Do a real quick warm-up if you rub the palms of your hands together,
Briskly for a few seconds,
Just warming up the palms of the hands.
And then when the palms are a little bit warm,
Just resting them gently over the eyes and forehead,
Feeling the warmth of the hands,
Taking that warmth into the eyes or imagining,
Picturing that,
Picturing,
Taking that warmth into the eyes and the muscles around the eyes and letting the eyes relax,
Letting go of tension in the forehead,
Noticing if there's any tension in the jaw,
Clenching,
Holding tightness in the jaw.
If so,
Just having the intention to let that go with a gentle exhalation.
Then bring the hands down to the front of the body,
Down to the chest,
The heart area,
Realizing that there is a language of touch that we all instinctively respond to,
Having the intention of sending a healing,
Nurturing,
Caring,
Comforting touch to the heart area,
Heart and lung area,
Imagining the heart,
Sensing that quality of touch,
Feeling the warmth of the hands,
Taking that in,
Imagining the heart sort of sighing and relaxing and releasing under that touch of the hands,
Feeling the warmth of the hands,
Feeling and relaxing and releasing under that touch of the hands and returning that quality of feeling back to the hands so there's a flow of pleasant sensation between the hands and the heart.
Just resting in that,
Fluctuating in that flow of sensation between the hands and the heart.
And then bring the hands down to the navel area,
The lower abdominal area,
Again,
Feeling the warmth,
The weight,
The solid presence of the hands,
The reassuring touch of the hands,
Taking that touch into the abdominal area,
Imagining the heart,
The soul,
And then bringing the hands down to the navel area,
The lower abdominal area,
Feeling the warmth of the hands,
Taking that touch into the abdominal area,
Imagining the abdominal area,
Kind of going,
Oh,
That feels good,
And sort of relaxing,
Opening to that touch and returning sensation to the hands.
So it's kind of like the hands and the abdomen,
Pleasant sensations,
Friendly sensations.
And again,
This is something you can do anytime sitting down,
Laying down,
You don't have to be formally meditating,
You can just sit down,
Rest your hands on your heart or on your stomach or abdomen and bring your attention there.
Think about bringing relaxation to this,
Check in with that area,
Bring relaxation to it.
You can do that for like 30 seconds,
60 seconds.
So now bringing your attention to the feet and what they're resting upon and noticing sensation in the soles of the feet.
How do you know that your feet are touching something?
There's like some sensation there.
And letting your attention go into that sensation,
Letting your attention mingle with the sensations and notice what that quality of touch feels like.
And then bringing the attention up to the backs of the legs and the hips where they're making contact with the chair and noticing those touch sensations along the skin there.
Noticing how you're being held by the chair and you're relaxing into it,
You're trusting the chair and you're relaxing into it and it's holding you.
And there are feelings that we call pressure where the body is pressing into the chair and there's feelings of what we call warmth.
Those are the words.
But what are the feelings?
Go into the chair and let the feeling go into the feeling.
Taste the feelings.
That's it.
Let yourself just dwell with those feelings for a moment.
Like a scuba diver diving down,
Examining the coral,
Watching the schools of fish.
You're observing the sensations.
And then noticing the hands and the forearms and what they're resting upon.
And again,
Just experiencing the touch.
And then just being able to see the touch.
Not the word touch,
But the actual touch.
Not the word touch,
But the actual touch.
Notice whether when you actually kind of drop into the sensations,
Whether the very act of dropping into sensations is of itself kind of relaxing,
Produces some relaxation.
Bringing your attention to the sensations of the breath in the nostrils.
So feeling that little current of air that's brushing up against the interior of the nostrils.
And then just feeling the breath in the nostrils.
And then just feeling the breath in the nostrils.
And then just feeling that little current of air that's brushing up against the interior of the nostrils and moving gently against the delicate surface of the nostrils.
You can feel some sensation there.
And then picturing that current of air moving from the nostrils down the throat and into the nostril.
And understanding that the lungs are filling with air.
And noticing that as that happens,
The chest expands and in fact the entire rib cage expands,
So not only in the front,
Along the sides of the ribs and also in the back.
And again,
If at any time you find that it's hard to notice that,
You can always rest a hand there just to confirm to yourself,
Hey yeah,
There is motion there when I breathe.
Even with a very small breath there's some motion.
So breathing in,
It's like filling this balloon with air.
It's like the rib cage expands like a balloon.
And then breathing out,
It's like letting some of the air out of the balloon.
Just releasing,
Expanding and releasing.
Taking in and letting go.
Each time you exhale,
It's relaxing,
It's letting go.
When you finish exhaling,
The lungs just naturally fill up with air again.
It's like the ocean water rushing onto the beach.
When you exhale,
It's like letting go.
It's like the ocean water receding back out again in these rhythmic waves coming in and going out.
And then bringing your attention finally down to the lower abdominal area,
Down around the navel or just a little bit lower,
That general area.
As the diaphragm moves during breathing,
There is pressure put on the abdomen,
Creates some movement there.
So notice that rhythmic movement in the abdomen,
Even if it's only very slight.
If it's hard to notice,
Rest one or both hands down by the abdomen to make it easier to notice the movement.
And just as an experiment,
You could imagine or visualize or pretend that as you breathe in that you could draw the breath all the way down the throat,
Down into the lungs,
Down further below the lungs,
All the way down into the tip of the abdomen.
So that's imaginary of course,
But you could visualize that and see what it feels like when you imagine that you're breathing into the abdomen directly.
So we're just going to continue being aware of the breath,
And also you can be aware of other sensations in the body as well,
But the main focus is the breath,
The central focus I should say.
So trying to notice the in-breath and the out-breath.
And it can help your mind stay a little more focused if you label that to yourself,
In,
Out,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Or you can count breaths if you like.
Count ten breaths and start over again.
And you can drop those labels anytime you want to.
If you're not trying to be saying,
I can only notice the breath,
You're just trying to pay more attention to the breath.
Get interested in the breath.
Get fascinated by the breath.
And you may notice thoughts arising in the periphery,
But you're not called,
You don't feel called to pay a lot of attention to them,
You don't have to try and get rid of them because you're not feeling drawn towards spending a lot of time with them.
But if you accidentally get distracted,
At some point you're going to wake up to that.
That moment of waking up is a moment of mindfulness.
It's a moment of spontaneous mindfulness and awareness.
So that moment in itself is exactly what you're looking for.
So when you do get distracted it gives you an opportunity then to experience the very alert quality of waking up to what's happening.
And then you go back to the breath.
And then you go back to the breath.
CAPCOM 11,
This is Houston.
CAPCOM 11,
This is Houston.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
CAPCOM Roger.
