Welcome.
Allow yourself to get comfortable,
Whether you're seated or lying down,
And allow your shoulders to just rest.
Shoulders melting down the arms and the back.
Arms resting wherever they feel comfortable,
And allowing your eyes to close or just soften your gaze.
I want you to now bring awareness to your breath,
Just the way you're breathing normally.
Very good.
Concentrating on the breath for a bit to focus our mind,
Following the flow of the in-breath in through the nose.
Watch the air go down your throat and expand your lungs.
And as you exhale out the mouth,
The air leaves the lungs,
Comes back up the throat and out the mouth.
Following the breath in and out,
Allowing this normal breathing pattern to anchor you in this present moment.
Noticing as you expand and contract as you breathe.
You can deepen your breath now,
Breathing in deeply through your nose,
Slowly.
Maybe you even hold your breath at the top and exhale out the mouth slowly.
Again,
Inhaling through the nose,
Holding your breath at the top,
And exhaling out the mouth.
Very good.
You can even practice a little bit of training the mind by attempting to count your inhales and exhales.
Trying to count to the number 10.
In for one,
Out for one.
In for two,
Out for two,
All the way to 10.
So you can try this now on your own.
Slow,
Deep breaths here.
Taking one final deep breath in and out.
Returning to normal breathing.
Very good.
Regardless of what number you were able to count up to,
You were practicing training the mind.
Our mind will always run away from us here and there,
And this mindfulness practice helps us notice that and non-judgmentally bring it back to whatever you were focusing on.
So there's really no right or wrong way to do this.
It's just a practice.
So take one final moment to just relax the shoulders,
Relax the muscles of the face and the jaw,
And just allow yourself to be alive,
Witnessing yourself just existing,
Not needing to do anything.
Very good.
Bringing one hand or two hands to the heart space,
Just feeling a bit of gratitude for showing up for yourself today.
This is such a gift to just be here with yourself,
Feeling gratitude for any people in your life,
Any places in your life,
Maybe your home or your work or nature,
A friend's house,
The library,
Wherever,
Coffee shop,
And feeling gratitude for anything in your life.
Maybe it's a pet or a book,
Music,
Anything that comes to mind.
And allow this gratitude to lift you up today.
Allow this gratitude to fill you with peace.
One final deep breath in here today,
And out.
Allow yourself to just softly awaken by wiggling your fingers and toes.
And if your eyes were closed,
You can slowly blink them open.
I'm so glad you were able to meditate with me today.
You're always welcome to come back.
Thank you for being here,
And have a good day.
