This is the just-as-we-are meditation.
We're meditating like the flow of the river.
We're practicing just accepting being who we are right now,
Whatever turns up.
So when we're practicing,
Simply acknowledging things as they are,
What's here in each present moment.
In this meditation,
We're flowing like a river,
Acknowledging the flow of our lives moment by moment.
We're not setting any goals for the practice,
Not striving for any outcome,
Any result.
We're just sitting,
Being with ourselves,
Just as we are.
So taking the posture,
Whatever feels most comfortable for you today.
You can do this practice lying down or sitting on a chair or even standing up.
If you're on a meditation cushion,
Just making sure that your hips are higher than the knees.
The spine is upright,
But not too upright,
Not too bent over,
Not too rounded.
Head is balancing at the top of the spine and the neck.
The arms are loose and comfortable.
The hands either cupped in your lap or resting on each knee.
I'm just inviting you to come to the breath,
Being with the breath as it is.
Come into a location where you might be feeling the breathing most comfortably and most vividly this morning.
Most clearly.
It could be,
For example,
At the top of the nose,
The nostrils.
Maybe in the belly,
The abdomen,
Where you can sense the abdomen moving,
Filling with air as you breathe in,
Emptying as you breathe out.
Maybe at the chest,
Where you experience the expansion and contraction of the ribcage,
The lungs.
Or it may be a combination of all of these,
The breath cycle,
The whole breath cycle,
As we breathe in and as we breathe out.
Wherever you've chosen,
Just staying with each breath as it is right now.
The natural breath,
The natural rhythm of the breath.
No need to change it or force it to be anything other than the way it is right now.
Just like the flow of a river,
Just flowing naturally.
The breath breathing itself.
Who is my breath right now?
I'm just acknowledging the breath as it is.
Just as it is.
And the mind will probably get carried away and busy and distracted.
Mind-wandering will happen.
That's a natural thing to happen.
So if you find yourself being carried away in a thought stream,
Just gently acknowledging this.
This is part of the meditation,
Realizing that you're distracted,
Carried away from the breath.
This is a moment of awareness,
A moment of mindfulness.
So just gently acknowledging this and coming back to the breath as the anchor.
There's no need to blame or criticize yourself or judge yourself about this.
There's no failures,
No rights or wrongs in this practice.
We are aware that the mind is wandering.
We acknowledge that.
We gently come back.
Now I'm just inviting you to take a deep in-breath,
A deep inhale.
And then a long exhale of letting go,
Softening.
And doing this again.
Deep in-breath,
Long exhale.
I'm turning your attention now to the body.
Just dropping the question to yourself,
How is my body right now?
Perhaps you're feeling some discomfort today or tension,
Tightness,
Perhaps a pain.
Or maybe there's ease and openness.
Maybe it's something else.
And seeing now if you can breathe into or along with any areas of discomfort or tightness,
Unease that might be here.
Just softly touching them with the breath.
Perhaps they may slightly untangle with the breath as we touch them.
And as you breathe inwards,
Just saying to yourself,
It's okay.
Just gently acknowledging what's here with your out-breath,
Just as I am.
It's okay,
Just as I am.
And now noticing the processes in the body,
Processes that are processing themselves.
The autonomous nervous system that we don't need to control.
Controls things like the breathing,
Heartbeat,
Blood flow,
The working of the organs and the internal systems.
All working,
All flowing of their own accord.
So noticing the natural flow of the body here right now.
I'm just inviting you now to tune into the body as a whole.
And if your body was to be an internal weather system,
How would you describe your internal weather right now?
So it could be rainy,
Cloudy,
Dark,
Windy.
Or perhaps warm,
Sunny.
How is it right now,
Your body?
And maybe you're having a conversation about wanting things to be different to what they are right now.
A conversation with yourself.
So perhaps noticing if the tendency is to push this internal weather away.
Noticing any struggle you may have that might be related to wanting these sensations and feelings to be different.
Or perhaps you really want to hold on to sensations that might be pleasant.
Now seeing if it's possible just to be willing to see you can let this internal weather,
Let it be just as it is.
You can say to yourself,
It's okay,
Just as I am.
And now just simply sitting with yourself,
Just noticing what's arising in your field of awareness,
Your field of experience.
Just noticing the general patterns that may be coming up.
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Distractions,
Just noticing what's coming up in your field of awareness.
Noticing is there a difficult feeling or belief,
Sensation,
Outside sound that we may be pushing away or wanting to be over.
How are you reacting in your body,
Heart and mind?
And just letting them flow.
Just letting them come and go,
Arising and passing.
Arising and sometimes staying for a while.
And saying to yourself,
It is here,
Let it be.
It's okay,
Just as I am.
And now coming back gently and kindly to the breath.
Back to the same place that you chose at the beginning of the practice or perhaps maybe somewhere else.
Just bringing the focus back to the breath,
Back to the breathing.
The breath breathing itself.
Just breathing for the next few moments until the bell signals the end of the practice.
