Asatoma,
Sat Kama Yaha,
Tamasoma Hi,
I'm Courtney and today we are going to do a meditation using a mantra.
So there are many different forms of meditation.
You can focus on the breath,
You can gaze at a candle flame,
You can use a mantra.
And I like the mantra because when we're focusing on the breath,
We typically,
The mind can wander because the breath is something that's happening automatically.
It's not something we're controlling.
Whereas if we're saying a mantra silently to ourselves,
It's something we're actually creating.
So it gives the mind something to create.
So it gives the mind some action and then it gives the mind a focal point.
So before we get into our mantra and our mantra meditation,
We're just going to take a couple breaths and come into the body.
So go ahead and take a seat.
You can sit on a chair or a couch or a bolster,
Whatever is comfortable.
But come to a seated position and the idea is you want your spine to be as straight as possible.
And then we're just going to close our eyes.
Just settling into the body.
So making a conscious note to come into the body.
Doing a brief scan of the physical body,
Starting with the sit bones.
And then feeling the belly.
Feeling the upper,
Upper abdomen.
Feeling the heart space in the chest.
Feeling the shoulders,
Relaxing the shoulders.
Feeling the arms and hands.
Bringing awareness to the throat.
Softening the throat.
And scanning the jaw,
The mouth,
Relaxing the tongue in the mouth.
Softening the eyelids.
And the brow.
And the crown of the head.
Now we're just going to start with three slow,
Deep belly breaths.
When I say belly breath,
I mean pulling the air from the nose deep down into the pit of the belly.
So really imagining breathing from this area instead of the upper chest area.
There's no wrong way to do this.
We're just breathing deep.
So again,
We'll come back to closing the eyes.
And then through the nose,
Very slowly take a nice deep inhale.
And just when you think you've filled your lungs with as much oxygen as they can hold,
Just breathe in a little more.
And then exhale,
Slowly pushing the air out.
And the same thing at the bottom of the exhale.
Push out just a little more air.
That's one.
Inhaling breath two.
And exhaling.
Nice and slow.
Third breath.
Inhaling nice and slow.
And exhaling.
And then let's just bring the breath back to neutral.
Keep the eyes closed.
And the mantra that we're going to use today is so hum.
Two words.
So hum.
And what this actually translates to is I am or I am everything.
We are all one.
So the reason that we don't use words that we know is the mantra is they already have meaning.
So so hum has very little meaning to you.
And so by repeating that over and over,
It's a neutral statement to the mind.
So the breath is neutral and we're very slowly in our mind repeating so hum.
So hum.
And if you want to match it with your breath on every inhale,
You can say so.
And on every exhale you can say hum.
Continue with the mantra.
The mind wanders.
Bring it back.
So hum.
So hum.
Patiently bring the mind back if it wanders,
Focusing on so hum.
We're going to add just a little more.
So if the mind does wander,
Notice the thought it wanders to,
Label it with one word and then come back to so hum.
This is just making notes of where our mind goes.
There's no judgment.
It's just one word.
So for example,
If the mind starts wandering into what you're going to eat later or what you're doing for dinner,
You can label that planning or you could label it future.
And then you just come back.
So hum.
So hum.
There doesn't need to be an explanation,
A long sentence of why.
It's just a label of one word.
And then we come back to our mantra.
It's very normal for the mind to wander,
Very normal.
All we're doing is training it.
Like you train a puppy or a baby.
Just being really gentle.
Finding that it wandered and slowly,
Kindly bringing it back.
Making note.
Just a few more minutes here.
Stay with your mantra.
So hum.
And then we'll just come back into our body for one last body scan.
If you'd like to continue with the mantra.
Please continue as long as you'd like.
Otherwise,
We'll close the meditation.
By slowly coming back to the body.
Starting with the crown of the head.
And feeling the forehead.
And the brow.
Feeling the cheeks and the jaw.
Relaxing the neck and shoulders.
Feeling the upper back.
Feeling the middle back.
Feeling the lower back.
And feeling the sit bones.
And then coming back into the room by slowly opening the eyes.
And thanking yourself for taking this time for meditation.
Have a great day.
