you notice you've wandered is a magic moment of awareness,
A moment where you've woken up from a distraction,
A moment of choice.
So when you catch yourself having wandered off,
You're succeeding in the practice,
Just as you're succeeding when you manage to stay with your breath.
What's happening now?
What are you thinking?
Just note this and guide your awareness back to the sensation of breath in the body over and over and over again.
And now gently begin to bring this breathing anchor practice to a close.
You can do this by opening your eyes and becoming aware of the sounds around you,
Inside and outside of where you sit,
Feel your whole body and gradually,
Gently begin to move.
Make sure you give yourself enough time to make a smooth transition from this breathing anchor practice into whatever you're doing next.
Sending you so much love and I'll see you in our next meditation.
