Begin this meditation by recognizing how things are right now for you.
How do you feel right now?
Are you comfortable?
Do you feel heavy or light?
If there is anything that gets in the way of your comfort right now,
Feel free to adjust your posture.
I usually sit with my back straight simply to allow free flow of my breath so there's nothing that gets in the way of my in-breath and out-breath.
I invite you to relax your shoulders,
Relax your jaw.
Comfortably place your feet on the floor in the way that you feel supported and grounded.
Place your hands in your lap and begin connecting with the natural flow of your breath.
Breath acts here as a gateway to the inner experience.
The usual obstacle in entering the inner space is that our mind receives many thoughts and we very often completely identify ourselves with those thoughts.
And those thoughts,
When we identify with them,
In turn produce feelings.
And if those feelings persist,
They become emotions,
Eventually states.
And our entire body reflects the nature of the thought that we are identified with.
So when you find that your mind wandered from your breath to a thought or to a bodily sensation or anything else that is not your breath,
Then recognize it.
See it,
That whatever that is,
It is part of our human nature.
It is not outside,
But it is a part that we have a choice to accept or we have a choice to let it pass.
It is us who give the power to the thought forms by engaging with them.
The moment you choose to return to your breath and disengage with the thought pattern,
With the thought form,
You take away the driving force of it and this thought will eventually go to the past,
Will disappear from the canvas of your experience.
In a sense,
The transformation of your inner space happens one breath at a time.
Every time you make the choice of staying with your breath,
The closer you get to the space of relaxation,
The space of ease and comfort,
The space in which your body and mind are in harmony and your nervous system is relaxed.
You can focus on any part of your breath,
But recognize that there are distinct phases in each breath that you take.
There is in-breath,
Pause,
Out-breath,
Pause.
So there are not only active parts of breathing in and breathing out,
But also the stillness parts,
The pauses,
That also are the content that is so easy to miss when you meditate.
Once you recognize it,
Feel free to focus on any part of your breath.
I personally like to emphasize the out-breath because this is my path to deeper relaxation,
Releasing any tension that hides in my body and could cause the thinking process,
Could engage the thinking in various ways.
So now,
I will let you to go deeper within by working with your breath as I stand by your side to hold the space so you feel safe,
Secure and protected in this practice,
In this space.
And now,
From this place of deep relaxation,
I want to invite you to look outward on everything that you are of on the mental level and on the physical level and ask yourself,
Have your perception of the self changed since the beginning of this practice?
Have you experienced the transformation of your point of view,
Transformation of your perception?
Are you looking from the same place as you were at the start?
What has really changed here?
It may happen that you are still experiencing your thoughts coming and going.
Are you able to look at them differently from the distance,
So to speak?
Are you able to look at them without being completely identified with the thoughts themselves,
With the nature of the thoughts?
And now,
It is time to return.
Express your gratitude for this experience,
For the transformation that occurred,
Some of which was on the perceivable conscious level and some of which happened on the level that still unfold over the hours and days to come.
Transformation being a dynamic process that you facilitate every time you turn inward.
Express gratitude for the time you have given yourself and for new understanding that you gained through this practice.
And now,
Begin the process of return to the physical reality that includes your physical senses,
Starting with following the sound of my voice,
Connecting with your vision through observing brighter and darker spots in front of your closed eyes.
Connect with your smell and taste.
And finally,
Connect with your touch by perceiving the boundaries of your physical body and the space around you,
The surface underneath you.
Sensing your feet on the floor,
Your hands in your lap and adding gentle movement,
Starting with your toes,
Moving your fingers,
Slowly and gently tilt your head to the left,
Tilt your head to the right,
Back to the center.
And finish up with one deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
And when ready,
Open your eyes and welcome back.
