Restlessness

Hi, and welcome to day one of the Headspace restlessness pack. Now, when we begin meditating, pretty much everybody experiences some restlessness. It can be a sense of agitation in the body or a sense of movement in the mind, but as we continue, for some people, it continues to be present, and it can sometimes feel really frustrating that the mind is always moving around so much. So just to be clear at the outset, this pack is not about trying to stop the thoughts. This is about understanding restlessness, how to work with restlessness in a skillful way. There's a good chance that if we approach it in the right way, that those thoughts will naturally slow down, but we're also gonna learn how we can meditate regardless, no matter what the mind is doing. So with that in mind, if you just take a moment, make sure you're sitting comfortably. We're going to start in the usual way, so with the eyes open, a nice, soft focus, just aware of the space around you, wherever you are right now. And just maintaining that soft gaze with the eyes, just starting with a few big, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath, just gently closing the eyes. Just feeling the weight of the body press down against the surface or the seat beneath you. And just taking some time just to settle in to the space where you are right now, allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm, and just allowing the different sounds around you to come and go. And just bringing the attention now back to the body. Just starting to notice how the body feels. Any sense of movement, of agitation. Any sense of stillness, of ease. And just starting at the top of the head, just gently scanning down through the body, just noticing in a bit more detail how the body feels right now. So don't worry if the mind is very busy. Don't worry if you find that the body feels very restless. Just allowing the mind to do its own thing, just bringing the attention to the breath, that feeling of movement in the body as it breathes, that rising and falling sensation. If you can't feel it, just gently placing your hand on your stomach, but just noticing where in the body you feel that rising and falling sensation most clearly. As you continue to watch the breath, just starting to notice the rhythm of the breathing and noticing if the breaths are long or short, deep or shallow. And as you continue to follow the breath, if you find it helpful, you can just start to count breaths, so as you feel the rising sensation, you count one, falling sensation, two, and three and four, just up to a count of 10. You get to 10, you can stop and start again at one. And we're...