Calm Focus

Let's begin by finding a comfortable posture. This could be sitting, lying, down or standing. Something that allows you to be still. If it's comfortable, you can invite your eyes to close. And we'll start by taking a deep breath together.

In through the nose. And slowly out through the mouth. Inviting the jaw to relax and soften. Allowing the shoulders to be at ease. And invite the belly and hands to relax as well.

The breath can come back to its natural rhythm. No need to force it or deepen it, just breathe as you naturally would. And for the next couple of minutes, just practice being with and feeling the breath. If it's helpful, you could place one hand on your belly. Feeling it as it inflates with an inhale.

And deflateswith an exhale. Just following that soft, rhythmic motion, I'll give you some time in silence to practice. In this meditation, we're practicing cultivating the calmness that can come through focus. Each time we cultivate a quality of attention and focus on our breath, we're stabilizing the mind and experiencing some of the stress reduction that can come from that. We'll take it a step further here.

And after each breath, the invitation will be to count a number. So it would sound like this inhale, exhale, and then in your head, count one. Another inhale, another exhale, count two. And you just try to do this until you get to 10. It's a helpful way to monitor when the mind has wandered off so that you could bring it back and deepen that concentration.

So I'll give you a couple of minutes in silence to practice this. If you lose your spot and forget what number you're at, just come back to one. There's no gold star. This is just for your own practice. So try it out.

Good job. And just remember to remain relaxed while you're doing this. It's kind of like a game, but we want to be easeful with it, not get caught up in tension. Okay. Let's take one deep breath together.

In through the nose. Out through the mouth. And when you're ready, you can reorient yourself and allow the eyes to open. Great job. Okay.

So you got to experience some counting meditation. You might've been frustrated with my voice coming in and interrupting, but remember this is not to get to 10 and then you win. The numbers are there to serve as guidance and they help you recognize if your attention has wandered off, because if you've stopped counting that means you stopped being aware. So each time you notice that happening, you just start back at one. This is something you could practice on your own, or you could go back through it in this meditation.

Thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you shortly and take care.