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

I'm Catherine Nikolai. Let's sit together. Get as comfortable as you can. Meditation isn't mind over matter. It's mind in conjunction with matter.

So find a position that lets you be in your body peaceably, contentedly.

Then draw deep breath in through your nose and sigh out of your mouth another just as deep and out.

Good. Nothing to do right now, but gently observe your breath. Watch it rise you wander. Breath in and out.

Breath in and out.

You're resting your attention. Breath in and out.

You're resting your attention on the rhythm of your breath.

We're training your mind here to come to the present to notice it, to come back to it over and over.

And maybe for a few seconds here and there to stay. A mind that can stay,

that can discern what's useful and what's extraneous.

That's pretty useful.

Especially since our brains are exposed to so much information each day.

And there's a Zen story about this.

A man goes to war, rides his horse out onto the battlefield.

Soon he's struck down with an arrow.

He's gravely wounded,

and a medic rushes to him.

When he sees the medic, he grabs their hand and urgently asks,

Doctor, the man who shot me,

what's his horse's name?

What did he have for breakfast?

...