Finding yourself somewhere where you can sit evenly with both sitting bones in contact with something that's going to hold you upright,
A sense of lengthening through the spine.
If you want to lie down that's absolutely fine as well.
Particularly in this meditation,
Meditation for stress,
Just choosing a posture that feels most comfortable for you.
Once you've found your way to your position,
Whether it's seated or lying down,
You can choose whether you want to have the eyes open or gently closed.
And then again,
As I was explaining earlier,
We're going to start with a breath work where we take a four count inhale and a six count exhale.
Now this is a really nice way of dropping into our parasympathetic,
Our rest,
Digest,
Restore nervous system,
Lengthening the exhale slightly and also in that way sets us up really nicely for meditation.
Particularly with breathing practices,
If it doesn't feel so good for you,
Just ignore it or find a different count that you can sustain without force,
Without discomfort.
If you'd like to join in,
Taking a deep inhale altogether,
Exhaling out all the air fully and then we'll inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Now we'll lengthen inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Continuing with that count or finding a count that feels comfortable and sustainable to you.
Remember with breathing practices,
Not forcing if anything feels uncomfortable.
We'll take a couple more rounds like that.
Taking one more round.
And then just allowing your breath to return to its natural rhythm,
Natural state.
And simply noticing any effect that the meditation might have had on how you're feeling physically.
And on the quality of your thoughts.
There's nothing you have to change.
You don't even have to put words to it,
Just noticing.
Take a moment to ground yourself.
So feel your sitting bones or your back bones.
And then just take a moment to feel yourself.
Take a moment to ground yourself.
So feel your sitting bones or your back body if you're lying down on the ground.
Take a moment to feel the lengthening of the spine,
The softening of the shoulders.
And then slowly from the crown of the head just moving your attention down throughout the body.
You come across areas of tightness or tension.
You might see if there's some space to soften.
If there isn't,
Not getting caught up in it,
Just moving on.
And then coming back once more with the attention to the breath and following the breath either at the nostrils,
The chest or belly.
Wherever you can feel the breath clearly,
Distinctly.
And just following each inhale and each exhale.
In a moment we'll come back to the breathing practice.
For now just witnessing the quality and quantity of your thoughts in stillness as you follow the natural rhythm of your breath.
So remembering that the intention is not to stop thoughts from coming and going,
But noticing when they've come and shifting the attention back into a kind of broader attention with the breath in the foreground.
In a moment I'll invite you to join me again in that breathing practice.
Again,
If it doesn't feel right for you,
If you want to change it up,
Feel free to change it up.
We'll start again with an even inhale exhale.
This time we'll lengthen the exhale again and I'll invite you to add a little pressure.
So if you know Ujjayi breath in yoga practice,
It's a gentle constriction of the back of the throat.
You can always practice it by opening the mouth,
Pretending you're fogging up a pane of glass,
Closing the mouth,
Keeping that sensation in the back of the throat.
A bit of a Darth Vader sound.
So I'll invite you to do that on the exhale-ations only.
If you want to join in,
Take a deep inhale together,
Exhaling out all the air fully.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
This time exhale three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Inhale two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
A few more rounds.
Again,
You can let go of the practice or adjust it as and when you need.
Taking one more round.
And then allowing the breath once more to just return to its natural rhythm,
Natural pace,
Not changing anything.
And once more just noticing any effect that the practice has,
Particularly on your state of mind,
Quality of thoughts,
But also on your physical body.
You don't have to go looking for anything,
Just noticing what's there.
And there's a sense of discipline in the moments that we notice the attention has shifted to thoughts.
But there's also a sense of compassion,
Of kindness,
In the way that you might teach a small child or a loved one something.
And particularly if and when we're feeling a little more stressed,
The mind can have the tendency to be drawn into thinking more quickly,
More easily.
And this too,
We don't need to change.
Just noticing when that's the case,
Without adding on a layer of judgment on top of it.
And each time you notice,
Gently bringing your attention back.
And then just for a few moments,
Dropping any kind of focus,
Allowing your attention to be wide,
All encompassing,
Whatever comes up.
No focus.
And then drawing the attention back once more to that sense of grounding.
So whatever's in contact with the ground,
Your sitting bones or your back body,
Your feet.
And then in your own time,
You can gently open the eyes.
But before you start looking at things,
Just allowing your kind of visual field to come to you.
So there's a little bit of a smooth transition from meditation into the rest of our day.
Take a moment to be conscious of where you're going next and maybe carrying that sense of present moment awareness with you into the next few moments.
