Everybody, and Welcome to our Sunday evening. Meditation. The plan was tonight to, to do two meditations, rather than one long one.

And I thought we would start with, a body scan, and I'll come to that in a few minutes. And the theme really being that sort of autumnal theme is. We walk outside as I did today and there were leaves falling from the trees and I hadn't really got my thoughts together about what felt like.

Important to focus on for all of us tonight. As I walked and the leaves were falling, and I just thought, you know what, I think letting go again, but linking it to the seasons and just that sense that sometimes stuff, we hold on to stuff that we don't need anymore in the same ways that when the time comes, Tree lets go of its leaves, because it's just becoming a bit of a drain on the nutrients as, as we move into sort of, autumn, . And we, we start, I suppose in near winter now, don't we?

And there were still trees falling in the woods that I was walking in today and it was really beautiful, but that sense of letting go, and that made real sense because. The body scan, a big part of the body scan, is this ability to let go. So, particularly if anybody, and I don't know if this will be helpful to any of you, because I don't know whether there's people out there that are struggling with some physical pain at the moment.

And whether you are or not, I suppose, this research probably will interest you because it's, it was a really, again, quite a good, anything in the Journal of behavioural Medicine is tends to be pretty good. It was a, a, a, a good study and even this was just looking at the 10 minute body scan. And they were querying whether a 10 minute body scan would have any immediate benefits, even with a client group, such as those people experiencing chronic pain, and people experiencing chronic pain I've found over my long career in mental health, are one of the most difficult groups of people to, reach really, because the pain blocks so much.

But this research was quite clear in showing that even a 10 minute. Body scan, focusing on chronic pain. Will make quite a significant difference and what the wonderful Dawn has done is put the links up in the chat.

So if any of you, would like to practise either the one we're doing tonight or the specific paying one which is below there, then please do. But that, that really buoyed me up. I'm always looking for, good quality research that points to the fact, as I've always believed that mindfulness.

Goes way way beyond the placebo effect, and this research makes it quite clear that in patients with chronic pain who really practise body scanning. It made a significant difference. And once we've done a body scan today, and I'm not using the one I use for pain, I'm just doing a normal, a bit more of a relaxing body scan I did a rather lovely one, with the emphasis on finding, holding, exploring.

And letting go, and it's, that's, that's the sense. And then we're moving on to have a look at the leads on a stream, but we're doing leads on a stream more mindfully and with a real, I want to play a little bit with the three selves, but we'll come to that after the first meditation. So, if we can, for the body scan, .

Ideally for this we would be lying down and it doesn't matter however, if we're like in our days but again for this one, it is quite a soporific. Meditation, and a lot of people use body scanning for for helping them get off to sleep. And so we don't want to be dropping off, we want to be exploring our bodies.

So let's get ourselves into a position where we're comfortable, but not too comfortable, where we're looking nice and, dignified and refined, but let's also find that mindful half smile. So, let's begin. And let's begin by just taking a moment.

To allow your body to settle into a comfortable. Position Just a few moments. And if you want to, you can close your eyes.

Or maybe just keep them slightly open. Taking your attention. To The spine Before we really move into the rest of the body.

And Just allow our shoulders to soften. And as we move into this process of I mean bodies. Just ask you please to take.

Full breath in. A nice long. Breath out.

Let's begin Bringing our attention. Right the way in 2. Noticing The feeling of the way.

Of your body On the chair or the floor. Or wherever you are. Just allowing that.

Maybe feeling the child holding you. The way the earth holds a lake. Just Holding you.

And as you breathe, as you're being held by the chair. Or the floor Just bring your attention and notice. And your chest And your abdomen.

Expand Now, this allows the air. Just empty your lungs, unencumbered. As we breathe mindfully.

What sensations? Oh yeah, wow. Let's take another Just breathing All the way in Lovely deep breath.

Loving your chest and. Abdomen to expand. To bring awareness to any Sensations that may arise.

And when ready, Let's let go. Of our attention on our breath and our. That's loving me.

With a smile escort our attention. To the top. Noticing any sensations.

And the scalp Just allowing our attention to trickle. Down the And 2 Permeate round. To the sides.

Of our head Holding our attention there. Noticing sensation as we allow that attention to move to the fence. That Bringing curiosity to whether you're holding any tension.

In your job. Just let your face be. Part of letting go sometimes is relaxing.

We relax the muscles around your eyes. And And we soften Let's take another very deliberate. Breath all the way in.

Holding it and breathing. And leaving The breath and all that. No Well then so.

Even quietly saying yourself in your minds. Just soften. So.

Feel any sensations, you know your shoulders. And As you allow your attention to move and let go from your shoulders. We take our attention down to the upper arms.

The elbow And the forearms. And we Attend to our wrists, our hands, and Each one of our fingers. Deliberately Curiously.

Observing for any tightness. A temperature sensations as we find our extremities. That Bringing our attention to our clothing.

Noticing what The fabric of your clothing. Feels like Against your skin. How often do we have a stop in this?

Bring that mindful curiosity. The fabric and skin. Another lovely Deliberate breath in.

And as we let it go, bringing our attention to. Feeling the movement in our chest as we breathe. And And out.

Letting go. It's getting easier to let go. And to escort us down.

Bringing our attention to us. And furiously, again is that and so. And we let it Now we let go.

And we take our attention. Let me find up up up. The lower back.

And we let go of any tension. That we find that From that lower back we travel down to the legs. Let me find.

And knees. A cough muscle. And ha We explore the feeling sensation around our ankles.

And finally bring our attention. To the feet. And we noticed the sensations of your feet.

Against the floor. Be curious as to. The sense of weight.

In the sense of temperature. Maybe even if we really go looking. Feeling of energy That's perhaps present in the feet.

As you continue, Scanning your body and breathing. Let's try now. To hold a whole body.

In observance. From the very top of our head. All the way down to ours as though we were floating in a stream of consciousness.

Bringing our attention to our whole body. Let's just breathe with. Remarkable vehicle.

But we travel a lot. That we put through so much stress and. It's.

And as we close, continue remaining aware of your body as best you can. And let's take a very last breath in. Oh lovely.

Long breath out. Well done, everybody, so. That was a very relaxing.

Of the body scan and we can do. So many different body scans. The one I think recording is a body scan that.

The first one is linear. But the second one trains us to let go of a part of the body, our attention there, and to shift our attention randomly following any pattern as we hone our attention to find pain and let go. And a fine pain again with curiosity.

And like And so it's a really powerful part of this mindfulness. That we sometimes take a little bit for granted because it's one of the first ones most of us learn. So In the spirit of letting go, cause it kind of feels like.

There's a lot to let go of, moment. A lot of stuff there in the news. That we perhaps attached to too much.

And the skill of letting go is one that sometimes gets in the way. But tonight we normally. Use the leads and the stream meditation as a way of helping people use mindfulness.

But my suggestion is let's do a lead on a stream meditation, but let's really focus on. That wonderful sense of Choice And it's the choice of holding on to stuff. Or letting go of it.

It's the choice of meeting stuff and clinging to it, leaf clings to the tree. Or just letting go. And following and honing our ability to let go, let go.

Particularly Oh And I Left the URL which Dawn has really kindly . Sent out to everybody here and . I think it might be one of the most powerful sleep meditations, and so the one we're going to do is today is slightly more based on a cognitive.

Fusion approach, which is about our ability to see thoughts as they really are. As just like clouds sky, or thoughts that sometimes gets. Can be viewed as like evil.

So Before we start, can we? Just for a moment, just. So, if we close our eyes.

And see if we can visualise a stream that runs from the top right hand corner of your consciousness. We're sitting with your head looking straight ahead. Stream runs from above your sort of right.

And it meanders its way almost within touching distance past your nose. And the stream disappears if we turn our head to the left, follow the trajectory of the stream as it disappears somewhere off over our left shoulder. And if we can find that and visualise that, it really helps.

And then let's get the sense of a tree. That's a huge gnarly oak tree that sits right up there on the top right. Side of our consciousness.

And it's autumnal and it's shedding leaves. That should set. Let's prepare and let's get into our second meditation of the leaves on a strain.

So Once again, that's just. Comfortably And for this one, it's usually helpful to close our eyes. If you're struggling with that, To just rest them gently on a fixed spot in the room.

And now let's just find our stream. And let's get a sense of the colour of the light. In this place.

Of the beams of sun is. Causing a dappling effect come through the trees. And the oranges and the greens and yellows.

Fauna And the speed, just Flow steadily. It doesn't tolerance. And it just flows at a very steady.

Very reliable. Very continual pace. And That's just Get that sense of where we're sitting.

I'd like you to imagine you're sitting on the bank. Next to this stream. And if we reached out, Dangle our fingers in that.

But we We're OK here. And essentially we're using our observing mind. We're sitting back and we're looking.

And we're choosing that I don't need to be really. Stuck. I just don't need that at all.

I don't need to be in this. I just need to be on the side, observing. And we look up the stream and we find the.

As we look at the oak, we admire it. Yes. The.

Terminal leaf. That just seesaws its way down. And it lands on our.

I mean what With curiosity. And it's just carried. As it comes towards us, we have choices.

I can reach in and pick it out if I want. Or I can just be happy with me. Cause I'm comfortable.

And calm. So I watched that beef. Stream carry.

It feels good to just watch and let go. And as we look up at the. Sure enough, another one comes.

The seesaws down. And it lands without a splash. On a string.

And stream carries it. And holds that Sun shines on it. And that leaf Again, just passes by.

Close enough to touch and be smile at it. And we We feel the sun on our face. The comfortableness of our position.

And we What? A leaf falls from that tree. As it comes down, we know.

And it lands in our stream. And we watched again enjoying. Sitting Well And letting go I And we realised that We can Just a loud stuff.

To come And to go. So, Let's just close our eyes. Our busy brains, our chattering chimp.

And that's Do you know if there are any thoughts there. Any thoughts at all, just Send me a thought. No matter what the thought comes, even if the thought that our minds.

Can't find a thought. Which is a thought. Let me take that.

And we hold it like we cradle it. And we noticed that. We can sit and be curious about this thought.

We can allow this thought in, and we can wrestle with it. Or we can Choose perhaps. To let it go.

And We wait Watch a leaf fall again. And it lands on. And as the stream Carries the leaf Gets closer to us.

And we smile. And we take that thought and we. And it lands on the.

And the leaf carries it away. We've just let go of. We didn't get into it explore it.

Because after all it is only a the brain needs to. And I've got a choice if it's. So we say to the mind, me not.

I thought about being back at work. And our mind sends us a picture maybe or a picture and some words which. And we hold that lightly.

And we smile. And we look out. And obligingly.

The tree sheds a leaf. And the Cascades and seesaws down. And lands without a square.

We sit back and we smile. We know what we're doing. And as the leaf is carried towards us.

Be very gently hold whatever the thought is. And just as the leaf comes across, we just blow. The thought sprinkles off on them.

And the letters. On the leg. My thoughts How many?

And it disappears. Let's just do one more thing. So let's find a thought.

Well, something. Notice it's just. And we just hold that one down in the palm of.

And We want Was from the tree. And as it lands in the stream. We smile.

Instead of getting caught up in this thought, We're gonna choose to just Yeah. And as the leaf nears us, as it passes right in front of us, we hold that thought in our open wood willing hands, and we blow. And the letters and the pictures cascade.

Just like seeds from a tree. And they land on our. And a leaf takes it away.

And we sit back and realise that we do have choices. We don't have to. Become stuck with thoughts.

You can just let them go. Well done, everybody. And if we can really harness that mindful.

Diffusion skill. During these tough, tough times. It stops us from getting caught up in A really difficult situation.

And if it does, then, If we do get caught up in this stuff, it erodes our sense of wellbeing. And so my suggestion is, is, just make sure that we're really building our capacity, go of stuff. So I'm just checking, oh.

So I've just checked as you can see probably and. It does appear, I see that that wasn't working so well before, but it does seem to be working, it might. I wasn't sure why that wasn't working particularly well, but it does seem like we were struggling a little bit earlier.

So, anyway guys, thank you so much for joining me today. And Engaging in our Sunday mindfulness, I'll just see if I play with. But Let me just get the Let me just get that back up again.

And thank you all so much. Or participate tonight. I hope that was useful for everybody, but have a very good and lovely night tonight and we'll see you all again in a couple of weeks.

Oh, got a Q and A. Is it true you need to be on for 8 days to truly relax? .

I haven't come across that one, Hi. I don't think that's true. I don't think there is any such a rigid rule as that.

I think it depends on what you do, in those eight days. I think it does take, I know for me when I go away on holiday, I just start to relax at the beginning of the 2nd week, which is why I think 2 weeks is pretty essential if you do go away, but, I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that one, but. Let's say, let's say it is true, and that means that Hillary, you've got to have much longer holidays.

Let's go with that, doctor's orders. Of everybody. Good night, ma'am.