Welcome to your meditation practice for building emotional balance.
Make your way into a comfortable position.
You might sit on the floor,
Maybe with a cushion or folded blanket under your seat.
You could also sit in a chair or you could lay down for this practice with the knowing that falling asleep is a possibility.
Take a few moments to arrange your body so you feel comfortable and then begin to settle into stillness.
You might choose to close your eyes if that feels right to you.
Begin to focus on the sensations of breathing.
You might rest your mind on the feelings in your abdomen,
Your rib cage,
Your chest or around the tip of your nose.
Wherever you choose,
Become interested in these sensations and how they change with the flow of your breath.
In this practice,
We're looking at how to be more balanced by separating what's happening in your experiences from your brain patterns and how you react to those experiences.
So as you continue to focus on where you feel your breath,
You might start to consider these changes pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
See if you can find a sense of simply feeling what's happening,
A sense of relaxed presence with what arises.
Accepting and being at peace with what comes up,
Allowing your mind to be quiet and calm,
Feeling the sensations without being caught up in them.
Then let your awareness drift to any sounds present in your space,
Hearing the sounds in a neutral way so that they are there,
But they do not disturb your relaxation and presence.
Hearing the sounds without being caught up in them.
Then let your awareness drift to your mind,
Bringing this same evenness to your emotions.
The deep undercurrent of your emotional state is continuously changing,
Just like the body changing with your breath.
The sensations that come and go in your environment.
Feelings also come and go.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant and neutral.
Accepting what's there without being caught up in it.
As the thoughts and feelings come and go,
You remain present and at peace.
You are aware of the thoughts and feelings without reacting to them.
You might notice that your tendency to lean toward pleasure and withdraw from unpleasant might start to dissolve.
There might be less reaction to the pleasant and less reaction to the unpleasant so that you become more and more neutral.
In the pleasant,
There is just the feeling of pleasant without any added reactions.
In the unpleasant,
There's just the feeling of unpleasant without any added reactions.
Experiencing the awareness of pleasant and unpleasant without reactions.
Completely at ease,
Breath after breath.
Settling into deeper layers of contentment,
Peace and equanimity.
Simply being in a state of no reactions,
No preferences.
Experiencing the evenness of your mind.
Feel your whole body here in a state of relaxed presence.
I invite you to take this practice with you into the rest of your day,
Bringing more equanimity and emotional balance to the people and situations you encounter.
When you feel ready,
Slowly open your eyes,
Gently move your body and mindfully transition back into your day.
