Hello and welcome.
Recently I was at the British Museum with a friend who can read Greek and we were looking at some of the inscriptions.
I don't read Greek but he was observing how there was no punctuation.
As he was reading it he was having to discern the punctuation within the sentence and see it emerging.
Of course at some point in history someone invented the full stop and then all the other punctuation points that came with that.
And if you imagine now trying to read a piece of text without any punctuation just imagine how difficult that would be.
A whole flow of words with nothing interrupting it.
And yet often that's how we live our lives.
We go through the day without stopping or pausing.
So this meditation is an invitation for you to create a punctuation point in your day by stopping,
Taking a moment to check in,
Notice how you are and breathing,
Using the breath as an anchor.
It only needs to be about three minutes to shift from being in a state of maybe feeling a bit agitated,
Tense to allowing the body to go into a state of deeper relaxation presence.
I'll guide us through this short meditation and then if you find this helpful,
Considering where in your day you might create a punctuation point.
It might be if you travel on public transport,
A moment of sitting down,
Taking your seat,
Stopping,
Maybe as you arrive at work or after a difficult phone call or just one moment in the day where you can stop,
Pause and become present.
Settling yourself into a comfortable posture.
If you're sitting on a chair resting your feet flat on the floor,
Your hands resting on your legs,
Sitting upright,
Lengthening the back of the neck a little,
Tucking the chin in and allowing your eyes to close.
Then bringing your attention down into your body,
Into the weight of your body on the chair,
All the way down your legs,
Down into your feet,
All the way down into your toes.
Noticing any tingling,
Pulsing,
Temperature here in the toes.
And then noticing the contact of your feet with the floor,
The weight of your feet resting on the ground.
Feeling the points where the soles and heel touch the floor.
And as you're aware of this contact with the ground,
Feeling how the floor expands out from beneath your feet,
Imagining the foundations of the building going down into the earth.
Having this sense of being connected deep into the earth through your feet.
Being aware of the sensations in the top of each foot.
And then expanding this attention into the lower legs,
The calf and shin and noticing the sensations here on the surface or inside.
Now as you do this,
Radio me may chatter away,
Calling for your attention,
Letting it be there in the background,
Turning the volume down.
No need to get lost in the story.
Coming back to simply noticing what are the sensations here right now,
The weight of your feet,
The contact with the floor,
The sensations in the calf and shin.
And then including in this attention the sensations in the upper legs,
The thighs and hamstrings.
What do you notice here?
Feeling the contact of your legs with the chair,
The weight of your hands,
Where they rest on your legs.
Feeling the weight of your legs,
The contact with the floor and then the weight of your body resting on the chair.
And as you notice this weight of your lower body,
The sensations in your feet and legs,
Bringing your attention to the breath in the belly,
The chest.
And starting to feel the movement of the breath as it moves in your belly,
In your chest.
And sitting for a minute with the sensation of the weight of the body,
The contact with the chair,
The weight of your feet on the floor,
The breath moving in your belly,
In the chest.
And simply noticing how it is to bring your attention away from the busy,
Chattering mind.
And the thoughts will be going on.
You're not going to stop your thoughts at once.
So just allowing them to be there,
But taking a holiday from your thoughts for a few moments.
Imagining you're sitting by a river,
Watching the river go by,
Leaves floating by on the surface,
Each leaf a thought.
In the same way as you sit now,
Feeling your body resting attention on the breath,
Letting the thoughts go by.
If you then get lost in a thought,
Bringing your attention back by returning to the sensation of the weight,
The contact with the floor,
The breath.
And noticing how it is now,
After taking these few minutes to stop,
Pause,
Become present,
How does it feel in your body?
How does it feel in terms of thinking,
Emotions?
You may feel the same,
You may notice a shift.
And when you're ready,
Bringing the practice to a close,
Turning your attention to whatever it is you're doing next.
And resolving to take some of this sense of being present,
Grounded,
Awake into that next activity.
When you're ready,
Opening your eyes.
So I hope you enjoyed that and couldn't see how it might help to include a few punctuation points within the busyness of your day by simply stopping,
Tuning into the weight of your feet,
The contact with the floor,
The sensations in your legs,
The weight of your body on the chair,
And then resting your attention in the sensation of the breath in the belly,
In the chest,
And simply sitting for as long as you wish like that until you feel ready to then continue with your day.
So taking this away into your own life,
Making your own life a laboratory to explore how does this work for you,
And then finding out for yourself whether this is effective or not.
