The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audiodderma.org.

Greetings, screenings, hello, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.

Greetings to those of you in the future who are watching this or listening to this. A warm welcome, a warm

welcome. As many of you can see from the title of the YouTube video that got posted here. I'm going to do a story, a series on stories. I could also do a story about series, but today will be, this week will be a focus on stories and of course as you

know that stories are mental events things that we construct in the mind. And if we're not in stories, like maybe we might say the opposite is to be embodied, be you know here in our physical experience.

And I'd like to start with this guided meditation this morning

about really focusing on body like being embodied and we could say it's a

contrast of being lost in stories. So, take a meditation posture, maybe a few long, slow, deep exhales.

Hmm.

There's a way to maybe release any obvious tension and signal that we're going to orient towards meditation now. allowing the breath to return to normal.

Recognizing that the body knows how to breathe.

We don't need to do anything in particular with the breath.

And then resting our attention on the experience of sitting. If you're sitting in a chair or a couch feeling the pressure against the body that you might feel that pressure against the back also.

And then all of us, no matter what we're sitting on, feel that pressure against the backside, our bum.

Feeling connected to our sitting surface. The pressure against the back of the legs. and her feet, whatever they're touching,

feeling that place of connection with our sitting surface.

Feeling grounded, connected, using this as a foundation upon which we're sitting. You're not going to see. connecting with other areas of the body.

places where we might hold tension around the eyes or the jar. You're going to see. Really into the shoulders, moving them away from the ears,

letting the shoulder blade slide down the back. tuning into the experience of having a back, upper back, the lower back. You're going to see? And the chest, is there a way that the chest can be just at?

And the chest, is there a way that the chest can be just a tiny bit more open?

Moving the shoulders back just a tiny bit. and relaxing the belly.

...