Moving with awareness — 10 minute meditation

For the next ten minutes, nothing is required of you. We will work with the body as it moves, and choose each small next movement from what it gives. This form was handed down to me.

Let the face soften, without arranging it.

Let the jaw hang where it hangs.

Let the shoulders lower by their own amount.

Let the chest be held by the seat or bed.

Let the belly be unworked for this time.

You have a body, and it has carried you all day.

Let the hands rest with their weight.

Let the legs be received by the chair or floor.

Let the feet meet the floor without pressing.

Stay with the whole weight beneath you for a while.

Thoughts will keep arriving, because that is what minds do. Do not try to stop them. When you find you have drifted, come back. That coming back is the repetition. It happens many times in a good sitting.

Find the heaviest point of contact beneath you.

Without shifting, find one smaller contact point that carries less weight.

Compare the two. Which one changes first as you breathe?

Follow one in-breath until you find the first place it moves you, ribs, belly, back, shoulders, or somewhere else.

Wait for the exact instant that movement begins to reverse. Do not help it along.

Choose one small adjustment. Let the head balance differently, lengthen through the spine, or release the hands.

Make only enough movement to find the moment when effort increases. Come back one degree. Find where movement becomes easier.

Do not decide the amount before you move. Let the place where effort changes give you the next amount.

Come back to the weight beneath you. Before a slow transition, locate where your weight is landing.

Choose standing, sitting, lifting an arm, or turning the head. Begin slowly enough to catch when one contact lets go and another takes over.

Pause there for one beat. Then complete the motion without adding speed.

Find the heaviest point of contact beneath you.

Without shifting, find one smaller contact point that carries less weight.

Compare the two. Which one changes first as you breathe?

Choose one action you will do next today, walking, a door, a bag, training, or stretching. When it comes, find the first physical signal that tells you how much force is needed.

Let that signal set the next step, reach, lift, or stretch. Do not use your usual amount automatically.

Come back to the breath, and the small movement it makes.

Feel the whole body where it is resting now. Move the fingers and toes.

Let the sounds of the room come in around you.

When you are ready, let the eyes open.

See what you learned about your own mind in these minutes.

When your hand reaches a door today, check your weight and the force needed, then let the first response set the size of the movement. Let the mind be as it is as you go back to it.