The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

Okay, so we're going to be moving into our meditation, and especially if you're new, begin

by checking your sitting posture.

You might close your eyes and with your eyes closed, begin an adjusting of your posture so

that you might sense instead of sitting and leaning forward or leaning back and you can

actually play with that, coming into a balance of sitting upright, sitting tall.

For some, it's actually helpful not to lean against the chair, but rather feel that

uprightness.

If your tailbone could go deep into the earth with roots and then your spine rising up

like a tree to the heavens, sitting tall, and then notice the possibility of relaxing

with that tallness.

See that your shoulders be loose and your hands soft.

Take a nice full breath and another.

Let your attention come gently to the heart area.

Please feel a quality of presence of being right here and you might ask yourself what

your intention is for practicing right now, for meditating right now.

What is it your heart longs for?

We open our time together as community and it's really a global community just to feel

that shared heart aspiration for awakening, for freedom.

You might bring the palms together as a way of centering at the heart and we'll chant

the simple mantra, which is a sound current of connectedness.

We'll chant it three times.

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