Make yourself comfortable and at ease.
For me,
It's usually putting hands in my lap,
Resting my feet on the floor,
My back upright but not rigid,
Allowing you to stay relaxed but alert.
You are about to embark upon a journey,
Begin an exploration of the spaciousness that lies beyond physical senses,
Beyond thoughts,
And I hope that the music that you are hearing is conducive to that process.
It creates a background for exploration but does not steal your attention.
And let us begin by the method that you may already know called heart-centered breathing.
We center our breath in the middle of our chest,
On our hearts,
So we ground ourselves not in the thoughts that come from the mind,
From your brain,
But we center ourselves into heart space,
Connecting with heartfelt feelings of inner senses.
So when you bring your attention to your breath and notice the in and out,
The sine wave that defines this exploration are periods of awareness and periods when we lose awareness and then you come back.
We explore the space between the stimulus and response by breathing in and out through your heart,
You send a powerful message to your nervous system.
The message being,
Everything is alright,
I'm okay.
And in this way,
Your nervous system comes into the state of coherence,
It relaxes so to speak,
But relaxes only from the customary thought processes,
From the customary overwhelm.
It still functions beautifully for your benefit,
Allowing you to fully experience the now,
This presence,
This space between stimulus and response.
And when you get a bit familiar with this natural rhythm of the breath and breathing in and out through your heart,
You may intentionally slow it down a bit.
For me,
Counting to five on in-breath and out-breath helps to set the rhythm to our exploration to slow down a bit from the normal state of being or move from the state of doing into the state of being,
If you will.
So in 2,
3,
4,
5 and out 2,
3,
4,
5.
That's about five breaths per minute,
Maybe a bit of less.
And in this way,
You can drop in really deeply,
Slowing down the thought processes,
Slowing down your physiological functions that normally can be faster.
But since our exploration is mostly internal,
You don't need those physiological functions at 100%.
And after a minute or two,
You may notice that there's a subtle change,
A sense of softness,
Spaciousness.
And now when a thought appears in that space,
You may notice that you are no longer fully identified with it,
But it may seem as if it comes to you and you can decide your response.
Thought being the stimulus and how you deal with it being your response.
And you can do it because you created space,
Because you slowed down.
And it is okay to remain in this space in moments when there are no thoughts,
There's just openness,
Just spaciousness.
And now it is time to return.
Express your gratitude for this experience,
For the time you spend with yourself exploring.
Create a mental note of any point of interest that you stumble upon.
You may return to this space another time and continue your exploration.
But right now,
Begin reconnecting with your physical senses,
Moving away from the inner to the outer space defined by your five physical senses.
And for me,
The easiest way to do it is by connecting and recognizing the boundaries of my physical body and the fact that there's a space around me.
Also you can feel your feet on the floor,
Your hands in your lap,
Your sit bones on the chair or sofa or meditation cushion and connect with that experience.
Then add slow and gentle physical movement,
Starting with your toes,
Gently moving your fingers.
Very slowly and gently tilt your head to the left,
Feeling muscles in your neck stretching.
Tilt your head to the right,
Feeling muscles on the opposite side of your neck.
Bring your head back to the center and finish up with one deep cleansing breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes and welcome back.
