So begin by finding a comfortable posture with your feet making full contact with the floor and the back nice and upright but not stiff.
Just finding an easy posture that will help you to stay alert and at the same time be quite natural and relaxed.
You might want to rest your hands on your knees or gently place them together in your lap.
And just taking a couple of intentionally slower deeper breaths now to allow yourself to become a bit more settled in your seat.
If you feel comfortable closing your eyes then feel free to let them gently close.
Or if you'd prefer to keep them open that's totally fine.
Just maybe drop your gaze a little and let your focus be soft.
So not staring at anything in particular.
It's very common as we begin a meditation for there to be a lingering sense of the busyness of whatever we were doing or thinking about just moments before.
And this is normal.
But I want to invite you now as best you can to let go of what was happening before.
And simply let your awareness arrive in this moment.
Noticing the feeling of your body in contact with the seat.
Maybe getting a sense of the gravity in your lower body.
Gently pushing down and securing you in place on the surface of your chair.
And bringing your attention to your feet.
Noticing the sensations of your feet in contact with the floor.
And now guiding your awareness to the whole of your body sitting here.
And your posture.
Nothing more complicated than just sitting and knowing that you're sitting.
In any moment,
No matter what's going on,
The body is always already present.
And now you're simply allowing your attention to join it where it is.
Having a break from all the doing.
Stepping out of that autopilot mode.
And taking a moment to simply be with what's here right now.
And bringing your attention now to your breath.
Just becoming aware of the natural flow of the body breathing.
Not thinking about or analysing how you're breathing,
But rather feeling into the sensations of breathing.
The way it feels in the body as you breathe in and out.
Just breathing in and know you're breathing in.
Breathing out and knowing you're breathing out.
And noticing if there's a place where you feel the breath most prominently in the body.
Maybe it's the feeling of coolness in the nostrils or the throat as the air flows in on the inhale.
And how it might be warmer on the exhale.
Or maybe it's the rising and the falling of your chest.
Or maybe it's the sensations to do with the expanding and softening of the abdomen.
Lifting and lowering the diaphragm as the breath reaches way down into the belly.
Whichever part you seem to notice the most,
Just allow your attention to rest there.
And see if you can stay connected to the flow of sensations in that area as you continue to breathe in and breathe out.
Just like waves,
Ebbing and flowing on a beach,
The breath always finds its own natural rhythm.
So there's no need to try to control it in any way,
Making it deeper or slower than it naturally wants to be.
We're just welcoming and following each breath as it is,
Investigating how it feels with a light and continuous awareness.
To stay connected with the breath,
You may find it helpful to use a soft mental note with each in and out breath.
Almost like a whisper in the mind,
You might say,
In and out.
Or rising and falling if you're following the movement of the chest or the belly.
So just lightly resting your attention on each breath,
Letting it come and letting it go.
If you find that at any time your mind wanders off and you've stopped paying attention to the breath,
Just know that it's 100% normal.
We're not trying to stop the mind from thinking,
But we are practising becoming aware of when the mind is thinking.
It's the moment you notice you've been distracted with a thought that is the real moment of mindfulness.
And all you need to do is simply acknowledge it without any judgement.
Notice where the mind went,
And then gently guide your attention back to the breath.
It really isn't a problem at all if you get distracted many times during a single meditation.
It's the noticing and the coming back that is the practice.
So just being with one breath at a time.
Just feeling this breath.
And now this one.
Seeing how closely you can follow the whole cycle of each breath.
The beginning,
Middle,
And end of each inhale and each exhale.
Perhaps even noticing if there's a slight pause between an in-breath and an out-breath.
And between an out-breath and an in-breath.
So simple.
Nothing to do but let your awareness rest on the sensations and the flow of the body breathing.
Just breathing in,
Knowing you're breathing in.
And breathing out,
Just knowing you're breathing out.
So beginning to expand your awareness now to include the whole body once again.
Feeling your posture,
Feeling the points of contact with the seat and the floor.
And feeling your hands resting where they are.
And as this meditation comes to an end,
Just know that no matter how busy life gets,
Or how many things there are to think about,
You can always take a momentary pause.
Connect to the feeling of being here in your body with the ground beneath you and take a few mindful breaths.
So if your eyes have been closed,
Maybe blinking them open.
Perhaps you might like to have a bit of a stretch as you reorient yourself to the space around you.
And just take a moment to notice how you feel.
And if it's the same or different to how you felt before the meditation.
Thank you for practicing with me.
I look forward to being with you again in our next session.
