Hello!
This is Jax,
And welcome to your short guided meditation on mindfulness.
Today,
We are going to be mindful.
And when you're mindful,
Your attention stays in the present moment,
Right here,
Right now.
In this meditation,
We're not trying to stop thinking,
We're not going to judge ourselves,
And instead,
We're just taking a moment to observe,
To pay attention on purpose,
To pay attention in the present moment,
And to do all this in a non-judgmental way.
So there's this compassion element to the non-judgmental attitude of mindfulness.
And instead of trying to silence thoughts,
Emotions,
We're just trying to still our inner critical voice.
Sometimes that inner critical commentary can turn on ourselves,
It can turn on others,
Our environment.
So the compassion element in the non-judgmental attitude of mindfulness allows us to rest simply with things as they are.
So in today's meditation,
Just allow yourself to be,
Allow yourself to be who you are,
Allow others to be who they are,
Allow your environment to be as it is.
And hopefully by the end of today's meditation,
You'll just allow things to be as they are,
With a warm,
Open-heartedness.
Let's go ahead and come into our meditation seat.
So either sitting on a block,
A cushion,
A pillow,
A blanket,
Maybe the couch,
The floor,
A chair.
And do whatever you need to do in this moment to get comfortable.
So maybe for you that's fixing an article of clothing,
Silencing your phone,
Rolling your shoulders,
Doing anything that feels right in this moment.
And then let's start to tune into the breath by doing some box breathing.
Take an exhale out the nose to prepare.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Hold your breath.
Hold your breath.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold your breath.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Hold.
Exhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Hold.
Take a deep breath in and a deeper breath out.
And then just start to observe the body.
Maybe you feel comfortable or maybe you have already to close down the eyes or maybe there's a soft gaze looking down at the nose.
And just like in our meditation practice,
We're practicing compassion in our mind,
Let's start to practice that in our body.
So just notice your breath.
So just notice your jaw in this moment.
Notice if you're gripping or grasping,
You're clinging on to any tension in the jaw and see if you can be a little bit more gentle,
A little bit more soft in that area.
And then see if you can expand that softness,
That compassion to your eyes,
The spaces between the eyes,
The inner corners of the eyes.
And almost like a flame burning brighter,
Can you feel that compassion growing brighter in your body?
So just being a little bit more gentle in the way that your shoulders are in space,
A little bit more gentle in the hips and the fingers,
And just adding this element of compassion for your body right here,
Right now.
So as we start to transition into a little bit of silence,
Remember,
All we're doing is just being mindful.
So just paying attention in the present moment,
Paying attention on purpose,
And doing this all in a non-judgmental way.
So if your attention wanders off into the past or into the future,
See if you can gently guide your attention back to the present moment with compassion.
And if the mind does continue to wander,
You can always use your breath as an anchor.
So anytime you feel discomfort,
Breathe.
Deep breaths in and deep breaths out.
I'll let you know when we're coming out of this meditation.
Slowly hearing the sound of my voice,
Just start to take a couple of deep breaths.
Inhaling,
Feeling the body expand,
And exhaling,
Feeling the body contract.
Place the right hand on the heart and gently bow into yourself.
You just took time to be really mindful.
So how do you want to show up the rest of your day?
Is it with compassion?
Is it with non-judgmental awareness?
Is it mindfully paying attention on purpose and in the present moment?
How do you want to show up the rest of the day?
When you're ready,
You can start to add movement back into the body,
The fingers,
The toes.
If the eyes were closed,
You can gently blink them open.
And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Once again,
This is Jax,
And I'll see you next time.
