Hello and welcome to Brain Break,
Yoga Sangha's special class series,
Guided meditation for beginners.
As you begin to start your own meditation practice,
You want to be comfortable sitting in an upright position.
So go ahead and sit on a chair with a backrest,
But making sure that you are able to keep your spine nice and tall.
Or maybe have a meditation pillow and sit on the floor against a wall,
Or maybe as you prepare for sleep,
You may sit comfortably on your bed.
Set the mood of your practice,
Maybe dimming the lights,
Or having a nice soothing scent in your room like your favorite essential oil.
Whatever you need to do to create your sacred space whenever we practice together.
And once you've settled,
Allow the hands to gently rest on top of your knees.
Just allow your entire arms to relax so your shoulders can relax without hunching over.
Keep your heart center lifted towards the sky throughout your practice.
Together let's take a deep belly breath in,
Pulling the air towards the bottom of our belly.
And slow deep breath out,
Releasing the air out to the ether.
And it helps to feel the breath using sensations of the body.
So let's try that.
Take a deep breath again,
Maybe this time we expand the sides of our rib cage while inflating the belly.
And at the top of that inhalation,
Gently release the breath out.
And feeling the sides of our body hug back into our center point towards our spine.
Take a long inhalation,
Fill the belly and expand the sides of the body.
And maybe take one last sip of air at the very top to fill out your lungs as the chest expands up.
Then holding the breath,
Keeping the shoulders relaxed.
Then very slowly exhaling the air in one smooth flow of out breath,
Emptying everything out.
Let's do that again,
But this time visualizing the breath.
So take a long slow inhalation as you see the air moving in,
Transforming to become your breath.
Take your time to fill yourself up with this life force we call prana.
Then at the top,
Hold the breath for a moment so that the prana circulates around your body.
And slowly releasing that pranic energy outwards.
Inhale again,
This time imagine the line of your breath like you're sipping air through the nose.
Take your time with equal lengths in your breathing.
At the very top of your breath,
Pause there.
And exhale as you imagine that line of breath as if blowing through a straw,
Equal lengths of your out breath as with your in breath.
And just relax as you continue to watch and notice the breath.
Whether it's feeling the breath through body sensations or visualizing that life force moving in and out of your body.
Now start to imagine yourself sitting in an empty room.
Maybe a few decorations and things here and there just to give the room some life.
The room is your mind and you are sitting there in the middle of that room as a witness or an observer.
Now imagine these random thoughts you have as visitors in that room.
They enter your mind,
Enter the room.
Maybe move things around,
Adding things,
Taking away things.
And then they leave.
If you find yourself getting distracted by them,
Simply come back to your breath.
Remembering that the breath is our anchor into the present moment.
Create your thoughts as visitors in the room,
Noticing them,
Observing,
But not engaging with them.
And this is how we become aware of the thought patterns that we have.
Multiple thoughts come in every minute in that room of your mind and you see yourself just sitting there at the center of it all in stillness.
And you have the ability whether you want to engage with these thoughts,
To interact with the guests or just allow yourself to simply sit back and watch them move about the room until they finally leave.
So just observe these visitors arising and passing through the room of your mind.
Notice if they are bringing new things into your room to add to the clutter.
Or maybe you allow them to take things out of that room so you can breathe more easily and watch yourself engaging in conversation with these guests.
And once you become aware,
That is then the aha moment of the practice where you are able to notice that you have wandered off so you can invite yourself back into sitting in the room once again and quietly being a witness and an observer to your thoughts.
The practice of meditation is to allow your mind to breathe,
To become still so that you can tap into the creativity and intuition deep within you.
Keep watching.
Keep noticing.
Be still at that center of your room as you watch these visitors move in and out.
The goal is not to remove all the visitors from the room but to acknowledge that they are there.
Notice them and allow them to sometimes talk to you without them pulling you into a lengthy conversation.
Be still.
Slowly coming back to the sensations of your body.
Feeling the weight of your hands on your knees.
Feeling the wall or your backrest.
Moving your tongue around your mouth to wake up your taste sensations.
Taking a deep breath in once again and pause at the very top.
Then slowly exhale out with even breaths.
Thank you for taking a journey with me as we navigate through our mind with a breath.
You may gently blink the eyes open as you look around your physical room mirroring that you were just there sitting at a corner in stillness.
Thank you for joining and sharing your brain break practice with me.
You are all set to close your day and that you have a good night's rest.
In light and love,
My soul honors your soul.
Namaste.
