Simple Counting Meditation

This is a simple grounding meditation. We count our inhales and exhales while sinking below the waves of our minds to a calmer place inside of us. Enjoy 20 peaceful minutes, just you, your awareness, and your breath.

Transcript

Welcome.

Today we're going to do a very simple meditation.

We're going to count our breath.

And this is a variation on a Buddhist breathing technique and meditation technique.

Basically what we're going to do is we're going to keep our mind busy as we try to sink into a more meditative state.

So get ready.

Make sure that you can sit comfortably on a chair,

On a meditation cushion,

On a couch,

Whatever feels good.

Check your posture.

Maybe move around a little bit.

Make sure that you sit on two sit bones.

Maybe you like to roll the shoulders back and down a bit and then settle in.

The soft gaze in front of you or you can close your eyes if that feels good,

Turning your awareness inward.

And start to follow the breath into the body.

Follow your inhalation and your exhalation.

It's like you're receiving the breath effortlessly.

The breath just comes and goes,

Comes and goes at a natural pace.

It's different every day.

So take a moment to observe the breath.

Noticing the temperature of your breath,

The pace of your breath and where your breath is going in your body.

Maybe you can feel the heart rising and falling with the breath or your chest.

Maybe you can feel the belly moving a bit or other parts of your body moving effortlessly with your breath as you bring your awareness more inward.

Take a moment to connect to your physical body and consciously feel the sit bones pressing into your yoga mat or cushion or chair.

Feel the connection of your feet or parts of your legs with the floor.

And bring your awareness in your spine and all the way down your spine and exhale.

Let all the old air go and on an inhale,

Take a deep breath and lengthen the spine a bit.

Crown of your head closer to the sky as you exhale relax your shoulders and your arms and your body.

Let's do that again.

Exhale first with all the old energy go and then take a deep breath in lengthening the spine crown of your head closer to the sky and then letting go.

One more time exhale everything deep inhale lengthening the spine and exhale relax your face your neck your shoulders your arms and your fingers and turn your awareness more and more inward.

We're going to do our counting meditation technique.

So what we're going to do is we're going to keep observing the breath and taking a long gentle inhale and a long gentle exhale and count one and a long inhale and a long relaxing exhale and count two and another inhale and another exhale.

You count three and keep going at your own rhythm of breath until you reach ten and then you start again.

So your awareness is with the breath and with the counting.

Are we giving our mind something to do?

And from there we will find the stillness to sink deeper and deeper into a meditative state.

So there's your long and gentle inhale your long and gentle exhale and you take a moment to do your counting.

Take a few minutes to practice this and every time you reach ten you start again.

And it's quite good possible that at some point you hear yourself counting twenty three and that means that you somehow drifted off.

No problem if it happens you just go back to one.

And a peaceful rhythm here for the breathing and for your counting.

One part of you is sitting here and doing the counting and the breathing and another part is observing.

Observing yourself with love and appreciation.

Your body and your mind and your emotional body they will give you other information so don't be surprised if other thoughts and feelings come up while you do the counting.

And we acknowledge everything that comes up you become aware of it and then we breathe it out.

So if a feeling comes up or if an old memory comes up don't make a story out of this or make an internal video of it.

You just breathe out what comes up while you welcome and acknowledge any thought or feeling we're not holding on to it.

And this way we will be able to sink deeper and deeper below the waves of the mind while we're breathing and counting.

We're going to stay here breathing and counting for the next five minutes.

We're going to stay here breathing and counting.

We're going to stay here breathing and counting.

Long gentle in breaths.

Long slow out breaths and then the counting.

Training your ability to be fully aware to go back to one after you have reached number ten training your ability to be fully present in this meditation and of course also in daily life.

And if a feeling comes up you become aware of it you could say in your inside of yourself oh that's a feeling and breathe it out and let it go.

Or if a thought comes up instead of creating a story about the content of your thought you could say hey that's a thought and then you breathe it out.

Or if a sensation in your body comes up you could just label it and say hey that's a sensation in my body and then you breathe it out and keep counting for one more minute.

One more.

Cloudy,

Hitting the sky This is all you need foritta around until you reach 10 and then let go of your focus.

Allow the mind to go wherever it wants to go.

Allow any sensation to make itself known,

Any emotion,

Any feeling and just observe.

As the breathing becomes calmer,

Probably your mind will slow down as well.

Try to push it,

Allow it to happen.

Observing anything that comes up with a little bit of a distance and a curious mind.

Allowing yourself to sink through all the layers around your inner light or your inner self until you've made the connection with your inner self or your inner light and possibly enjoying sensations of peacefulness and quietness.

Just hanging out with your soul really.

Let's stay here for another 5 minutes in all quietness.

Your breath slow and steady.

Your mind calmer and calmer as you sink deeper and deeper through all the layers around your inner self.

When everything becomes quiet,

It is easier to listen to messages.

From your inner self or from the universe or both.

So observe what comes up for you in your quiet zone as you sit here in silence,

The body relaxed,

The mind calm,

The breath natural,

Your inner light at ease.

Let's stay here for another 5 minutes.

Let's stay here for another 5 minutes.

Let's stay here for another 5 minutes.

Bringing the awareness back to your breath and just follow your inhalation and your exhalation.

Let's take a few deep breaths together.

Exhale first and take a deep breath into the belly,

The ribcage and the chest.

Lengthen the spine.

Exhale everything in the molecular body.

Let's do that again.

Deep breath in,

Belly,

Ribcage and chest.

Let go.

One more deep breath in and relax.

Go back to your natural breathing.

Maybe you like to wiggle your fingers a bit,

Moving your fingers and your hands.

Maybe moving your toes a bit.

If you want,

On an inhale you can circle the arms up and grab the right wrist with your left hand and then stretch out a little bit to the left as you exhale.

Inhale,

Arms up,

Reaching for the sky,

Grabbing the left wrist and then exhale,

Leaning to the right side.

Take a nice side stretch here and coming back into your body.

Inhale,

Lift the arms up and exhale,

Arms down.

Maybe it is really nice to slowly open your eyes,

Bring the legs in front of you,

Just roll the legs a little bit.

And then take a moment before you step into the rest of your day to reflect on this meditation.

And if there is any idea or thought that you like to take with you into your day,

Maybe you like to write your experiences down.

Maybe you like to observe how you feel or set an intention for the rest of your day.

Take a moment to do that and then thank yourself for taking the time to spend some time with yourself in stillness and doing your counting meditation.

Thank you so much for practicing together and Namaste.

Have a beautiful day.

Reviews

Excellent! I will definitely be repeating this one!