Meditation For Mental Health

Welcome to your meditation practice.

My name is Hayley.

You can find a comfortable seat.

And as you come to your seat,

Make sure that your hip crease is lifted just slightly higher than your knee crease.

And make sure that your spine is long but your shoulders and the outer shell of the body,

The jaw can soften.

And your hands can rest down on your thighs in any position that feels comfortable.

And see if you could allow your elbows to drop just gently below the shoulders so there's no rounding forward,

There's no pulling back,

Just this really natural curvature to the spine,

Natural fall of the arms below the shoulders.

And then if you haven't already,

You can allow the veil of the eyelids to soften and maybe close.

And with the eyes closed,

Allow your eyelids to widen.

Allow the features of your face to soften.

Notice your heart at the front of your body and lift it slightly up,

Elevate the heart.

But at the same time,

Can you lengthen out the back of your neck,

There is this very slight drawing down and back of the chin towards the throat.

Making any final adjustments so that you can rest in a place of stillness.

I'd like you just to let your attention come to rest on sound.

Taking notice of the sounds that you hear in the distance.

Taking notice of the sounds that you hear a little closer to home.

And as you sit and you experience sound,

Can you allow it just to be vibrations of moving energy in and out of your awareness?

So no need to filter pleasant sound from unpleasant sound,

No need to label or judge anything,

Just experiencing sound.

And if you notice yourself attaching labels or mind might spin even further,

Just disconnecting from those thoughts and coming back to experiencing sound as vibration.

And very slowly,

You can release your attention on to sound and instead move it now just to rest on your skin.

And so feeling the edges of your body,

Feeling the edges of your flesh,

Feeling the air rest against your skin,

Feeling the brush of your clothes against your skin.

Take this time just to perceive your skin.

Something interesting that you might notice at this point is when you perceive your skin,

You perceive it from the outside in.

And this is one of the reasons that the yogis believe that the mind was not inside the body or the brain,

But rather all pervading and everywhere.

Again,

Just feeling your skin,

Feeling the edge of your body.

Slowly,

You can release your attention from your skin and guide it instead now to rest on your breath.

And you might find that having drawn your attention incrementally in closer and closer,

That the breath might be shallow and that is fine.

You can just continue to let that be for now.

Not needing to change anything,

Not needing to alter anything,

Just experiencing your breath.

Your attention still resting on the breath very slowly,

You can start to become a little more involved in the process of your breathing.

And this might already have happened naturally,

But you can begin to stretch and elongate the breath.

Finding a little more depth as you breathe in and a little more length as you breathe out in your own rhythm,

Gently stretching the breath.

We're going to add a very simple breath count.

Pranayama we're practicing is called Samma Vritti,

Means same waves.

And we'll breathe in for the count of four and out for the count of four.

So wherever you are in your breath cycle,

Empty it out completely and take a smooth cleansing breath in.

A long slow breath out and together we inhale for the count of four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Out for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Out for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Out for four.

In for four,

Out for four.

Continuing on your own for three more full rounds.

And of all of the systems in your body,

The one that you can most readily control is your respiratory system.

And the science shows us that when we harmonize our breath,

We can indeed harmonize all of the other physiological responses in the body.

So when you've completed your third round,

You can let go of the technique and just breathe naturally.

Noticing the effects that the pranayama has on your mental body.

I'm going to practice a similar pranayama,

But this time we'll be breathing in for four and out for eight.

If this breath makes you uncomfortable or anxious,

You're very welcome just to skip with the Samavritti,

Stay with the Samavritti breath.

In for four and out for four.

If you're coming with me,

The exhale longer than the inhale will hopefully signify to your nervous system that you can relax,

That you are safe.

Take a breath in together,

A long breath out.

And together we inhale for the count of four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Breath out for eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Out for eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Out for eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

In for four,

Out for eight,

In for four,

Out for eight.

Release the technique,

Take a smooth breath in.

Smooth breath out and just let your breath become natural once more.

And again,

Just using this moment,

Quiet observation,

Just notice what you notice,

Feel what you feel.

From here,

I'd like you to gently take your hands and just bring them up to your ears.

Very softly,

Very slowly,

You can start just to massage the cartilage of the ears.

So you can pull,

You can tug,

You can play with the ears a little bit and just start to stimulate a little bit of blood flow.

Building a little bit of warmth,

A little bit of receptivity in the ears and there are little electromagnetic reservoirs that rest in the ears.

Stimulating these.

Another deep breath in here and then exhale,

Release your hands down to your knees and keeping your eyes closed,

Notice the sensation in the ears.

Notice if there is a softening behind the eyes.

Almost like a point of relaxation in the very middle,

Middle of the brain.

Very gently lift your hands up once more and this time take your thumbs and place them on your temples and place all eight of your fingers along the midline of your forehead.

You can just stack the fingers on top of each other and very gently just begin to stretch the skin of the forehead so you don't need to move the fingers at all.

They can stay in the middle of the forehead.

Just gently begin to stretch the skin.

You start to stimulate a little bit of blood flow and open space in the very center of the brain.

Thumbs resting gently on the temples.

Something to contemplate at this point might be just to hold a point of grief or worry or stress in the forefront of the brain and allow your fingers the fresh blood to kind of stimulate and move the energy.

Staying here until you feel called to take another deep breath in which will come right about now.

And as you exhale gently pull the fingers across the forehead release your hands back down onto your thighs keeping your eyes closed making sure your spine is still tall and again softening the outer shell of your body and just notice what you notice.

Very gently from here lift your left hand up place it onto your heart and lift your right hand up and place it over it with your hands on your heart center press in so that you feel the gentle impression of a boundary and take a few deep breaths so that you feel the life force the vitality that exists inside you.

And then as you press in towards your heart can you press also down so that you feel the weight of your body grounded on the earth.

And then in these last moments together just in your own mind's eye in your own internal dialogue just acknowledging three small things or big things that you feel gratitude for and they don't have to be profound they can be as simple as a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in.

They can be a person they can be a pet they can be lungs that breathe air or legs that walk you places or a heart that loves just three small things that you feel grateful for.

Breathe it in deeply open your mouth big sigh out and very gently release your hands bring your hands to meet palm to palm at heart center in Anjali mudra.

One more quiet moment in gratitude for the practice and gratitude for all of the teachers and gratitude for every experience that offers us some little pearl of wisdom or mastery and to the greatest teacher that which is always the self from my heart to yours with the deepest gratitude.

Thank you for practicing today.