Finding a comfortable spot to arrive in a seat for meditation.
If it's helpful to elevate your hips slightly above your knees either by sitting on a blanket or a block,
If you have a meditation cushion,
Setting the intention to remain focused and present with our breath.
I'd like for us to touch on the sensations that we experience along our spine as we breathe with an abdominal breath,
Letting your tongue gently rest along the top row of your teeth,
Your hands gently gathered in your lap,
Softening up through your wrists,
Your fingers,
Around the corners of your eyes,
Drawing some smooth and elongated breaths in through your nose and exhale.
Continue in this way,
Following the gentle rhythm of your breath,
Allowing yourself to feel as if you were lifting just slightly,
Shoulders away from your hips as you breathe in.
Nice,
Calm and steady exhale,
Slight bow of your chin to your chest,
Sitting without the allowance of distraction or obligation to pull you away from this opportunity to reconnect with your breath.
Continuing to gently soften your belly as you inhale,
Exhale fully and completely and then start to drop in a bit further,
Checking back in with how soft you feel through the connection of your hands,
Your fingers,
Checking in with your support here,
Whether it's the elevation under your tailbone and maybe the relaxed jaw that you have here,
Staying committed to remaining here for just a few minutes longer.
I'll work with a really subtle heart connection breath and seeing if we can start to open up some of the space between the vertebrae that nestle along where our heart is within our ribs,
So the connections of our shoulder blades along the sides of our spine as we inhale,
Making space,
Lungs filling up,
Ribs lifting.
Exhale,
Everything getting softer,
Mouth,
Eyes,
Eyebrows,
Feeling your forehead smoothing and your goal for these next ten breaths,
These smooth and soft and uninterrupted breaths,
Is to stay with whatever sensations are arriving for you,
Doing your best to visualize the space that you're making for a deeper breath,
Lengthening out through your spine,
So starting with this next deep breath in,
Belly soft,
Exhaling,
Maybe to the count of eight,
Ten,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten.
And without trying to anticipate the next breath or worry,
Just savor each and every connection here Each and every time you reconnect with your breathing,
Find the seed and commit to your meditation practice.
All you're doing is following the sensations of your breath as you inhale through your nose.
And exhale through your nose.
If you're keeping your eyes closed,
Just a soft inward gaze.
If you're keeping your eyes open,
Try to focus on a single spot on the floor,
A slight bow.
Of your head down and forward,
So thinking about your neck as this beautiful continuation of your spine,
Everything growing longer through the crown of your head.
And as you continue to practice,
You can develop your own method of counting and measuring time.
If you're working your way up to the full minute breath cycle,
Or five breaths,
Denote a minute of time.
You're smoothing each and every count.
Your inhales for eight counts in,
Eight to 10 counts back out.
Another option is to breathe in for eight counts,
Hold for two,
Exhale for 10 counts.
And working with that rhythm,
Allowing yourself to just fade with it.
As everything gets softer,
You're just dissolving into breath sensations,
Deepening your sense of self awareness.
And when you're ready to return from your seated meditation,
Bringing your hands together in front of your heart,
Pressing your thumb knuckles to your heart and just sense your heart beat there for a moment or two.
Notice it's strong and steady rhythm,
Just staying with that sense of purpose and inhabiting your body with a little more resilience.
And deep peace to each and every one of you.
Namaste.
