Hi,
My name is Neil Sheppard from inner synergy.
Com.
Au Welcome to this meditation about realizing opportunity not just getting stuck in fear So getting started let's let our bodies settle having our back and spine long so if you're sitting up sitting up straight as you can without straining or striving invite you to lightly close your eyes or softly gaze downwards to reduce the sensory input to your brain allowing any obvious tightness to just dissolve in your shoulders,
Your neck,
Your back,
Your face Is your jaw unclenched?
Is your brow released?
Imagine yourself dropping or sliding into a neutral state of being releasing,
Relaxing,
Calm focusing on your hands just for a moment noticing your fingers or you might notice the space between your fingers notice your feet resting on the floor feel the ground underfoot if sitting or notice the ground under your body if you're lying down you may like to tuck your chin in slightly to lengthen your neck a little at the back release relax,
Calm rolling your shoulders backwards and down to loosen any tension we can store a lot of stress in our neck and shoulders just letting anything that's not benefiting you right now to release for the best experience I'd like to invite you to be open curious and receptive with this practice being mindful is about learning to observe our thoughts and emotions without judgment learning to accept what is as opposed to what should be in our mind feeling stable in a comfortable posture remembering that there's not a specific standard to achieve here just giving our mind and body a break from incessant thinking worrying rumination you may find this challenging at first though with practice this will become easier let's have the intention to try and let our body relax while keeping our mind focused in this session when you hear the words released,
Relax or calm you may like to give yourself permission to feel more released,
Relaxed and calm more at ease flowing with your breath remembering this feeling to come back to when you hear the words released,
Relax or calm taking two to three slower deeper breaths down into the belly you could count four as you breathe in and five as you breathe out consciously releasing tension as you breathe allowing tension to release noticing how you feel accepting all thoughts sensations emotions and feelings with our judgment helping us to balance our autonomic nervous system bit like putting on the break from incessant thinking and doing are you able to let go of fearful thoughts?
As a suggestion you could at least try just for this exercise it's very normal for humans to be aware of dangers it's what helps us survive it's just that an overall awareness over an extended period that can affect our physiology so we need to be able to give our mind and body a break from incessant worrying and fearful thinking especially if we're not in a survival situation clearly without downplaying this seriousness of any challenging situation the suggestion is being more aware not constantly alarmed while avoiding catastrophizing of what might happen dealing with real situations with affirmative actions I'd like to suggest there are often good things to notice also like having water and electricity many may not in third world countries it's possibly a time to catch up with communications hobbies reading books that you haven't got around to reading gardening learning a new skill try something artistic painting drawing learning an instrument building something time for meditating learning the importance of being not just being in the habit of doing and feeling uncomfortable if you can't be constantly doing catching up on passions albeit within challenge boundaries learning the futility of thinking it shouldn't be this way the fact is if it is a certain way we may have to just accept it at least for the moment acceptance of what is is such an amazing and liberating skill the skill of self-awareness and self-regulation of thoughts emotions feelings and sensations taking another one to two slower deeper breaths down into your belly not just shallow chest breathing which is what we tend to do when we get caught up in stress and fused in thought body relaxed mind focused but calm at ease letting go of worry and rumination at least just for this exercise some other food for thought are some benefits for our planet because there's so fewer planes now flying less cars on the road this is bound to provide some welcome relief from pollution people are starting to focus on important aspects in life they're off the autopilot trance of endless doing getting more to understand their values rather than just being totally goal focused taking another two slower deeper breaths down into the belly maybe noticing the tummy rise a little slower and slightly deeper than usual you may notice where the breath enters your body letting your body relax be calm embracing a sense of ease as a suggestion only you may like to gently press the top of your thumb against the top of your third ring finger while doing so remembering this feeling of the meditation to come back to when we get caught up in fear and catastrophizing it's hard to still notice some of the basics the good and the great things in our life still sounds cliche but we may have shelter food support love kindness connection humor i've noticed a massive amount of humor has come out of this challenge what is important for you to embrace when practicing mindful living we can notice more that we have a personal personal choice whether our reaction is one of uplifting inspiring thoughts and emotions or if we're stuck in draining states of being like fear anger frustration worry rumination and catastrophizing when i was in napole a few years back visiting a very remote village as part of a goat donation scheme i couldn't help noticing how very little they had they seemed just so content with their lot interestingly after that visit i heard many of the homes were lost in a in a mudslide due to the torrential rain they get each year in the rainy season apparently they were allocated three sheets of iron for shelter could say an upsized version of being challenged there's always opportunities for appreciation of what we have letting our mind and body sense how much we can get caught up in needing things to be just the way we wanted to be and not change to feel at ease when we can manage our awareness and our emotions better we can liberate ourselves from needing things to be a certain way to feel okay we can learn to be okay even if things are temporarily not okay rather than focusing on how the environment is affecting us we could focus outwards on how can i help trying not to avoid or resist anything maybe another one to two slower and deeper breaths down into the belly releasing relaxing calm letting stress and tension just drain away if you are having random thoughts you might like to imagine placing those thoughts on a leaf and letting the thoughts gently float away down the most beautiful stream so when we practice meditation over time we can gain more mental clarity and feel more balanced not get us caught up in our thoughts we can feel more grounded with a better sense of well-being when we practice mindfulness meditation it improves our quality of attention and our ability to better self-regulate thoughts and emotions have you noticed you've given your mind a rest from random thinking and doing how was this opportunity to just be time to finalize our meditation i'd like to suggest you give yourself a mental pack on the back for your efforts when ready slowly bring your attention back gently open your eyes look around where you are maybe rub your face stretch your arms maybe smile welcome back my name is neil shepard from inner synergy.
Com.
Au making a difference good luck with your practice
