Welcome to a simple mantra meditation practice.
In this practice,
You will be introduced to a simple mantra from the yoga tradition that has been used for thousands of years to help people calm the mind and relax the body and become more centered,
Grounded,
And relaxed.
This is an easy practice that once you get the hang of it,
It's something that you can do on your own.
And all it takes is finding a comfortable place where you can sit either in a chair or on a cushion on the floor and be undisturbed for 10 minutes or so.
So find a comfortable seated position and gently close the eyes.
And we'll begin by just bringing our awareness to the breath.
Feel your breath flowing in and out.
In and out.
Just allowing a couple rounds of clearing cleansing breath to wash over you.
Then following an exhalation to the end,
Feel your body releasing into the support of your chair or your cushion,
The earth beneath you.
And as you inhale,
Take your awareness up through the central channel of your body following the spine up to the crown of the head.
And then as you exhale,
Softening into this space,
Your body space between sky above you and earth below you,
Let yourself soften into your chair or cushion and relax your body as much as possible.
And beginning first,
Just allowing your awareness to rest with the breath,
Noticing and feeling the breath as it flows in and out.
In and out.
And noticing how the breath in and of itself is an invitation to bring your awareness inward.
And you can notice how the breath in and of itself can help ground and center you.
And now we'll invite an additional tool to our meditation practice,
The tool of mantra.
Mantra is simply a tool for the mind.
And it has been used in many different lineages to allow the mind a place to rest and to guide the mind inward.
So the meditation mantra that we're going to use is hum sa,
Hum,
H-A-M,
Sa,
S-A.
And this is a mantra that you can use along with your breath.
So as you exhale completely,
Just allowing the sound hum,
H-A-M,
To accompany the inhalation and the sound sa to accompany the exhalation.
And as we continue,
Rather than saying the mantra aloud,
You're simply going to just hear the mantra on the inside,
The internal sound of hum.
As you inhale and the soft sound of sa as you exhale.
This can be a soothing sound,
Almost like a soothing sound of the breath itself.
Almost like the sound of ocean waves.
And this mental repetition of the mantra is not a repetition where you use your tongue or lips or mouth.
But it's simply like a pulsation,
A vibratory sound you hear on the inside.
Hum as you inhale,
Sa as you exhale.
And as you continue this way with hum and sa,
Just noticing how the mantra is almost like a spaceship or a vehicle taking you inside your interior space.
So often in life,
Our awareness moves to the outside via our senses through seeing,
Hearing,
Touching,
Smelling and tasting.
And in this meditation,
Instead,
We invite awareness to move inside,
Giving it the tool of mantra.
So as you continue,
You're simply going to mentally repeat the mantra on the inside at an easy,
Comfortable cadence that feels natural and good to you.
And as you do this,
You may find that other thoughts may arise.
Sensations may arise.
Feelings may arise.
And you don't need to worry about any of this.
You don't need to stamp them out.
You may just notice them and keep coming back to the thought of the mantra.
This internal sound hum and sa.
Try that for yourself.
Just taking a few breath cycles with the mantra.
Notice where you might soften just a little bit to be even more cooperating with this process of moving inward.
And you may also even just very gently bring awareness to the space of your heart.
The center of your chest.
And just imagining that the mantra itself were vibrating or pulsating right out of that place.
Hum and sa.
And continuing for a few minutes more in silence.
Okay.
And now just bringing your awareness back to the breath.
Invite a deeper inhalation now.
And exhale completely.
Inviting another deep inhalation.
And as you exhale,
Letting go of the thought of the mantra.
Just bringing your awareness back to your natural breath.
And take a moment just to observe and fill into the state of your body and your mind.
Over time,
This practice can generate a profound feeling of calm and well-being in the body.
As you feel ready,
You can just begin to wiggle your fingers and toes just a little bit,
Bringing gentle movement into the body.
And it's always nice to transition slowly from meditation.
So take a moment to feel again your body,
Wherever it's seated,
On a chair or on the floor.
Bringing your awareness back to the room that you're in.
And as you're ready,
You can just slowly blink your eyes open.
And take a moment just to feel gratitude for the time that you gave to yourself for doing this practice.
I hope that it was helpful for you.
Thanks for tuning in.
