Focusing and Stillness

In this next meditation we're going to focus on different parts of our body and become aware of the tension we're holding in these different parts.

We don't realize and aren't aware of the amount of stress our muscles,

Our joints are holding.

So many events in our life causes tension and argument with somebody,

A traffic jam,

Stressful situations at work or at home,

Lack of a good night's rest.

And sometimes it could be a combination of all of these things that add a lot of tension to our body,

To our mind,

To our muscles,

To our organs,

To our joints.

Everything gets affected.

This meditation is going to help us get in touch with ourselves,

Get in touch with our body so that we can become aware of how much tension we're holding in different places and try to consciously remove that tension.

So we're going to bring our awareness from the top of our heads all the way down to our toes and that will guide us through each step of the way.

Go ahead and close your eyes and sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths in,

Focusing just on the breath,

Deep breath going in,

Deep breath going out.

Sometimes it happens that we become so relaxed during the meditation that we end up falling asleep.

And although that is not ideal,

It is understandable that as we start letting go of the tension and stress,

The body starts to relax a little and in that relaxed state begins to fall asleep.

However,

Our goal is to try and not fall asleep,

But at the same time to not be too hard on ourselves if we do because it just means that our body probably needs it.

So after we've taken a few deep breaths in,

We come into the present moment.

Slowly close your eyes,

Sit comfortably.

You can sit either cross legged on the floor,

On a yoga mat or on a chair,

Somewhere that you can maintain a decent body posture for 10 to 15 minutes and if you become uncomfortable in any particular posture,

You can shift to another posture.

The best is to find a posture that you can stay in for around 10 minutes.

Closing your eyes,

Bring your awareness to the very top of your head.

Think only on the very top of your head.

Bring your awareness down to your forehead.

Relax the muscles in your forehead and let your forehead relax.

Bring your awareness to the center of your forehead in between your eyebrows.

And now look inward into your mind and become an observer of your mind.

Are there a few prominent thoughts that your mind keeps on replaying?

Become aware of those thoughts.

Don't fight them.

Don't try to get rid of them.

Just become aware of what is prominent in your mind.

You'll notice that when you observe the mind,

The mind doesn't wander as much.

Now bring your awareness down to your eyes.

Relax the muscles in your eyes.

Looking at the back of your eyelids,

See if you can tell whether your eyes are moving or if they're still.

Now bring your awareness down to your face and relax the muscles in your face and release the tension in your face.

Feeling to breathe comfortably.

Our forehead has been relaxed.

Our eyes are relaxed and our faces relaxed.

Bring your awareness down to your mouth,

Your job,

Release the tension in your job.

When you do this,

Your mouth will open up a little bit.

So let it open up.

Let your tongue slip down to the bottom of the mouth,

Now your mouth is relaxed.

Now bring your awareness down to your neck and shoulders.

Release the tension in your neck and shoulders.

Let your shoulders drop down.

At this point,

To further loosen up the muscles in the neck,

We will do some head circles slowly.

Sitting straight,

Bring your chin into your chest and moving your head to the right or your right ear is over your right shoulder.

Rolling it to the back as if looking up at the ceiling.

Rolling it to the left or your left ear is over your left shoulder.

Bring it back down where the chin is into the chest.

Do a few of these,

Go very slowly and become aware of where the tension is in your neck.

On some sides your neck may be more flexible than the other.

This could be because of the way you slept or your body posture.

Continue to breathe deeply.

After you have done a couple of them,

You can switch directions.

Go the other direction,

Again going slowly,

Releasing the muscles and the tension in your neck.

Continue to sit comfortably.

Back is as straight as possible.

Head is straight.

Bring your awareness down to your shoulders and we can do shoulder circles.

Bring your shoulders up to your ears and roll them forward.

Bring them down.

Roll them back.

Roll them back in such a way that your shoulder blades are touching.

Forcing the chest to open up a little.

Bring them back up towards the ears and again rolling them again down,

Back,

Up.

Continue a few of these circles,

Breathing deeply.

As you breathe deeply and do these circles,

Notice how the muscles in your upper,

Middle and lower back are all getting stretched.

This will allow us to understand the connection between the muscles in our back.

After you have done a few of these,

You can reverse the direction.

Go in the opposite direction.

The circles can be exaggerated,

Really deeply digging into the muscles,

Relaxing the shoulder and back muscles.

Continue to breathe deeply,

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth.

The deep breathing oxygenates the body.

After you have done a few circles,

You can sit comfortably in a relaxed posture.

Now bring your awareness down to your heart.

Sitting as still as you can and focus on the beating of your heart.

This will require a lot of focus to see if you can pick up on your heartbeat.

Become aware of the valuable function of the heart and how it's working 24-7.

If you're able to,

Pick up on the beating of the heart.

Continue to breathe comfortably.

Now bring your awareness slowly down to your stomach and feel your stomach moving in and out with your breath.

Don't try to control the movements of the stomach.

Just become aware of its movements.

Now bring your awareness to the weight of your body sitting on the chair or the mat or cushion,

Whatever surface you're sitting on.

Become aware of the weight of your body pushing down against that surface.

Now bring your awareness to your legs.

Relax the muscles in your legs.

All day long,

The legs are carrying so much weight.

Let's become aware of the tension that they're holding and release that tension.

Now bring your awareness down to your feet and release the tension in your feet.

Now bring your awareness down to your toes.

Relax your toes.

Become aware of your toes.

Now with one slow deep inhalation,

Bring your awareness back up to your legs,

To your stomach,

To your heart,

To your shoulders and neck,

Your mouth and tongue,

Your face,

Your eyes,

Your forehead and to the very top of your head and exhale.

Take another slow deep breath in and exhale,

Meditating on all the parts of the body that we just went through.

Take another deep inhalation,

Completely filling the lungs and a deep exhalation,

Completely emptying the lungs.

Take a moment to sit completely still.

For the next one to two minutes,

We're going to sit completely still where our legs and fingers and arms aren't fidgeting,

Our torso is still,

Our head and neck is still.

Let's take the next minute or two to sit like a statue in complete stillness.

This may be challenging because we're so used to doing so many things at once.

So breathing comfortably,

Take the next minute or two to sit completely still,

Keeping your awareness in your mind.

Take another slow deep breath in.

Bring your awareness to your eyes and slowly open your eyes.

This concludes this segment of focusing on different parts of our body and practicing stillness.