Dealing with Adjustment

Welcome to Meditation Rocks!

I'm Lucy.

And welcome to the first video in our series for our brand new theme for April,

Which is adjustment.

And during this meditation we will be making tiny adjustments to our posture and to our breath.

So go and get yourself somewhere comfortable and we'll begin.

Welcome to the first in our series of our theme of adjustment.

And if you're watching this video as it goes live in April,

Then you'll be aware that things are beginning to lift and restrictions beginning to ease here in the UK.

And that will mean different things to different people.

But certainly we'll all be making tiny adjustments to how we think and how we act and how we feel.

So this meditation brings our attention inwards and we begin to make tiny adjustments within our body to our posture and to our breath all completely within our control.

And having a gentle observation about how those adjustments make us feel.

So just checking in with our posture to start off with.

If you're sitting on the ground or in the chair you might be cross-legged like I am.

Or perhaps you'll have your feet flat down on the floor and just sitting nice and comfortably.

Bring your hands so the backs of the hands are resting on the knees and just have those resting there.

Take a moment to lengthen through the spine and give the shoulders a little roll around.

Just to release any tension that might be stored here.

And then whenever you're ready close your eyes or soften your gaze down on a fixed point.

Perhaps you can hear the sounds of life around you.

And you might choose to weave those into your practice as a soundtrack.

Or perhaps now you'll just turn the volume down on life for these 10 to 15 minutes.

But what's important is that our mind is just focused on one thing if we can try and do that.

So you might choose to focus on the weight of the body on the ground or on the chair.

And you can check in through your feet,

Your sit bones and your hands.

And you can move between those three points which are anchoring us and guiding us,

Grounding us in this moment.

So checking in with feet,

Sit bones,

Hands.

And maybe now you'll begin to feel the rise and fall of your breath within your body.

It might feel good just to take some nice deep breaths.

Breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth,

Almost releasing a sigh.

And then whenever you feel comfortable you might like to close your mouth and start to breathe in and out through your nose.

And at first we can try and balance the breath,

The length of the inhale and the exhale.

So you can count the length of your in breath and match it to your out breath.

Try and focus on the sensation of your breath,

Breathing in,

Feeling that connection.

Breathing out,

Releasing any tension or resistance to your meditation.

Breathing in,

Connection,

Breathe out,

Relaxation.

So the first adjustment that we are going to make is to start to bring our fingers to our thumb.

And you can choose which finger you bring at any one time to your thumb.

And you might like to breathe in as the fingers connect and breathe out as the finger and the thumb releases.

So you are just making that tiny adjustment which will change the experience of your practice.

And just notice what that experience now is.

You've made a small change,

A minor adjustment which has changed your experience.

And now just bring the hands down onto your lap,

Either palms down or palms up.

And refocus back onto your breath.

The next adjustment is that we are going to try and make the breath a little longer.

So whereas you are counting the breath in and out,

Try and make the breath at least one or even two beats longer as you breathe in and out.

A minor adjustment which changes your experience.

Notice how you feel.

And now bring your chin down towards your chest,

Releasing your neck.

And when it feels right you might like to lift your head up towards the sky,

Relaxing your jaw.

And again,

Chin to the chest,

Aligning your breath and then lifting the head,

Relaxing the jaw.

Again,

A minor adjustment,

A small change,

Observing your experience.

And then bringing the face back to the front,

Just tucking the chin just slightly towards the chest.

So now we are going to introduce a pause between the inhale and the exhale.

And this pause can be as long as you like,

It might be one beat,

It might be the same length as your breath in and out.

So now introduce a little pause in between your inhale and your exhale.

A minor adjustment,

A small change.

Notice how you feel.

Notice what happens in those moments of pause.

And you can choose whether you want to continue with that pause or return simply back to an inhale and exhale.

And then when you're ready,

Lift your shoulders towards your ears as you breathe in.

Let the shoulders drop as you breathe out.

Continue now for a few more moments.

Notice how this changes your experience.

And draw the shoulders down away from the ears.

Notice how you feel.

And finally bring your hands together,

Linking the fingers as if you're holding the hand of a loved one.

You can bring your thumbs to your heart or rest your hands down on your lap.

And just squeeze the hands as you breathe in and release the hands a little as you breathe out.

And just know that life is full of tiny changes,

Small adjustments that we make all the time.

And as we hold the hands here,

We can feel the support and comfort.

Just know that we can take it one step at a time,

Doing what feels right for us in that moment without any judgment or any pressure.

Take three deep breaths together to finish.

So breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

And two more.

And just notice how you feel.

And slowly bring your hands up and give them a little bit of a rub.

Create some warmth and some heat.

And just hover your hands over your eyes.

Blinking your eyes open inside your hands when you're ready.

And bring your hands down whenever your feels right to do so.

And I hope that's a nice little practice for you as we begin to open up,

Maybe do more to see people and everyone is in a completely different situation but hopefully that practice will be useful for you whenever you choose to use it.

I hope you have a lovely rest of your day and I'll see you soon.

Bye for now.