Hello and welcome to this meditation.
As you get comfortable either in a seated or lying down position,
I just wanted to share a brief note about thoughts in the mind.
So often many of us are led throughout the day by what you might call the benevolent dictator of the mind and we can easily get so absorbed in our thoughts and the busyness of the mind that we begin to identify with the mind as the only part of who we are.
But we are so much more vast and layered than the mind alone and when we're able to drop into the body and reconnect with our literal connection to the earth through the physical body,
We begin to tap into a different way of being and communicating with the world around us.
So that being said,
Take a moment if you haven't already found your posture to be comfortable but to also feel alert,
Present in the body,
Allowing the spine to be nice and long,
The heart open,
Spacious.
If you're lying down you might let your arms rest alongside your body with your palms face up and if you're seated you might let your palms rest against your thighs or in your lap,
Maybe sit upon a pillow or cushion to elevate your hips.
And to begin,
Just invite some space into the body by taking these next few moments to take a few deep breaths,
Following the rhythm of your own breath,
Intuitively listening to whether you want to exhale through the nose or maybe let out a deep sigh through the mouth.
Using these deep breaths to help you anchor to this moment.
With each exhale,
Softening just a little bit more through the body,
Sensing if there's any tension or tightness that feels ready to be let go.
And then after your next exhale,
You can let the breath return to its natural rhythm and take a moment just to acknowledge the activity of the mind,
Being aware for just a moment of the thoughts that are most dominant.
There's a certain narrative or storyline to them or maybe they're around a certain situation.
Maybe you can feel the activity of the mind through the movement of the eyelids or through any tension in the forehead.
So just acknowledge the busyness of the mind if it feels busy.
And then begin to bring your awareness into the sensations in your skull,
On the top of your head,
The sides of your head,
And into the forehead and the temples.
See if you can soften the skin here.
Soften the skin around the eyes.
And you might bring to mind the image of a vast blue sky.
And imagine your mind merging with this vast blue sky,
Sensing the spaciousness,
The edgelessness of this sky.
And you might envision some clouds in the sky,
Letting the clouds represent thoughts.
And watch how they slowly move in through your view of the sky.
And watch how they move out.
And with each breath,
The clouds become fewer and fewer.
And your mind feeling lighter,
More clear,
More spacious,
As each cloud dissipates.
And now letting the spaciousness of your sky spread through the rest of the face.
Into the cheekbones,
The ears,
Down into the jaw,
Letting your tongue rest lightly in the mouth,
Letting it fill the lower palate of the mouth.
And now bringing your awareness into the shoulders,
Letting them fall down the back.
And imagine this vast blue sky filling the space within the shoulders.
And if you feel any tension in this part of the body,
See if you can allow that tension to dissipate.
Allow that tension to float in your awareness,
Just as a cloud floats in the spaciousness of the sky.
If it doesn't feel ready to relax,
Just allowing it to be there,
Holding it with kindness and acceptance.
And now bringing your awareness down the arms and into the hands,
Letting the hands rest in an easeful and relaxed way.
Letting go of any sensations of gripping or holding in the hands.
Becoming aware of the vibrating,
Pulsating,
Maybe tingling that you can feel in the hands.
And feeling into them from the inside out.
Sensing into the space between the backs of your hands and the palms.
And now sensing into the space between the fingers.
Maybe tuning into any sensations,
Very subtle sensations of air against the skin of the hands.
Maybe the feeling of fabric from a shirt.
And now letting your awareness slowly move back up the arms and into the region of the heart.
Sensing the space between the front of your chest and your back body.
And from the side of your chest to the other side.
Filling this whole region with your awareness.
And inviting that image of the vast blue sky into this region of the body.
It might help to take a deep breath into this area.
Releasing any tension that feels ready to be let go on the exhale.
And see if you can hold any remaining tension with that same kindness and acceptance that we welcomed in into the shoulders.
And sensing into the vastness of the heart space and its ability to hold tension in the same way that the sky can hold a cloud.
Just allowing whatever is here to be here.
And feeling now how that expansiveness expands down into the belly and then into the pelvic region.
Imagining this area as a massive bowl filled with nothing but space.
And you might imagine that the bottom of this bowl is what's connecting you to the earth.
Feeling the heaviness of this bowl at your tailbone and in your sit bones.
Feeling it anchor you into the earth.
And feeling yourself and your entire body as an extension of the earth body.
And now letting your awareness expand into the legs,
All the way down into the feet.
And noticing the points of the feet that meet the earth.
Maybe it's the full bottoms of your feet,
Maybe just your heels if you're lying down.
And become intimately familiar with this connection.
Hyper focusing on the sensations of pressure or warmth at the points where the feet meet the earth.
And now feeling the feet entirely from the inside out.
Tuning into any sensations of vibrating or tingling.
Sensing the aliveness in this part of the body.
Sensing the space between the toes.
And now starting from the feet and slowly expanding outward through the entire body.
Become aware of the body as a whole.
As a living field of sensations that are ever changing and moving.
Expanding and contracting.
And just allow your awareness to rest here with the body.
With the feeling of being rooted to the earth.
Of the heaviness of the body.
And when you find yourself getting lost in thought,
Once again,
Just remind yourself that this is normal.
That it's impossible to turn off thought completely.
And just notice that your attention has wandered and then very gently bring your awareness back into the body.
Knowing that this too is a very real part of you.
Imagining the expansiveness of the vast blue sky expanding into this entire body.
Imagining any tension that you feel in the body as just a cloud that's here for the moment.
But will eventually pass through.
And for now,
Just holding it with spacious awareness.
And again,
If the mind has wandered or your attention is off somewhere else,
Just gently bringing the awareness back into this body.
Back into the aliveness that is unfolding here.
Moment by moment.
And in these final few moments,
I'd like to offer a quote by Tara Brach.
She says,
In those moments when you're lost in thought,
What if you could pause and say,
Okay,
It is just a thought.
That is revolutionary.
That can change your life.
Now,
The key is that we approach this with a gentleness and kindness.
Each time we recognize thinking and come back into the present moment with gentleness and kindness,
We are planting a seed of mindfulness.
We are creating a new habit,
A new way of being in the world.
We quiet down the incessant buzz of thoughts in our mind.
We take refuge in what is true,
The aliveness and tenderness and mystery of the present moment,
Rather than in the storyline of our thoughts.
