This guided sitting meditation will help us to learn to simply be and accept with mindfulness and equanimity anything that we are experiencing in the present moment,
Allowing ourselves to switch from the usual mode of doing to a mode of non-doing,
Of simply being.
The intention is to become aware of and accepting with kindness whatever is present in our experience,
With attention on the breath,
Acknowledging the body,
Thoughts and emotions as they arise,
With an attitude of allowance,
Kindness and non-judgment.
So,
To begin,
Inviting you to settle into a comfortable position,
Noticing the sitting bones pressing into the seat,
Lifting the spine so that it is tall and self-supported,
Making any necessary adjustments to be comfortable,
Resting the hands on the lap,
And if it feels right,
Closing the eyes,
And if not,
Allowing them to be open with a gentle gaze on the floor.
As you allow the body to become still,
Bring the attention to the fact that you are breathing,
Becoming aware of the movement of the breath as it comes into the body and as it leaves the body,
Not trying to change or control the breath in any way,
Simply being aware of the breath and the feelings associated with breathing,
Perhaps noticing the sounds or sensations of the breath,
Feeling the breath as it moves through the nose,
Or maybe the sensation of the breath whirling at the back of the nose and throat,
Perhaps observing the breath deep down in the belly,
Feeling the belly as it expands gently on the in-breath,
And it falls back towards your spine on the out-breath,
Just being totally here in each moment with each breath,
Not trying to do anything,
Not trying to get anywhere,
It's simply being,
Being with the breath,
And from time to time,
The mind will wander off into thoughts,
Fantasies,
Anticipations of the future,
Of the past,
Worrying,
Memories,
Or perhaps something else,
And when we notice that the attention is no longer here,
It's no longer with the breathing,
Without judging,
Bring the attention back to the breath and ride the waves of the breath once again.
This coming and going is the practice of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the practice of returning to presence,
And returning is the heart of mindfulness practice.
It's the practice of redirecting attention that builds inner freedom.
Fully conscious of the duration of each breath from moment to moment,
Every time you find the mind wandering off the breath,
Gently bringing it back to the present,
Back to the moment,
Observing the flow of the breath,
Allowing the breath to help tune into a state of relaxed awareness and stillness.
And now watching the breathing,
We may find that time to time we are becoming aware of sensations in the body,
Maintaining the awareness of the breath,
See if it's possible to expand the field of awareness so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole as we sit here.
Feeling the body from head to toe,
Becoming aware of the sensations in the body,
Maybe it's feeling the temperature or clothing on the skin,
Warmth of the hands or tension or tightness in the body,
Perhaps it's a heaviness in the chest,
Fluttering in the stomach,
Being here with whatever feelings and sensations come up in any moment,
Without judging them,
Without reacting to them,
Just being here fully,
Totally aware of whatever we are experiencing.
And again whenever we notice the mind has wandered off,
Just bringing it back to the breath and the body as we sit here,
Not going anywhere,
Not doing anything,
But simply being here,
Now,
Moment to moment.
Each time we notice the mind has wandered,
We bring it back to the focus of attention,
We build our mindfulness muscle.
Now as we sit here once again,
Allowing the field of awareness to expand,
This time expanding the awareness to include thoughts as they move through the mind.
There's no need to force thoughts and if there's no thoughts that's okay too.
Allowing the breathing and sense of body to be in the background,
Allowing the thinking process itself to be the focus of our awareness.
Instead of judging,
Suppressing or fixing the experience,
Widen your awareness to include both the anchor of the breath and the body and the passing experience of observing thoughts.
Rather than following the individual thoughts and getting involved in the content and going from one thought to the next,
Simply seeing each thought as it comes up in the mind as a thought.
And letting the thoughts just come and go as you sit in stillness,
Witnessing thoughts,
Observing them.
Whatever they are,
Just observing them as events in the field of your consciousness as they come into your awareness and they linger and dissolve.
It might be helpful to bring a metaphor to mind here,
Leaves on a stream.
So imagining that you are sitting on the bank of the river,
Looking at the stream of water flowing by.
It is autumn and the leaves represent our thoughts falling from the overhanging branches.
The leaves drop into the water and float down the stream while you sit on the bank and observe them.
So here we are practicing looking at thoughts rather than looking from thoughts.
And if we find ourselves at any point drawn into this stream of thinking and notice that we are no longer observing thoughts,
Just coming back to observing them as events using the breath and the sense of the body as an anchor to stabilize us in the present.
And coming back to sitting on the bank of the river.
And if it helps,
You can use a friendly inner label like there's a thought,
There's a feeling,
I notice I'm restless,
That's a planning thought,
A remembering thought,
A worrying thought.
And then return to the gentle attention of the breath or the body sitting here,
Just observing with an attitude of kindness and non-judgment.
Thoughts can take any form,
They can have any content and they can be either neutral or very highly charged.
If thoughts come up that have fear or another emotion in them,
Just be aware of the fear or the emotion being here.
Letting those thoughts come and go.
The same goes for worries,
Preconceptions and so on.
Regardless of the feeling the thought might create,
Just observing it as a thought and letting it be here without pursuing it.
Without going into a story about what it means about you or feeling pulled into a feeling,
Just allowing it all to be here.
Noticing that from moment to moment new thoughts will come and go.
Or perhaps there's a surge of energy and a certain thought appears.
Just allow yourself to notice that energy,
Notice where it sits in the body.
Making room for it in whatever way that makes sense to you.
And then coming back to observing.
Now expanding the awareness to include the whole body,
The breath,
Any thoughts or emotions present.
Where possible,
Sitting and observing whatever is there,
Allowing it to be there as it is.
And remembering the goal isn't to get rid of thoughts or emotions,
But instead making room for them to be there as they are,
With an attitude of kindness and non-judgment.
Just like allowing the autumn leaves to float down the stream while we observe them from the bank.
And as this meditation comes to an end,
You might like to give yourself some thanks having spent this time with yourself.
For having intentionally made this time for yourself to simply be who you are.
And as we move back into the world,
Allowing benefits of this practice to expand into every aspect of your life.
And taking the time to ground yourself,
Bringing awareness to the sounds in the room.
Listening to what's there.
And perhaps bringing some energy back to the breath.
And taking a smooth breath in and letting it go.
And when you're ready,
Starting to wiggle the fingers and toes,
Moving or stretching in any way that feels right for you.
And then opening your eyes and coming back into the space.
