Hello there,
This is Moira.
This guided meditation is intended to help you let go of what is no longer serving you.
And so to begin,
Make sure your body is as comfortable as it can be,
As comfortable as possible,
Either sitting,
Sitting in a chair or on the floor,
Or lying down.
And just allow your breathing to go deep and soft as you allow the weight of your body to settle down toward the earth.
Taking a few deep breaths and letting go just a wee bit more on each out-breath.
Breathing deeply.
And then just allow your breathing to settle and find its own natural rhythm.
Letting your breath breathe itself.
Just notice how your body moves in response to your breath.
Your chest expanding and relaxing.
Your belly rising and falling.
If your breath is affected in any way by any tightness or tension,
Just notice this with a kind,
Gentle awareness.
Try to let go of any ideas about how you think it should be and just rest here.
Rest here with an awareness of how things actually are for you in each moment.
I invite you to imagine a wave flowing up the beach,
Turning and then flowing gently back out to the sea again.
Noticing how the movement of the breath has a rhythm very much like this.
Or you might conjure up another image that you find calming and soothing.
Use your imagination in your own way to help your mind and your body settle around the breath.
Notice how each breath is unique.
How no two breaths are the same.
Notice the texture,
The quality and the duration of each breath.
If you notice your body or your mind tensing up around your experience,
In that noticing you can gently let go again without judgement.
Do this over and over again if needed with a loving,
Gentle awareness.
Need any pain or discomfort in your body within your broad feel of awareness.
Often times we resist feelings of pain or discomfort.
This just leads to more tension,
More tightness,
More pain and more discomfort.
Use your breath to help soften the hard edges around the discomfort.
And invite in a tender,
Gentle awareness to permeate the in and the out breaths.
As you use the breath to soften resistance to the tension or discomfort,
You may notice how the experience of discomfort is in fact a constantly changing mass of different sensations.
This experience comes into being and passes away moment by moment.
Now you can broaden out your experience even more,
Just inviting in the pleasurable dimensions of your feel of awareness.
May be very subtle,
May be something like a slight tingling in your fingers,
Some sort of pleasing sensation around your breath,
May be the sun shining through the window onto your skin.
Just in your own way scanning through your whole experience and noticing the little moments of pleasure,
The little moments of bliss.
No matter how fleeting,
Just arising and falling with each moment.
You may notice that each moment of life contains elements that are uncomfortable and elements which are pleasurable.
This is the way things are in this world for everyone.
Notice the tendency to harden against discomfort and to grasp towards pleasure and in that noticing relax back into the broad field of awareness.
Help yourself.
Now broaden out your awareness still,
Even more,
To include an awareness of others.
Become aware that all humanity experiences a mixture of pain and pleasure,
Moment by moment,
In much of the way you do.
The stories of our lives are unique,
But the range of basic human experience and emotions will be very similar.
We all have hopes and dreams,
Fears and regrets,
No matter where we live,
How old we are,
The colour of our skin or our wealth.
In this way we can allow our own experience of pain,
Discomfort or illness to become a moment of empathy for others who may be in pain or who are ill,
Rather than a moment of isolation.
All life suffers in one way or another.
All life experiences pleasure in one way or another.
In the same way that you infused your breath with a kindly awareness toward your own experience,
You can now allow a kindly loving awareness to permeate the in and the out breaths as you think of others.
Maybe you can get a sense of the whole world breathing,
All of life breathing like waves on the ocean,
Rising and falling.
Allowing a sense of the hard edges of separation to soften.
Letting go into a sense of all that we share and a feeling of connection with all life as you sit or lie here,
Resting quietly with your breath,
Moment by moment.
Just rest and be with this quality of awareness for as long as it feels best for you at this point.
Thank you.
And now in your own time,
Bringing this meditation to a close.
Gently coming back to a full awareness of your body lying on your bed or on the floor or sitting on a chair.
Feel in firm contact with the earth.
Tune into the movement of your breath in your body and gradually bringing your awareness back to where you are.
Maybe you can wiggle your fingers and toes a little,
Grounding yourself into this present moment.
When you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes,
Taking in your surroundings,
Re-engaging with your day.
And see if you can take the quality of awareness that you generated in this meditation practice with you into your life as it unfolds moment by moment.
