Brother Richard

This is, if you like, a little bit of the gym where meditation is concerned.

So, let's begin.

Entering this time of meditation, we do so deliberately and with intention.

We recognize that we are meditating not just for ourselves, but for all who need it.

We begin with a ritual gesture that clearly delineates this time of meditation from everything else that we do.

It might be a bow, joining the hands in prayer pose for a moment, making the sign of the cross, lighting a candle, or simply taking a moment to breathe before stepping into the space.

Choose a ritual gesture that you are comfortable with.

It's a way of announcing to your whole being that we are now entering this time of practice.

And so having completed the gesture, we then sit.

We sit with awareness, feeling the connection between the ground and our feet.

And no matter what story we might be on, recognizing that beneath the floor, beneath the building we are in, we are held securely by the earth.

Settling our back upon our cushion or a chair, we allow the spine to lengthen.

perhaps imagining, as we have done before, that there is a thread emerging from the very crown of our head that slowly gets pulled up so that the head moves back and over the shoulders.

The shoulders can drop and the spine can lengthen.

Always we move the body with awareness and intention,

never to a point of strain.

There should be no strain in our meditation practice, but simply to a point of relaxed, stable awareness.

Coming to the body then, we interiorly ask ourselves, how am I?

How am I in my body in this moment?

And take a moment to gently draw your awareness from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.