Welcome to practice.
And I wanna say thank you for being here and for taking some time out for your self-care.
And you can do this practice lying down or sitting down.
Just kind of check in with yourself what feels like a good posture right now.
What does the body need?
And does it need any lumbar support or do you want to put something under your legs perhaps when you're lying down?
Use a pillow,
Use an extra pillow rather than going into autopilot posture,
So to speak.
Kind of tuning into what the body needs.
And I'm going to ring the bells three times and I invite you to relax into today's practice.
Take a little moment to change your Way ofane,
And if it feels safe and comfortable to do so,
Inviting the eyes to close or to simply lower your gaze,
To let the eyes rest,
Whatever's comfortable.
Taking another moment to fully arrive here.
And let's start the practice by taking three deep breaths.
And if you can,
If it's at all possible,
Try to inhale through the nose and then hold for a moment and make a deep exhale through your mouth.
And then within a minute or two,
Let's start to build the next breath hanging at the top of your lungs.
And now choosing what is called an anchor.
Something to return to during the remainder of the practice today.
Whenever you feel the mind has wandered.
And that is an entirely personal choice.
Some people like to choose their breath as an anchor.
Others still prefer the body to come back to.
Maybe you want to think of a person or an object.
And anchor can be a very useful tool whenever the mind has wandered to return to.
And now as best you can,
Gathering and then stabilizing the mind.
Allowing yourself to be here in this moment.
Right here and right now.
And sometimes this can be a little bit challenging.
Because when we strive to calm the mind,
That usually has the opposite effect.
So a good way to stabilize the mind is by simply observing what the mind is like right now.
Really busy,
Manic,
Relaxed,
All over the place,
Or fairly focused.
Just observing.
Observing this miracle that is our mind.
It always seems to want to know what you're up to,
Or what you're doing.
Through the principle of spontaneous activation,
Forever feeding you stuff.
Thoughts,
Ideas,
Warning signs,
Choices.
Stuff,
Stuff,
Stuff.
By bringing a kind attention to this busy mind,
It usually becomes a lot easier to create a little bit of space and to detach,
So to speak.
Allowing yourself to be here with a sense of resolve,
With a sense of wakefulness.
And the relaxation can be a beautiful byproduct of that.
For now,
The intention is to simply spend some time with what is here for us,
Without the judgment.
But with kindness and kind attention to whatever arises,
Knowing that your anchor is always there for you to return to.
Noticing how far the mind wanders off,
And then gently bringing it back to the now,
To your anchor.
That is the practice.
And of course the body can be a really great and helpful friend to return the mind to the now moment.
So you may want to rest your awareness for a few moments in the points of contact between the body and the bed or the chair you're sitting on.
Like myself,
I'm resting against the wall.
So what does that feel like?
The soles of the feet on the floor,
Or perhaps the touch of your socks against the skin of your feet,
To the shoulders resting against the pillow.
As best you can,
Scan through those points of contact for a moment.
And once again,
Noticing where the mind has gone to,
And then bringing it back to the body or your anchor,
With kindness and with a friendly,
Self-respecting attitude,
Allowing yourself the fullness of this moment.
Being here and now,
And observing what that feels like.
Uncomfortable,
Relaxing,
Really keen to rush things along,
Or perhaps wanting things to go slower.
Just observing how you are in relation with this present moment.
No need to fix anything or change anything.
Resisting the urge to wanting things to be different and to surrender into this mode of being rather than doing.
Where am I now?
Once more,
Bringing my attention back to the now moment,
With kindness,
With self-compassion,
With self-respect.
Staying with this sense of wakefulness.
And until you hear the sound of the bells,
I invite you to join me for this very short story that I would like to share with you,
Because I think it's cute and I think it's relevant to today's practice.
And the story goes as follows.
It's about how in India and other parts of the world,
More tropical parts of the world,
When one wants to catch a monkey,
They will often attach a hollow coconut to a tree.
And there's a hole in the coconut through which they slip a banana or a nice piece of fruit.
That's very attractive to the monkey.
And so the monkey smells the piece of fruit and finds the coconut with the fruit and wants to grab the fruit.
So what does the monkey?
It puts its hand inside the coconut and then holds on to the piece of fruit.
And because it holds on so tightly,
Of course the monkey gets stuck and it can't remove its hand from the coconut.
And of course,
For the monkey to release its hand,
It needs to let go of the banana.
But it doesn't.
And it's not too dissimilar with the way our mind works,
Isn't it?
The more we try to not think about something,
The more we think about it,
The more we force ourselves to let go of something,
The harder it is to let go.
And that is one of the many beautiful benefits and practical benefits of mindfulness.
Because when we can simply be with that difficulty of the clinging,
Of the holding onto,
And observe what that feels like with kindness and with some compassion,
Some self-compassion,
We unhook almost automatically from those thoughts without forcing anything.
And that's the magic of self-compassion and bringing kind attention to our minds and whatever it is that's either bothering us or that we're clinging onto.
So,
You may want to do a little stretch.
Roll your fingers,
Your toes,
Maybe roll your shoulders ever so gently,
Moving on to the next part of your day.
Thank you for having shared this moment with me today.
Namaste.
Bye for now.
