Hello and welcome to the session,
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep,
Slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
As the sound of the bells recede,
Just inviting you to bring your attention to the breath without changing it in any way.
Notice how it feels as it comes into the body,
Perhaps in your mind's eye,
Attaching a colour to it,
A colour that symbolises peace and presence,
By breathing in that colour,
And on the out breath,
Breathing out a colour that symbolises stress,
Attention,
And just in your mind's eye,
Continuing to breathe in that cool colour of calmness and presence,
And breathing out the colour of tension and worry and stress.
As you're breathing in,
See that colour go right throughout your body,
Right even down into your toes,
Visualise the tension,
The colour coming out through your body,
With each out breath,
We're breathing in calmness and presence,
We're breathing out tension and mind-wandering and worry and stress,
And just allowing your attention to focus on what you can feel,
Perhaps you might feel your feet in your shoes,
And just notice where there's any tightness,
Where there's support,
Perhaps allowing your mind to wander to how your hands feel as they rest,
Noticing how your shoulders feel,
And if there's any tension,
Just breathing into that space and releasing it,
Just allowing those shoulders to just be,
Noticing if your mind wanders,
Just gently escort it back to focusing on what you can feel,
Perhaps you might notice the softness of the couch or the chair you're sitting on,
And where you can feel the support in your body,
And allowing your attention to focus on what you can hear,
Notice what the mind has to say,
Notice the small sounds,
Notice the absence of sound,
And even though your eyes are closed,
Bringing your attention to what there is to see,
Perhaps it's colour,
Perhaps there's shadows,
As you continue to breathe,
You're breathing in the cool,
Calm colour of presence,
And breathing out any stress and tension,
And allowing your attention now to focus on the sensations in your nose,
Perhaps noticing the temperature of the air as you breathe in,
And as you breathe out,
And perhaps noticing what there is to smell,
Just allowing our mind to just rest here,
And noticing the quality of now,
On each breath of now,
Notice the qualities,
And noticing if the mind has wandered,
Just escorting it back,
And allowing your attention now to float onto noticing your jaw,
How your tongue is resting,
Is there any tension,
And just releasing any tension or pressure that may be held in the jaw,
And noticing if there's any taste,
Or the absence of taste,
Just noticing what's present,
Just allowing your whole body to be present,
And allowing your mind to be here with your body,
Fully present,
In this moment,
Noticing the quality of being fully present,
Right here,
In this moment,
The only thing there ever is,
Notice if your mind runs back to sometime earlier today,
Just escorting it back to now,
Notice if your mind,
If you can feel the impulse,
Or the desire to run forward to some future point,
That doesn't exist right now,
Just gently escort it back,
And allow yourself to be here,
As you continue to breathe in the color of calmness,
And presence,
And breathing out the color of tension,
And anxiety,
Just noticing all of the senses,
Notice the aliveness,
Continuing to focus on the breath,
Together,
As we listen to the chimes,
And just gently opening our eyes at the end of the third chime,
Well done,
Thank you for practicing with me today.
