Welcome to another meditation with me,

Henry Shookman. There are so many ways

that meditation can help us. There are

tons of different techniques and methods

and approaches and all of them have

something to offer us. Uh but at the

same time there is a meditative path

that's about doing less not so much

about deploying a method or a technique

as simply about learning to kind of drop

everything to not be doing anything and

to be coming back to an intrinsic

peaceful well-being that we all have as

part of our very nature. but we're not

very used to tapping into it on the

whole. And in this meditation, we're

going to be exploring that and seeing if

we can get a taste of it and a taste of

the wonder of meditation as a kind of

nondoing or at least as a doing less.

So, let's come into a comfortable seated

position. I, you know, invite you to get

your hands arranged where they they can

be very relaxed in the lap or on the

thighs. Get your body arranged

comfortably. You know, you can it's fine

to be sitting upright in a chair. But if

you're not having your spine supported,

then try to be balanced. So your head is

approximately over your seat and ears

over shoulders and shoulders over hips.

A short poem to bring us in. Let the

quiet come.

Let the quiet come.

Don't do anything.

Just let it come.

It will flow in by itself.

The one tide you've always been waiting

for. It's coming. The air has sensed it

and gone still.

The walls, the floor, the windows, they

already know it's just one breath away.

Let the quiet come.

Be still.

Wait.

Don't do a thing.

So on that note,

let's

set down a need to do

a need to perform our meditation.

On the contrary,

we just let meditative awareness come by

itself.

So I invite you to close your eyes if if

you haven't already closed them or lower

the gaze if you prefer that

and just come into

awareness

of this moment

of being still

and of unplugging

from the activities of your day.

This is a kind of respit,

a refuge,

a sort of oasis that you can come back

to in yourself in your very own

experience.

An inner peace that's actually here

waiting for all of us

just by being still

and being quiet.

and letting our whole system

power down.

letting our whole system go into a kind

of idle,

a restfulness,

an ease

that's simply here

when we

detach, unattach

from the to-do list, our agenda, our

activities.

They'll be waiting for us to pick up

again, no problem, after this little

spell

of quiet.

So sensing your body,

sensing its stillness

and just noticing

is there a kind of quiet

that's present?

Can you taste

the quality of your own awareness?

Can you sense

a certain

restfulness

in your body

as it's invited into stillness?

What's it like to grant yourself a

little window, a little pocket of time

where you don't have to do anything,

where it's actually endorsed

to do nothing.

to let go of doing just for a little

bit.

It's an opportunity actually

to reset,

to restore ourselves,

to recharge

because

we're doing

less.

It's also a time when we come back to

something

a little more fundamental

in who we are.

a kind of return

to something that we've been that's been

an inner innermost part of our being

all along.

That's still here kind of patiently

waiting to be recognized.

Just a moment more of not doing.

Of just being

quietly

being.

Let's bring a little movement into the

feet and the toes to the hands and

fingers.

Let's raise the gaze, open the eyes,

have a little look around you, the space

that you're in. Have a little stretch if

that feels supportive and nice.

Great. Thank you very much again for

joining me in this meditation. Next time

we're going to be exploring how to work

with stress.