Dear listener,
I invite you to close your eyes and Imagine for a moment, you are beside the sea. You are seated on the warm sand facing the ocean. All you hear are the waves as they come and go. From a distance you can see the early morning sun beginning to show from the horizon.
The warm breeze brushes your cheeks and you can taste the saltiness in the air. As you become comfortable seated here, let your body sink into the warm sand.
Allow every limb to loosen, your feet, your knees, your arms and shoulders and neck. Relax your jaw, loosening the tension. Sink your hips further into the sand. Follow with me the warmth from the sand as it begins to travel through your lower back one vertebrae at a time, be present in how your spine connects and is holding you up and when you get to the top of your neck take a deep breath filling your lungs, gently and slowly exhale, letting out everything that was holding the stress inside you. Continue with me, taking deep inhales and exhales, breathing in the new morning air and letting out every tension that isn’t serving you. Allow yourself to pay gratitude to this day, to yourself and to the universe.
This exercise is considered a form of meditation, it takes minutes to perform yet the benefits can be immeasurable.
I was once, one of those individuals that associated mediation with hour long silence or chanting religious sermons. And like many others I associated meditation with a practice performed much later in life when one has retired from duties and responsibilities. I thought people who had much time on their hands and ones who had given up on life’s zest meditated.
I was so wrong, it’s much rather the opposite. Meditation is simply an exercise for the mind. It’s focusing and relaxing for a period of time. We all need this simple practice in our lives at all ages. There is no right or wrong way or any length of time for practice. The key is to just simply sit and be mindful of the present. The mind needs to be still for some time to be able to focus clearly. Just as we cannot continuously run marathons without allowing our body to recover the same concept applies to our minds. It is hard for many, myself included to quieten the mind or even sit still. Yet the key is to let your mind wander but then bring it back to the present, dissociating from the past or future. It’s a form of detachment we must practice, allowing ourselves to be who we are in the present moment. Not allow another’s action to shift our mind. When we suffer we are in fact refusing to accept what is. We should learn not to react but respond to a situation. Never to force anything and focus on efforts, not always on the outcome. Know the difference between wanting and needing because what we want is not always what we need. Learn to secure an attachment with ones self. Aligning, healing, forgiving, for all these practices it is essential to look within and you can only do that if your mind is present and still.
So I invite you to go back to the beginning of this recording and take a minute or so and just sink into simple gratitude, observing mindfulness as you slide into deep relaxation. be a little selfish, a little thankful and appreciate life, do it for yourself.