And we'll move now into the meditation.
I invite you to just come into a posture that's comfortable,
Relaxed.
If you like to you can close your eyes let your attention come inward just bringing a kind,
Non-judging awareness to whatever you're experiencing right now just meeting whatever is here with kindness,
With acceptance.
As I bring my attention inward I notice a lot of energy around my eyes and around my face and forehead and I can open to that,
Just allow the sensations to come and go.
And in the same way with any emotions or mind states that are present,
There might be tiredness and if there is you notice how that feels,
How it feels in the body.
You might take a few deeper breaths just to bring some energy into the body and that can be a helpful thing at the start of the meditation generally just to take a few longer deeper breaths,
Nice full deep in breath filling the chest,
Filling the lungs and then releasing long slow out breath,
Letting go and again a nice deep in breath,
Breathing in,
Calming the body,
Breathing out,
Calming the mind and just letting yourself settle into being here.
You might invite a smile or a half smile to your face activating the muscles around the eyes and around the mouth just opening to this moment just as it is.
As we're starting I just want to say I didn't mean to activate a big political debate or rub people the wrong way,
Just to you know acknowledge the world we're living in.
This practice of meditation isn't about escaping from the world it's about opening to the joys and the sorrows,
Inner and outer,
So just letting yourself settle into being here whatever's coming up if there's thoughts in the mind about liking this or not liking that or agreeing with this or not,
Just allowing yourself to take it in,
Let it come,
Let it be,
Let it go and when you're ready just letting your breath settle into its natural rhythm you might find it helpful to just let your attention rest on your breathing,
Breathing in,
Breathing out you can let your breathing be kind of home base for you where you rest your attention in-breath and out-breath,
Breathing in knowing you're breathing in breathing out knowing that you're breathing out whatever comes up,
Whatever you experience,
Maybe a strong sensation in the body or a memory or a thought,
Just notice that,
Let it come and go,
Just let the attention come back to your breathing just remembering the words of the poet Dorothy Hunt,
Peace is this moment without judgment this moment in the heart space where everything that is is welcome so if you're experiencing something that feels difficult,
If you can make space for it allow it to be just as it is,
Let it come,
Let it be,
Let it go and if you notice that you're caught up in thinking maybe worrying or planning or remembering or daydreaming just simply notice that you're thinking,
That the attention has moved into thought and just kindly and gently let it come back come back to the breath and the body,
Just come back to being here,
So choosing to step out of that thinking mode and just come back to awareness of your experience right here and now,
The body,
The breath,
What's here,
Letting go of the stories in the mind each time we go off and come back,
We're actually training the mind when we bring the attention back kind of making that choice to be here we're strengthening the pathways in the brain that encourage us to come back to not be so lost in thought and not to make it a problem at all when we do get caught up in thinking you know it's a natural habit of the mind to do that and so what we're doing is we're we're creating a perhaps a more healthy and beneficial way of being present,
Of being here um it's more conducive to seeing clearly as opposed to just being lost in the stories of the mind,
So we're making a choice here,
Now a condition of complete simplicity,
Costing not less than everything,
That's from T.
S.
Elliot in the four quartets,
A condition of complete simplicity,
Costing not less than everything
