Welcome mindful writers.
Let's go ahead and close your eyes if it's comfortable for you.
If not just casting the gaze downward to minimize distraction.
And finding a posture that works for you.
Some position where you can be upright and alert,
But still relaxed.
Noticing your body in the space.
Feet on the floor,
Bottom on the cushion.
Notice where your hands have landed.
And then turn your attention to the breathing.
Notice the expansion of the ribcage,
The contraction of the muscles on the exhale.
Not making any effort to control the breath at this point,
Just noticing.
Noticing the sensations of the breath against the back of the throat,
How the air is a little cooler on the way in,
A little warmer on the way out.
Noticing the sensations of air moving through the nose or over the lips.
And then shifting the breath to intentionally take in a nice deep breath.
Following the inhale all the way up to the point where it turns and becomes an exhale.
Following it all the way down at your own pace.
Blowing out that last bit of air.
And then noticing how the body just naturally responds to taking another deep breath.
Going around a few times at your own pace.
And the reason I like to start this way is simply to bring our attention into the body,
Into this particular thing that we do all day every day without really noticing.
Coming into the body,
Coming into the breath is a great way to touch into the present moment.
And then once you've taken those two deeper breaths,
Go ahead and let go of any control around the breathing.
And once again,
Just let it find its natural rhythm.
Trying to maintain your awareness.
Noticing how it shifts.
Noticing what other signals you're getting from your body today.
And trying to meet the experience of the present moment with as much acceptance as you can muster.
Sometimes that can be challenging.
Just know that whatever you find,
It's perfectly normal.
It's perfectly human.
Sometimes we feel good in our bodies.
Sometimes not so much.
That's okay.
We can just acknowledge whatever we find as the truth of our present moment and sit with it as best we can.
And then I always like to bring in a bit of gratitude for whatever state we find our bodies in when we quiet ourselves enough to pay attention.
It's always nice to appreciate the things that are working well enough,
In spite of any aches or pains or worries or anxieties.
Our bodies are working well enough for us to sit here,
To take a few deep breaths,
To make some time for our writing.
That simple truth is definitely worth a moment of gratitude.
And then noticing what gratitude feels like in the body.
Or is it a more intellectual experience?
How do you experience gratitude?
And then for the remainder of the meditation,
We'll let our attention rest on an anchor.
And in this way,
We begin to hone our focus so that we can turn it towards our writing at the end of the meditation.
But for right now,
You can turn your attention towards your breath.
Focus on the sensation there as we did before.
The breath is convenient.
It's always with us.
It's easy to stay with because it's always subtly shifting.
But if focusing on the breath makes it feel tight or uncomfortable in any way,
It's really not uncommon.
So just turn your attention to a different physical sensation in the body.
Getting curious about the sensations of the feet on the floor,
The hands in the lap.
Or you can turn your attention entirely outside the body to the sounds in the room.
Just noticing as each sound rises and passes away.
And wherever you choose to rest your attention,
Try to understand it as a real place of rest.
We often we carry around all these to do's and have to's in our heads.
And I promise you they will still be there when you're done with your writing right now.
Just let them go.
Let your attention rest on that anchor.
And when you notice that your mind has wandered,
Which it will,
Just give yourself a pat on your back.
That is your moment of mindfulness.
You noticed that your mind wandered.
Then you just let that thought go.
Come back to the anchor and begin again.
And in our last few moments here,
If you'd like to go ahead and invite in thoughts around your writing,
Thinking about what it is you're going to turn your attention to as we wrap up our more formal meditation.
And then in a moment,
I'll ring the bell three times.
I invite you to maybe take one more deep breath before you open your eyes and get to work.
Happy writing everyone.
