Welcome to first this, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nicolai. Thanks for sitting with me today.

First things first, please settle your body.

Use cushions or the wall or the bed, whatever works best for you. Once you're there,

draw a deep breath in through your nose and sigh. Again, breathe in, let it out.

Good.

Let's spend the next couple of minutes, just practicing being in your body moment to moment.

A good way to do that is to notice the path your breath makes from your nostrils down to your lungs.

Feel what moves as you breathe?

What sensations are present?

And if you don't feel much, nothing wrong there. Sometimes there is some numbness,

or the mind feels too cluttered to perceive such things, it will get better. Thank you. Thank you. I. You know,

I'm

there. Thank you. It's a misunderstanding

around meditation

that what you're aiming at

is to experience some sudden vacuum of thoughts

that you're supposed to reach a point where you cease

thinking. That isn't how your brain works. It's an organ whose job is to generate thoughts,

make connections, pull up memories, compare and predict.

You couldn't stop it from thinking any more than you could consciously stop your heart from beating.

So if that idea is lingering, that that's what we're working on,

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