Hello and welcome back to the fundamentals of meditation.
And I want to start with a quote from a meditation teacher that I learned from when I was younger.
And he said,
I have lived with many Zen masters,
All of them cats.
When we look at nature,
Whether it's a cat or another animal or a tree,
We see something that they have that we don't.
Which is the ability to just always be in this moment.
Now we have an ability that they don't have,
Which is the ability to project into the future.
Which for many of us is a double edged sword.
It helps us create our lives and plan and focus.
But it also creates stress and anxiety,
Worry and rumination.
So today I want to introduce another portal,
If you will,
Into the moment and out of the past and the future.
Which is the portal of the physical body.
Because our bodies cannot be in the past or in the future.
They anchor us into this moment.
And no matter how far away we go,
If I pinch you,
You'll come right back into this moment.
But more seriously,
Sometimes life pinches us.
Things will happen in our personal lives that will pull us out of the future and the past.
And sometimes those moments can be painful.
And sometimes they can be beautiful.
But in meditation,
We voluntarily draw our attention back into this moment.
And today we're going to do it by focusing on the sensations and the awareness of the body.
There's a joke,
If you want to be somebody,
You have to have a body.
So no disincarnated spirits in this meditation.
Go ahead and close your eyes.
Start to relax,
You made it.
Thank you for sitting with me.
And recognize you don't have to be in a monastery in the Himalayas or in the perfect lotus posture or anything like that.
Wherever you are is just right.
Take a nice soft breath in.
And a nice easy sigh out.
Relax those shoulders.
Relax any tension in your jaw.
Relax any tension behind your knees or in your hands or feet.
Or anywhere else you notice tension inside your body.
Often we hold energy and emotion in different pockets around our bodies.
So if you notice some of those pockets of tension,
You can just lightly touch your awareness to those places.
Without any judgment.
Just a nice calm quality of acceptance.
With almost a softness.
And then just start to notice your entire body.
This beautiful biological construct that houses your awareness.
Allow yourself to feel its shape.
Feel its mass.
Feel its energy.
Your body just like everything else that exists is made of energy.
Notice what it's like to just be present inside your body.
Your awareness extending down through your arms into your hands.
Down through your throat into your chest and back.
Down through the trunk of your body.
Notice your awareness from your head down all the way into your abdomen and waist.
Notice your awareness extending down through your waist,
Through your legs,
To your knees.
Down to your ankles and your feet.
Notice what it's like to feel your body from your head to your toes and from your toes up to your head.
Take a nice big deep breath in.
Nice sigh out as you recognize that your body is what anchors you into this moment.
When you're ready you can open your eyes,
Start to stretch.
Thank you so much for sitting with me again and I look forward to seeing you in the next meditation.
Take care.
