Hello,
My name is Tomek and I welcome you to this meditation.
As always,
I'm honored that you joined me and others to meditate together,
To bring the light of awareness into the present moment.
I hope you will enjoy this journey.
Thoughts are constantly invading our mental space.
That's how it evolved.
It's a part of our human nature.
Most of the time,
We do it automatically,
Unconsciously letting the stream of thoughts to come in.
Those thoughts,
If unattended,
Drain our mental energy and make us feel unhappy.
One may ask,
Is there a way out of this vicious cycle?
The answer offered by the cognitive science is to bring conscious awareness to those thoughts.
Once aware of what is happening in the mental space,
We have a choice.
Either to follow the current of negative thoughts or to move our attention somewhere else.
I call it seed and weed meditation.
In this practice,
You gently label thoughts and emotions that come your way without getting too attached.
Some of them are like weeds,
Polluting our mental landscape.
Others,
Like seeds of happiness,
Helping us to expand and to grow in joy.
This mental noting help us to engage our mind in a positive way.
Remember,
The mind is a wonderful servant,
But a terrible master.
You can use it to your advantage or let it spread the weeds of negativity.
Understanding how to deal with mental pollutants is a critical skill if you wish to maintain a good mental health.
Let us begin.
Make yourself feel at ease,
Your feet flat on the floor,
Grounding you and centering.
Your hands in an open position in your lap.
Allow your shoulders to drop away from your ears.
Relax your jaw.
Allow your eyes to close.
Relax your head in a dignified position.
Allow your back to be straight,
But not rigid.
At the beginning of this meditation,
Make an intention to be full yourself and accept everything that comes your way in a non-judgmental way,
To bring light of awareness into this present moment,
In whichever way it presents itself to you.
Recognize that you are not alone in this journey.
I am always here to hold a space for you,
But also so many other meditators sitting with you right now.
We all together create a space for our exploration.
With that in mind,
Connect with your breath.
How does it feel?
Is your breath long or short?
Deep?
Shallow?
In whichever way you experience it,
It is okay.
It's a starting point.
Start feeling expansion and contraction of your entire body as your breath comes in and goes out.
Recognize that amongst in-breaths and out-breaths,
There are thoughts and emotions.
This is absolutely normal.
This is part of our biological software.
You as a consciousness interacting with everything that happens around you,
Both internally and externally.
Recognize this as a stream of data coming in.
You interacting with it and then disappearing out of your awareness.
Some of those thoughts and emotions you may perceive as unpleasant,
Even negative.
Give them a simple label of a weed.
And then there are others that you may find pleasant and happy.
And you label those as seeds.
It may happen that your mind will try to create a story around each weed or seed.
And that's to be expected.
But every time it happens,
You simply bring yourself back to the present moment.
Anchoring your attention in the center of your chest where you can rest and rejuvenate.
And as you rest in the center of your being,
Breathing in and out,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations come to your awareness to interact,
To play.
And in that moment,
You simply engage your mind and give them a label,
Seed or weed.
And whichever way this is,
It is okay.
Every garden has both beautiful flowers and weeds among them.
And it is up to you to focus your attention on the beauty of the garden or on the worries and troubles.
So the journey continues across your mental landscape,
Where you notice the beautiful seeds and also the weeds,
Mentally noting each and every of them without getting too attached.
In between,
You rest in the center of your heart,
Breathing in and out,
Resting in pure awareness,
Enjoying the present moment.
I'll let you practice now on your own for a couple of minutes.
As I'm holding the space for you,
Being by your side at all times.
And now it's time to return.
Re-direct your awareness to the room around you.
Start engaging your physical senses.
Once again,
Feel your feet resting on the floor.
Feel your hands.
Bring to your awareness any external sounds.
Notice the music in the background.
And now add some physical movement.
Wiggle your toes.
Move and stretch your fingers.
Gently and slowly tilt your head to the left.
Feeling muscles of your neck stretching.
Tilt your head to the right.
Feeling the muscles on the other side of the neck.
Bring it back to the center.
And take one deep cleansing breath in through your nose.
Hold in and out through your mouth.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes and welcome back.
I hope you enjoyed this journey across your mental landscape,
Watching both seeds and weeds that come to your awareness.
This is something that you can do also outside of the meditation space.
And introduce mental noting to your daily routine.
Every time you find yourself upset,
Simply notice what is happening inside of your body.
Thank you very much for meditating with me and all the other meditators.
Thank you for co-creating this space.
I look forward to meditating with you next time.
