Choose A Mantra

Mantra can be a powerful focus for meditation. Because we repeat something over and over it gives the busy mind something to focus on while the rest of us can take time out. It will effectively take us away from that worrying thought because of this strong focus. Choose a mantra word that feels right for you. Feel into the word, how does it feel? Does it feel right for you in this moment? If not, pick another. You can even change halfway through if you like.

Photo by Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

Transcript

Let's make ourselves comfortable then.

Planting our feet on the floor,

Allowing our body to expand a little bit as we inhale and as we exhale we can soften a little bit.

Let's see if we can get a balance between alert and relaxed,

A little bit of both.

Let's become aware of our body.

Make sure it's all comfortable.

We'll take a few deeper breaths as we become settled.

And you may notice yourself relaxing a little further as we set aside the demands of the day and take our focus inwards for a few moments.

Just being with the breath for a few moments.

Without disturbing ourselves too much we're going to consider the mantra we would like to use today.

And it might be that something that's appropriate for us might float up out of this relaxed state.

Or we might choose to consider in a relaxed fashion what we would like to bring into this present moment.

Maybe peace or love,

Joy,

Trust or gratitude.

Make it something in the affirmative so we're not using a not statement.

And when we think there might be something that we want to choose let's try it out and see how it feels for us.

So let's do that now.

Inhaling with our mantra word,

Exhaling with our mantra word.

Does it feel appropriate?

I can always change it.

So assuming we found something that feels right for us we'll take five minutes with our mantra so we'll say the word silently to ourselves on our in-breath and we'll say the word silently to ourselves on our out-breath and I will mind the time for you and if your mind wanders it's completely fine we just return to the mantra as soon as we've noticed that's our focus.

So please when you're ready let the breath flow comfortably and naturally and the mantra will float on the breath in your own time.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

Inhale.

It's time to release the mantra.

Resting for a few moments quietly with our breath and our body and checking in to see how we feel after our mantra practice.

And gradually we can start to return to our regular waking consciousness.

We can take a few energizing breaths start to move our fingers and toes start to move our whole body and when we're ready we can come back to our regular waking state.

Thank you for practicing with me.