Welcome to this practice focused on connecting with your why.
Or practicing mindfulness or for carving out the time.
To do anything that is meaningful.
For you in your life that it's easy to get distracted away from.
Remembering that distraction is part of the human condition and rather than coming to this practice from a place of criticism and harshness,
See if it is possible to come from place of care for yourself and those around you.
And a place of commitment to what is important to you.
Beginning now by setting yourself up,
Either sat on a cushion or a meditation stool on the floor.
Cross-legged or kneeling or in a position that feels comfortable but awake.
You could also,
Of course,
Be laid down on a mat or a rug on the floor or a bed.
If that's the most comfortable way for you to practice today.
And you could also practice seated on the chair.
It's really helpful sometimes to sit away from the back of the chair so the spine could be upright and The shoulders relaxed,
Maybe sitting towards the front of the seat so that the feet can be firmly planted on the floor.
But rather than kind of worrying too much about getting your posture right.
Maybe just trying to find a posture that You feel comfortable but awake.
Within and that might change from day to day.
So now inviting you to bring your awareness.
To a sense of your whole body.
Here and now.
Taking in a sense of whatever position you're in.
Maybe there's some little wriggles,
Some adjustments that could be made.
To make yourself 1% more comfortable.
The eyes can be open or closed.
Perhaps open will support you staying awake if you're tired.
Clothes can sometimes support us to turn our attention inwards,
Doing what feels best for you at all times during the practice.
Now opening out again to sense your body as a whole.
In this pose,
In this position,
However it is.
You'll be feeling the contact points with your body and whatever's supporting you.
Pressure of the body pressing into its support maybe.
Where the feet are touching the floor.
Like the back body's pressing into whatever's beneath it.
Feeling the bum,
The sit bones pressing into seat or cushion or bench.
Allowing your attention to keep moving.
Zooming in.
To these contact points with whatever's supporting you.
Actual feeling of them.
And sometime you might notice your mind gets pulled away by.
.
.
Thoughts or sounds,
Distractions from around you.
Knowing this is not a mistake,
This is.
Part of being human.
When you notice your attention has been drawn away from what it is we've been focusing on right now,
Contact with the support beneath us.
Just noticing where the mind went and very gently,
But with a certain firmness to bringing your attention back.
To these contact points with the body and its support.
You could stay with the contact points with body and support or maybe you'd like to shift your attention now to sensing to any feelings in your hands right now?
Maybe tingles in the fingers and thumbs,
The fingertips.
A sense of vibration or pulsation in the palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands.
There's a sense of warmth or coolness here.
Like moisture or dryness.
I'm inviting you to move your awareness to.
.
.
Your breath if you'd like to or you could keep it with the hands or contact with your support.
We'd like to now exploring bringing your awareness to the sensations of the breath moving in and out of your body.
Wherever you can feel it most clearly and comfortably.
Perhaps you can sense the movement of the breath most clearly at the belly.
You can even bring a hand here.
To support sensing into the movements of the belly as you breathe.
Renoting a gentle expansion and contracting with each breath in and out.
You need to change the breath in any way.
Allowing as best we can the breath to breathe itself.
Perhaps you can sense the breath most clearly in the chest.
Maybe bringing a hand here too.
Or rise and fall perhaps.
Even a sense of the lungs within the chest,
Filling and emptying.
With each breath.
Perhaps you can feel the breath most clearly at your nostrils.
Or the back of the throat.
Sensing the flow of air.
As it enters and leaves your body.
Whenever your mind wanders away now,
Inviting it to re-centre itself on these breath sensations,
Wherever you can feel the breath most clearly.
Following the breath as it comes all the way in.
Maybe noticing the little pause between the inhale and exhale and exhale and inhale.
Following the breath as it travels all the way out.
Riding the wave of your breath.
Now remembering that you could re-centre,
Re-ground yourself into these.
Places of attentional focus,
The contact points with body and the floor.
The sensations of the hands.
Or the sensations of the breath at any point in this practice.
You notice yourself getting lost in thought or Maybe some.
.
.
Emotional intensities arising.
But always reground ourselves.
Within these anchor places,
As we might call them.
Now inviting you to open your awareness back to sense the body as a whole.
Sensing slight movement of the body,
Maybe noticing the breath moving in the whole of the body.
Noticing the skin,
Air brushing past skin,
Clothes touching skin.
Noticing areas that feel stronger sensations and areas that feel maybe nothing really,
Maybe numbness.
Now with this sense of your body as a whole,
Now you can come back to an attentional anchor at any point.
Inviting you to gently without trying too hard for search or think your way to an answer.
And drop some questions,
Or one question rather.
Into the body,
Heart,
Mind.
This question.
Be in relation to.
Maybe your mindfulness practice or whatever else is.
Important to you that you you want to rekindle your commitment and motivation to.
So just bringing whatever it is into your mind.
And then inviting you to drop in the question.
Why is this important to me?
Why is this important to me?
Returning to sensing the whole body without the mind.
Kind of search or strive towards finding an answer,
Just listening if anything naturally bubbles up to the surface in response to this question.
Don't worry if nothing does.
Why is this important to me?
I can imagine dropping this phrase,
This question.
Down a deep well.
Like a pebble.
Waiting to listen for the echo as the pebble meets the water below.
Why is this important to me?
Different answers may come up,
You might reveal a deeper layer.
With each time.
You ask this question each time you repeat this practice.
Why is this important to me?
Now inviting you to Return your attention to the contact points with body and whatever's supporting you.
Or maybe the hands or the breath.
Re-anchor ourselves in the body in this moment.
You may like to go and write down whatever came up from this practice.
Tucking it away to look at when you need it.
Once again just re-grounding ourselves in this moment feeling body meeting floor hands or the breath until you hear the sound of the bell.
