167 : Meditation : Starting Again
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Welcome to the Mindful Fire podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. My dad will be so grateful. Next time on the Mindful Fire podcast. ♪♪

Welcome to the Mindful Fire Podcast, a show about crafting a life you love and making work optional using the tools of mindfulness, envisioning, and financial independence. I'm your host, Adam Koyo, and I'm so glad you're here. Each episode of the Mindful Fire Podcast explores these three tools through teachings, guided meditations, and inspiring interviews with people actually living them to craft a life they love.

At its core, Mindful Fire is about creating more awareness and choice in your life. Mindfulness helps you develop self-awareness to know yourself better and what's most important to you by practicing a kind, curious awareness. Envisioning is all about choosing to think big about your life and putting the power of your predicting brain to work to create the life you dream of.

And financial independence brings awareness and choice to your financial life, empowering you to make your vision a reality by getting your money sorted out and ultimately making work optional. And here's the best part. You don't have to wait until you reach financial independence to live out your vision. Mindful Fire is about using these tools to craft that life now on the path to financial independence and beyond.

If you're ready to start your Mindful Fire journey, go to mindfulfire.org and download my free envisioning guide. In just 10 minutes, this guide will help you craft a clear and inspiring vision for your life. Again, you can download it for free at mindfulfire.org. Let's jump into today's guided meditation. ♪

I invite you to begin by finding a position that allows you to be both alert and relaxed at the same time, sitting with a tall straight back but not rigid and resting your hands wherever is comfortable. And if you'd like, closing your eyes or gazing down with a soft unfocused gaze. And let's begin this practice with three deep breaths in and out, just allowing yourself to drop into this moment.

as you let go of everything that has come before and anything that is yet to come. And as we begin this practice, just checking in with yourself, noticing how you're arriving here in this moment, meeting whatever you find with openness, kindness, and curiosity, noticing what it's like in your body, and noticing what it's like in your mind right here, right now, however you find your mind or your body

Whether it be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Just meeting it in awareness as it is right now in my body and my mind. It's like this. And whenever you're ready, in your own time and in your own way, find your way to the breath sensations. Wherever you notice them most in your body right now. This will be our home base. And just setting the intention.

to rest in awareness of this spot. And right now, all there is to do is to observe this in-breath in awareness and this out-breath in awareness, resting in the simplicity of the breath, moment by moment by moment, and breath by breath by breath. And each time you notice that your mind is drifted off into distraction or some thought world or story world, no problem.

Just meeting whatever you find with that same kind, curious, and open attitude. Recognizing that awareness is vast enough to include all aspects of experience, even thinking. And just choosing to come back to the breath and to start again. Each in-breath is a new beginning. Each out-breath is a chance to let go. And so over and over again, returning to the breath and starting fresh.

Starting fresh with just this in-breath and just this out-breath. And again, if you notice that your mind has drifted off as mine has, no problem. Just choosing to come back to the breath and to start again. And again, just checking in, noticing where your attention is in this moment and recognizing that if it has wandered away, it's not a problem. It's simply an opportunity.

to choose to come back to the breath and to begin again. Each time we do this, we train our attention and our ability to recognize when we've been carried off course, whether it be away from the breath or in our lives more broadly, away from some path that supports us, perhaps the practice of meditation in general, as I've been finding. But the beautiful thing is that

Whenever we notice we're already back and we can simply choose to start again. Doesn't matter how long we've been off path. We always have the ability to start again. And in the remaining moments of our practice today, I invite you to bring to mind some aspect of your life that you're extremely grateful for. It may be a person or a circumstance or something that happened recently.

Just notice what comes to mind and rest in awareness of the feeling of gratitude in your body, imagining it infusing every cell of your body. And let us finish this practice with three deep breaths together. Breathing in and out again. And once more. And when you're ready, opening your eyes and taking one final mindful breath with your eyes open.

As a reminder that this ability to start again is available anywhere, anytime, and it just takes one breath. Thank you for practicing with me.

Thanks for joining me for today's guided meditation. If you enjoyed today's episode, I invite you to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this. This just lets the platforms know you're getting value from the episodes and you want to be here when I release additional content. If you're ready to start your mindful fire journey, go to mindfulfire.org slash start and download my free envisioning guide.

In just 10 minutes, this guide will help you craft a clear and inspiring vision for your life. Again, you can download it for free at mindfulfire.org. Thanks again, and I'll catch you next time on the Mindful Fire podcast.