It's easy to get caught up in our fast-paced world and in doing so we often forget to pause.
Today we're going to focus on just slowing things down and noticing any feelings of impatience.
Creating this space can allow us to cultivate more patience in our lives.
So you can start this meditation in an upright but comfortable seated posture.
Allow yourself to relax here by taking a big inhale and a big exhale.
Allowing your shoulders to just drop down towards the ground beneath you.
Allow your eyes to gently close here if you're comfortable.
As you're seated here you can allow yourself to just be.
Are you already noticing any feelings of rushing or impatience?
Perhaps even to get this meditation started and finished.
This is your time to just be in your body.
Only this body and only this breath sitting here.
Joseph Goldstein,
A mindfulness teacher,
Will often talk about the feeling of leaning forward into the next moment.
But if we're constantly leaning forward how can we ever fully experience this moment right here,
Right now?
Can you pause and set the intention to just be in this moment?
Not the next one or the one after that.
Just here,
Right now.
Breathing in and softening with each exhale.
Noticing if there's any tension in the body right now.
Perhaps in the jaw or the muscles of the face.
A clenching in the belly.
Wherever there might be tension or holding allow it to release with each new breath.
We can pause to notice anything that's arising in our direct experience.
What is going on for you in the body right now?
What can you notice with patience?
There's nothing that should be happening or must happen right now.
We're just resting here in this body.
Perhaps you're noticing the movement of air coming into and leaving the body as air rushes past the nostrils or the rising and falling of the abdomen.
Perhaps there's sound in your direct surroundings which are calling your attention.
Whatever it is that you're noticing,
We create space to notice what is happening right now.
There's nothing that needs to happen.
Nothing that needs to get done.
Notice if there's a sense of leaning forward.
Perhaps to the end of this meditation or the next thing on your to-do list.
Give yourself this time to just be in this body and with this breath.
Can you simply be with each new breath,
Sensation or thought with a sense of patience?
If you notice that your mind has wandered and you're getting totally caught up thinking about the future or the past,
That's okay.
Slowly and without a sense of rushing or judgment,
Return to the feeling of the body sitting here breathing.
Creating some space to notice what is happening for you right now.
We are practicing to pause,
Make space and just be with this moment.
There's nowhere to be but here.
There's no need to change the breath or our experience.
We're just resting and noticing what's going on for us right now.
Just this breath.
Just this body.
Nothing else to attend to right now.
Cultivating the ability to create space for this moment without constantly leaning forward into the future can allow us to be really present with our current moment and slow things down enough so that we can savor them.
As we end this meditation,
Notice if you're leaning into the moment that you will open your eyes.
Can you pause,
Take a breath and feel it?
Slowly you can open the eyes and reorient to the space around you.
Thank you for your practice and see you next time.
