Welcome.
This is Iman Khan with Blooming Minds.
Today I will lead you through a guided 10-minute visualization.
Find a position that you can be comfortable in,
Whether it's sitting upright or lying down.
Just be sure whatever position you choose is one in which your breathing is not restricted,
Allowing you to breathe fully and deeply.
There is no right or wrong position.
Whatever position is best for you is most ideal.
You will hear the sound of a bell in the beginning of the meditation and then at the end.
Do your best to follow the sound as long as you can and then I will begin to guide you.
Go ahead and place both of your hands on the lower part of your abdomen.
We're going to take some very deep,
Full,
Intentional breaths.
We're going to exaggerate the inhalation and the exhalation.
As you take your breath in,
I want you to push out that lower stomach,
Expanding it as though it were a balloon inflating.
Then as you exhale,
Really pull that stomach in as though you're tightening up your muscles for a sit-up.
Go ahead and exaggerate that inhalation and exhalation several times.
Our goal is to get the diaphragmatic muscle engaged,
Giving our brain's attention to that part of the body to really breathe deeply and fully.
Slowly allow your breath to return to its regular pace without exaggerating the inhalation and the exhalation,
Allowing your body to breathe deeply and fully,
No pushing or pulling.
You may leave your hands here if it's comfortable for you or you can leave one hand on your lower abdomen and put another on your chest just to be very mindful throughout the meditation of whether or not your breath is beginning to move to a shallow place,
Only breathing in the chest.
Or if you'd like,
You can just leave your hands by your side.
Again,
There is no right or wrong way,
Whatever way works best for you.
I want you to imagine yourself on a path.
The path is very clear.
There is no overgrowth.
It has been walked on often,
Covered in dirt.
And this path is leading you into a beautiful forest.
The trees are majestic and grand.
There are so many wonderful sights to behold,
Sounds to hear.
And you know exactly where you're going and direction of the path.
That is your intention.
You may not know exactly where the path is leading,
But you know the direction that you have chosen to head in.
And that is what's most important.
Clearly making choices allows us to know where we are at any given time,
Even if it's not exactly where we want to be.
Meditation and mindfulness is like this.
As we sit still in meditation and focus on our breath,
Perhaps,
Whatever our choosing is in that moment to focus on,
Sometimes our minds begin to wander.
You bring attention to so many other things that come into our awareness,
Whether it be a sound,
A sensation,
A smell,
A feeling.
And instead of being conscious of it coming to our attention,
Sometimes we just follow it blindly.
And somehow we end up completely off the path in the middle of the woods,
Unaware of how to get back.
And instead,
When we consciously choose and decide to pay attention to a thought without judgment,
With compassion,
We allow ourselves to make clear choices.
And if we decide we need to go off the path for a moment,
We know where we are and how to get back.
Life is so much like this.
We get caught in our worries,
In our fears.
We think we know the direction we're heading in.
And then something happens and we become confused,
Doubtful.
We think we need to do something,
Completely reroute where we're going,
Because maybe it's not correct.
Our brains are wired to avoid discomfort.
Discomfort is viewed as pain,
As danger.
And we are so quick to quell this discomfort.
We'll do anything.
We'll run off the path without awareness.
And this often leads us to become even more lost than we were before.
But instead,
When things come up in life and they cause us this discomfort,
These feelings that make us just want to turn away,
If we just stand in a truth we all know with 100% certainty that everything changes.
How you felt this morning or this afternoon or earlier this evening is different than how you feel right now.
Change is the one thing we can count on.
And believe it or not,
We can find comfort in that by knowing if we just keep clear and conscious and aware about the direction we want to be headed in.
We'll know that whatever discomfort we're feeling in that moment will pass.
And it will pass.
We didn't have to do anything.
We didn't have to react.
It passes.
And when it does,
The clouds clear,
The path is apparent again.
And we can feel secure and confident knowing we are empowered in our lives to make choices that are clear and as objective as they can be.
Take a few moments to give yourself gratitude for giving yourself this time today to understand how to be present,
How to be clear,
And how to be aware of how easily we can become reactive to feelings of discomfort and suddenly find ourselves not on the path that we chose.
Thank you.
