Hi,
Welcome everyone,
This is Anne Marie.
Thank you for being here in this meditation circle.
As we settle in together and before we begin our formal meditation practice,
I'd like to offer some general guidance and information.
Mindful meditation is a personal experiential activity.
The guidance I offer is a starting point and suggestions are based on experience and knowledge.
Feel free to customize.
Mindful meditation teaches us that the present moment is when reality is happening.
The past is over,
The future is uncertain.
When we meditate,
We are centering ourselves around finding stillness in the present moment and releasing the intellect so that we can bring our awareness to what's going on right now.
It sounds simple,
But there are some intricacies involved.
So we use an anchor to focus the attention and an anchor is a way to offer the mind something to do as thoughts come into our awareness.
When we hear the instruction to let go of thoughts,
It's an invitation to come back to the present moment to welcome a feeling of spaciousness or kindness,
Basically to feel relaxed.
Part of body posture is important,
And I'll be giving you pointers on this in a little bit.
Thoughts are part of the meditation practice.
They will arise and so we just keep returning to our focus anchor.
Most of my guidance during the formal part of our meditation will be about this.
For those of you who relate to visuals and imagery,
I'll offer examples to stimulate creative awareness and attention.
At any time,
If the guidance is getting in the way of your personal meditation,
Feel free to detach and follow your own guidance.
There are many styles of meditation and I encourage you to explore and find out what resonates with your life.
The style that I teach is mindfulness,
Which is a type of insight meditation.
Insight meditation uses present moment,
Grounded experience as its focus.
I encourage you to be gentle and accepting of yourself as you explore meditation.
Each day will be different.
Try not to judge or have expectations.
Accept yourself as you are.
Okay,
Let's start now as we ease into the formal part of our practice.
Let's first start by just bringing our awareness to this shared space.
Going inward,
We notice our body grounded in this moment in the meditation circle.
The theme or intention that I've chosen for today is grounded awareness.
I'll be using these words repeatedly as we meditate together as something to be aware of.
To indicate the start and end of our meditation,
You will hear two rings of the bell and I will let you know when the bells are coming.
So let's review our posture.
Assuming that you're seated and comfortable,
I'd like to offer a few tips.
Take a moment to feel the areas of your body that are in contact with a cushion or a chair.
The weight of your body is the body's foundation and it is as if connected to the earth.
We're invited to visualize ourselves sitting on the ground,
The earth welcoming and holding.
Generally,
The knees should be below the hips.
So whether you're sitting cross-legged or kneeling on the floor or upright in a chair,
Check your position.
Maybe kneeling on a couple cushions supported by the weight of your body,
Cross-legged with pillows beneath the knees.
The idea is to take some of the weight off the lower back.
On a chair,
You can add a lumbar support such as a folded towel under the hips.
The feet are flat on the ground if you're in a chair.
And you can add a pillow or a book under your feet to raise if you need.
As you hone in your meditation position,
Make adjustments each time you sit and try out different positions.
Our body position should be relaxed yet alert.
The shoulders release away from the ears and notice the back and neck.
Do they feel relaxed yet upright?
Check with your jaw and your eyes.
Relax them consciously.
Those are areas where we hold tension.
Also the space between the eyebrows.
Maybe just notice and encourage relaxation,
Taking a breath or two.
Your hands can be in your lap,
On your thighs,
On a pillow that's in your lap.
And as we turn inward now,
We soften our gaze.
Either closing the eyes or focusing on a neutral spot in front of us or even half open,
Half closed.
We're ready to begin our formal practice with the ringing of the bell.
The bell signals the start of our meditation and we're encouraged to take a couple deep grounding intentional breaths.
You may choose to breathe out your mouth on these first breaths if you wish.
Continuing with a natural breath now,
Let's notice the inhale and the exhale.
Breathing in and breathing out.
This is our home base for this practice.
The breath grounds our awareness and brings the attention back to the moment.
As we follow the breath,
I invite you to visualize ocean waves.
The in breath is the wave going out to sea building strength.
There's a slight pause as the wave curls.
The exhalation is the wave letting go,
Releasing towards the beach.
There's a slight pause as the wave settles into the sand.
Notice the grounding of the wave as it settles into the beach,
Gaining energy to go back out to sea as an inhale.
Keep going on your own,
Following the waves of breath a few times,
Returning to the beach as a grounding place to land at the end of the exhale.
When thoughts come into our awareness,
We acknowledge them with kind acceptance.
Imagine that your thoughts are like clouds in the sky that drift back and forth.
They come and go.
Just notice them.
Watch them pass.
Clouds are inevitable and a welcome part of our meditation practice.
Some days there are lots of clouds.
Other days may be clear,
Such as meditation.
Each time you find your attention wandering,
Return to your home base of the breath.
I like to curl my lips into a very gentle smile.
It raises my energy and brings lightness to the moment.
A gentle smile can bring a feeling of friendliness.
Just slightly raised corners does the trick.
The body experiences pleasure when returning our awareness to the breath.
Our home base is a safe and easeful place.
The breath grounds our awareness in the present moment.
Keep going on your own for a few more breaths.
Enjoy this personal meditation exploration.
I imagine meditation as a dance of awareness accompanied by the music of stillness,
Sound,
Breath.
As we sit in meditation,
Stillness joins us.
There may be a moment of silence or just a feeling of being grounded.
Nowhere else to be,
Reality is here and now.
Sounds may enter the stillness.
Allow them to be part of the music in the dance.
Thoughts are also part of the dance.
Recognize them,
Let them pass and return to home base,
The breath.
As you continue to notice your breath,
The waves of the ocean possibly and thinking of the dance of awareness,
I'd like to share a poem entitled This Moment by Howard Olivier.
I'm smiling because a million possible alternatives which would have precluded this moment we're sharing didn't happen.
Brief passage through countless intersections this week,
The absence of calamity since breakfast.
A thousand breaths received in the last hour delivered right on time.
The tapestry of the present moment is complete and continuously refreshed,
Courageous,
Wholehearted,
Raw and alive.
Look,
Here it is again.
I'm going to signal the end of our meditation together with two rings of the bell.
When you hear the bell,
I invite you to take a couple deep grounding breaths.
If you have additional time,
Feel free to pause the rest of this audio and continue sitting on your own.
I will finish my guidance now.
I like to end meditation with bringing the palms together at the heart.
The sensation grounds me in the moment,
Allowing a reconnection between awareness and the physical body.
Palms together for me are a metaphor of the left and right sides of the brain coming together.
I like to feel the sensation of my fingers,
The connection of the hands to the heart center.
This balances me.
Join me if you'd like.
Thank you for your practice.
May we take this grounded awareness with us into the world to share with all beings.
I wish you a beautiful day.
