So often we're called to do so much in our lives.
We seem to have so many responsibilities pulling us in different directions,
Families,
Careers,
Personal lives,
Hobbies,
What have you.
I would like to invite you to take a short rest with me during this short meditation.
For this brief moment,
As you sit down,
Find a comfortable seat and close your eyes.
Let those worries wait for just a few moments.
Taking in a deep breath in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
Release all the weight of these responsibilities from your shoulders.
One more time,
Inhale and exhale.
And begin by attending your breath.
Not with a sense of duty or responsibility,
But with a gentle sense of curiosity.
The barest urge to pay attention to what's there with a sense of wonder and astonishment.
Like you're looking at your breath for the first time today and perhaps the first time ever.
Study it like it's something new in your life.
You might pay attention to a different way your breath comes to you.
It may not be the air through your nostrils,
But the rising and falling of your chest or shoulders.
Try to find a new way your breath moves through your body,
A new way you can attend to your breath with curiosity and newness.
And if you find yourself drifting or getting distracted,
That's okay.
You can also notice that distraction as something new,
Something new to be curious about and something to observe.
Remember that everything you observe is in the present moment.
Everything observed is an artifact of your mind and something that can be made aware of and studied as something new.
Take some time now to explore on your own for the next couple of minutes and see where your curiosity takes you,
Studying the facets of your mind and experience,
Always with gentleness and curiosity.
And as we near the end of our meditation,
I would like to invite you to bring this sense of curiosity that as we go about our days,
Sometimes putting our head down to do what we must do,
We can instead invite ourselves to be open and explorative of our new experiences.
Even if we have done the same thing a hundred times,
There can be a hundred new things to find.
Go with peace and thank you for making this time for yourself today.
