For the Weekend
Avoid carrying the weight of the week into your well-earned days off. Whatever the weekend holds, you deserve to be fully engaged—for your benefit and for those around you. Practice letting go of the past so that you can enjoy the valuable down-time (and the present).
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So as you get comfortable, just setting yourself up with the eyes open, aware of the space around you. And then when you're ready, just starting with a couple of big deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you breathe in, just aware of the lungs expanding as you take in fresh air, as you breathe out just a sense of having left behind the week just past ready for the weekend ahead. With the next out breath just closing the eyes and just enjoying that feeling for a moment. It might be relief to really end the week perhaps a sense of anticipation the weekend ahead but just bringing the body the mind into the present moment feeling the weight, the contact, the body pressing down noticing the space around you still allowing any sounds to come and go starting to notice how the body's feeling the good chance that during the week, you might've accumulated a little bit of tension or discomfort. Just noticing that if it's present, not thinking about it, just becoming aware of it and then gently shifting the attention to the breath, the rising and falling sensation as always, if you can't feel that movement just gently placing your hand on the stomach we're just going to use this movement the natural rhythm of the breath, just as a place to come back to when the mind has wandered off. So we're finding a balance of relaxing on the one hand, leaving the week behind but at the same time, bringing a very gentle focus. So we carry a sense of lightness into the weekend ahead. Just following that rising and falling sensation. The mind, when it gets distracted just noticing when it gets distracted, labeling it. Get us thinking and then just letting it go. Coming back to the breath again. Allowing thoughts to come and go. When you realize you get distracted, just labeling it and knowing this is something that you can do throughout the weekend. Not just when you got your eyes closed when you realize the mind's distracted just gently acknowledging it as thinking, letting it go then coming back to the breath or whatever you're doing in that moment right now though, bringing the attention back to the body back to that feeling of contact, and if you'd like to just gently opening the eyes again....
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About your teachers
- More about Andy
A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
- More about Eve
Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
- More about Dora
As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
- More about Kessonga
Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
- More about Rosie
Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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