Guided Meditation: What Are You Doing Right Now?

What are you doing right now?
I’m gonna venture a few guesses.
Play along with me.

Let yourself go nice…

and…

slowly…

as you read this words.

First, I assume that you’re seeing.
That’s something you’re doing right now.
Take a moment to notice that you’re seeing.
You’re seeing these words on the screen.

Play with this act of seeing for a few moments.
You’re welcome to look away from the screen
and softly gaze around you.
Take in the colors and shapes,
the play of light and darkness.

Nothing to fix, nothing to critique.
Just keep it simple: Seeing is happening.

Feel your eyes. If they’re tense, invite some softening.
Feel free to close them if you’d like.
I’ll be here when you come back!

So, seeing is happening.
I also assume that you’re breathing.
The breath comes and it goes.

Give yourself the gift of a nice, refreshing breath or two.
Let it be whole-bodied.
Your entire body is breathing.

If you’re feeling tense and rushed,
let your breath soften and soothe you.
If you’re feeling dull and disconnected,
let the breath bring vitality.

See if you can let the next breath be reaaally refreshing.
Savor it; luxuriate in it.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Let the whole body breathe.

I’m also gonna guess,
as you see and as you breathe,
that thinking is happening in your mind.

One thought, then another…
No problem!
It’s what the mind does.
See if you can allow thoughts
to arise and fall away
for a few moments.

You’re giving yourself permission
to see thoughts as thoughts,
without getting caught up in their content,
without getting lost in their story.
You’re letting the thoughts rise and fall like ocean waves.

So…

Seeing is happening…

Breathing is happening…

And there are the movements in the mind.

What else is happening?
Allow your awareness to make room for whatever is arising right now.
Maybe there are sounds.
Maybe there are physical sensations.

You’re simply relaxing back
into the vast sky of awareness,
which contains the rise and fall of all this activity.

Notice the aliveness that’s here
in this pulsing,
breathing,
vibrating
body.

What happens as you
relax
into this experience?

Just being curious, open.
See if you can make room for whatever arises next
in this living, breathing body.
Making room in awareness for this aliveness.

We’re keeping the basics in mind:
Seeing is happening.
The breath is flowing through you,
refreshing you.
Thought-forms rise and fall away.
Sounds and sensations come and go.

Lovely!
Take as long as you’d like
making room in awareness
for this aliveness…

Now, I want to invite you
to remember a time
when you felt valued
or safe
or hopeful
or loved
or nourished.

No pressure to think of anything special.
Just read those words and see what bubbles up.
If you can’t find a particular memory,
feel free to make one up.

Once you’ve conjured an experience
of feeling valued or safe or hopeful or loved or nourished,
notice what happens in your body.

Really let in this experience
of being valued or safe or hopeful or loved or nourished.
Try to soak up any pleasant aspects of this experience.

Maybe you notice the pleasantness
in how you’re breathing,
or how your heart feels,
or how your muscles feel…

Savor any feelings of opening,
of refreshment,
of ease,
of connection.

We often focus only on the parts of our experience
that are unpleasant—
the discomfort and pain,
the problems and worries.

So, here, we’re allowing our awareness
to include the pleasant.

Even if you’re feeling 99% unpleasant in this moment,
be curious about the 1% that’s pleasant.
Even if it’s merely the sensation
at the tip of your nose :)

Feel for any sense of a “smile of the heart,”
and just notice what’s comes next.
Being curious.
Opening to the aliveness that’s here.
Making room in awareness
for your own tender heart.

This tender heart
that has such capacity
for opening,
for expanding,
for connecting.

This vast awareness
that can hold so much,
that contains the rise and fall
of all things.

As we close this exercise,
take a moment
to savor
anything from this meditation that’s been useful.

Let the goodness seep into your tissues.
Know that you can access it anytime.
It’s in you.

*** 

Good work, my friend!
Being with ourselves can be difficult.
I celebrate your capacity to “be with,”
your capacity to open,
to turn toward what’s here,
to inhabit this body,
to connect with this aliveness.

Whatever is here right now—
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral—
is something we can learn from,
something we can use to incline us
in the direction of wisdom and peace.