Arriving Meditation

So just taking a moment to get really comfortable and settling in here for this meditation. And when you're ready, allowing the eyes to lightly close. And then just taking three deep, slow, full breaths now. So just breathing in. And breathing out.

Two more breaths like that in the same way. And with each exhale, just having a sense of letting any tension or tightness in the body just soften a little. Letting the whole body just relax into the present moment. Just relaxing to gravity. And then at the end of the next exhale, just letting your breath return to its own natural rhythm.

Just relaxing any control of the breathing. But just staying in touch with the feeling of the breath in your body. Just having a sense of resting attention on the wave-like movement of the natural breath. As best you can, just being present with each breath. So one of the biggest obstacles to being fully present in any given moment is that we tend to get really caught up in the idea of trying to find our fulfillment in the future.

We're always trying to get somewhere else, become something more or better, or have something more, fix things and solve things. You know, we're always waiting to get there instead of being fully here. And so easily, our whole life can then become a haze of rushing and striving and automaticity. Zen monk, poet and peace activist tThich Nhat Hanh often spoke about this tendency we have to not truly inhabit our moments and he teaches a mantra to help us drop that tendency and come back to the present moment. The mantra is: I have arrived.

I am home. So this is meditation really. It's arriving right here in your life. It's training in being fully alive. So let yourself arrive fully here, in your body, in your being in this moment.

Just arriving in feeling the flow of the breath in your body. Just feeling the breath. Nothing but the breath. And as this practice finishes, taking a deep breath in. And letting it go.

And just beginning to wriggle the fingers and toes. And when you're ready, you can open the eyes. So as you go about the rest of your day, just remembering that if at any time today you find yourself feeling rushed, disconnected, or caught up, you can always come home to the peace of the present moment by repeating the mantra, I have arrived. I am home. I'm wishing you a wonderful day.