This will be a very simple and sweet meditation to help us connect to this present moment and the calm and peacefulness that always resides inside.
So get into a comfortable seat,
Lengthen your spine,
Relax your shoulders and if you'd like you can close your eyes.
Take a long deep breath in and gently release it out,
Allowing your shoulders to soften.
Again in your own time take a long slow breath in,
Smoothly let it go as tension releases from your body and your mind.
And now allow the breath just to return to a natural pace and simply observe it.
Notice how it feels in your body,
Where you feel the breath in your body.
It might be at the tip of the nose where you feel the air coming in a little cooler and a little warmer as it moves out.
It might be in the expansion of the chest or the abdomen as it moves in and the softening in the torso as it moves out.
And wherever you can feel the breath in your body most easily just allow your awareness to rest there and observe,
Experiencing the ebb and flow of the breath.
Rein and scale.
And now I'd like to introduce a very simple mantra.
A mantra is a mind vehicle which will take us deeper into the peacefulness that resides inside.
So as you breathe in,
Just silently say to yourself,
I'm breathing in.
And as you breathe out,
Silently repeat,
I'm breathing out.
I'm breathing in on the inhale.
I'm breathing out as you exhale.
And as you continue to silently repeat the mantra,
Now I'd like you to drop the word I'm and the idea of separateness,
Of ego and of self.
And simply repeat silently to yourself,
Breathing in as you inhale.
Breathing out as you exhale.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Allow the body to do the breathing for you without any control or effort.
And now I'd like you to let go of the word breathing and silently repeat the word in as you inhale,
Out as you exhale.
In,
Out.
Guys.
Wait for me!
Now I'd like you to bring your awareness.
To the space between the words and between the breaths.
There's a natural pause.
A little bit of space that you can imagine that you're just sort of floating in that space between.
And as you allow the body to be in the space between the words and the breaths.
Allow the body to do the breathing for you.
Just notice if there's a fullness,
A vastness,
A spaciousness in the space between the breaths or between the words.
Or perhaps even an emptiness,
A silence,
A quiet space.
And without trying to necessarily extend or lengthen that space between,
Just allow it to come to you naturally.
Whether it's long or short,
It doesn't matter.
Just simply experience it.
Make space for it.
Allow it to be whatever it is.
And at any point in this meditation,
Feel free to let go of the mantra,
Let go of the words.
When your mind pulls you into other thoughts or sensations,
Then just bring the words back to come back to this present moment awareness.
And again at any point,
Let them go.
And simply observe that space between the thoughts,
That space between the breaths,
However slight,
However long.
.
.
In that space,
That vastness,
That fullness,
That emptiness,
There's peace.
There's a connection to our true selves,
An interconnectedness that we can access to all other beings on this planet.
Knowing that even if you touch into that spaciousness for even a moment,
You bring a little bit more healing,
A little bit more love and peace and light into yourself.
And as a result,
Into the whole world.
So as you sit here quietly,
Just take a moment to observe,
Observe how you feel in your body,
In your mind.
Maybe a little more peaceful,
Maybe a little softer,
Maybe a little bit more present,
Maybe a little more connected to yourself and others.
To close out today's meditation,
Let's take a moment just to be grateful for this time that we took for ourselves to connect to that place of inner peace and stillness and quiet,
To bring a little bit more healing into the world.
So with gratitude in mind,
Take a full breath in and let gratitude fill you.
And as you release the breath,
Allow yourself to soften and come back into this moment.
And maybe you can carry some of that peace and some of that gratitude with you into your day and into your life.
And grateful for this time that we have together.
Namaste.
