A short mediation to sooth your soul and rest your mind. Give yourself permission to take a short break to unwind, relax and create a new mindful practice for yourself. Train your awareness awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Music © Paul Landry Transcript Dropping the Suitcase Meditation In this mediation I’d like you to use your visualizing skills and imagine the images in your minds eye as best as you can. So, to help you reduce anxiety, start by taking a moment to relax your body.. soften any unnecessary tension in your belly and shoulder, and find a posture that feels both relaxed and alert, Now close your eyes or look downwards and rest your hands in an easy effortless way. Take a few moments to scan your awareness through the sensations of your body, and wherever possible, soften and release obvious areas of physical tension. Be aware of your body, your body breathing, notice if it is fast, shallow or deep and slow, Not changing anything - just noticing your chest rising and falling with each breath. And now imagine standing in the street outside of your house with two heavy suitcases and know that one of those suitcases is full of worries about the future, and the other suitcase, know that it is full of regrets about the past. Take a moment standing there in the street holding these two heavy suitcases and reflect about each one. Reflect about the future, how it will come on it’s own accord whenever it comes and that most of what we worry about will never happen. Standing out there in the street, reflect about the past, the other heavy suitcase. Consider how the past cannot be changed. All we can do in the present is to learn from it, put in whatever corrections make sense, become more skillful, become a better person, and move on. Standing there in the street, feeling the weight of these suitcases, and absorbing the wisdom of your own reflections right now, make a conscious decision. Do you want to drop the suitcase of worry about the future? And if so, simply drop it…. simply drop it…. Then, standing there in the street with the other suitcase so heavy about the past, make a conscious decision. Do you want to drop it? And if so, just drop it…. just drop it…. And as soon as you have dropped the two suitcases, walk into your home, and take your seat right where you are, and plop down, so relaxed, like someone coming home from a long trip, dropping suitcases, and just relaxing, rested in the present, just breathing, resting in the natural wellbeing of the moment, resting in the fundamental well-being of awareness itself, awareness which does not worry or regret, resting as if this is meaningful for you Allow yourself to simply rest Feeling a sense of peace, of joy, of well being. A natural happiness. Always your true home. Without carrying heavy suitcases of worries about the future, or full of regrets about the past. Simply rest here in your body right now with total relaxation throughout your body and mind…