[MUSIC PLAYING]
ELISE MARIE BIRKHOFER: Hello, and welcome to Think
with Google's Meditation for Marketers.
I'm Elise Marie Birkhofer, and I lead the Global Women's
Community here.
Introducing meditation into your workday
can have many benefits, from improved focus
and concentration to better attention, decision making,
improved creativity, and more.
And different kinds of meditations
can have different benefits.
Today we're going to work on expanding our creativity.
And we're going to do that through a practice called
open awareness.
In the practice of open awareness,
we allow whatever is present in our field of awareness to be,
not to judge it, not to chase after it,
just to allow it to be there.
So before we begin, I want to invite you to get comfortable.
You can either lay down flat on the floor or the couch
or you can stay seated.
If you're seated, I invite you to uncross your legs.
Let your feet rest flat gently on the floor.
Find a position for your back to be both upright,
alert, but also relaxed.
And your hands can rest gently in your lap, either face up
or palms facing down.
We'll start by gently bringing attention to the breath,
breathing in deeply and out.
Again, in.
And out.
Once more, breathing in.
And out.
Now you can bring the broth back to its natural rhythm.
No needing to change or control it.
Allowing the in breath and the out breath to flow naturally,
resting the attention on whatever sensation
the breath is most obvious.
It could be the breath coming in and out
of the nostrils or the chest or belly
expanding and releasing with each breath.
I'm going to repeat that line.
Now I invite you to let the breath return
to its natural rhythm and just noticing
the sensation of the breath wherever
it's most obvious to you.
It could be the air coming in and out
of the nostrils or the chest or belly
expanding with each in breath and releasing
with each out breath.
We'll breathe like this for just a minute
to start to let the mind settle.
Breathing in and breathing out.
If the mind wanders, it's completely natural,
just drawing it back to the breath.
Now I invite you to open up your awareness
to any sensations in the body.
It could be the temperature, feeling warm or cool.
It could be tension or pain in the body.
You could be feeling hungry or full.
And whatever those sensations in the body are, not judging them,
just welcoming and noticing.
Next, I invite you to open up your awareness
to any sounds in the room or the space that you're in.
It could be birds chirping, traffic driving by,
a fan whirling.
Whatever it may be, just noticing the sounds
and allowing those to be.
Next, I'll invite you to gently open the eyes.
Notice anything you see, any colors in the room,
textures, materials you notice.
Just gently gazing your eyes around the space
you're in, noticing any colors, objects.
Now gently closing the eyes again.
I want to invite a moment for some of your creativity
to open up now that we've helped settle the mind.
I invite you to bring to mind a creative opportunity that you
currently have, something where you'd like an idea
to be able to spark.
And just releasing any sort of blocks or pressure
to figure anything out right now,
allowing your mind to open up to any ideas that come your way.
You could notice a visual, an image, a color scheme.
What do you see in the mind's eye
in this space of relaxation?
And without judging anything or rushing, just
allowing any visuals to come to mind.
And if they don't, that's OK too.
Just inviting the blank space in front of you to be open.
And now allowing any of the images or visuals
to just wash away.
Noticing if your intuition brings you
any other ideas, any other starting points,
sparks, a story, a concept, just allowing
that creative potential to flourish.
No need to try to come up with anything or grip to anything.
Just allowing any ideas to come and go.
As you continue to be aware of any
sounds, sensations in the body, or mental visuals or ideas.
If you're noticing any barriers, I invite you to name them.
Is it stuckness or judgment?
Is it stress or anxiety?
Just noticing those and allowing yourself
to be OK with what's here now.
You can always return to this exercise at another time,
and something different may come.
Can you just be with the experience now as it is?
And now I'll invite you to return the attention
to the breath for just one more minute,
breathing in and breathing out.
Now I'll gently invite you to come
to a close of the exercise, gently opening the eyes again.
Feel free to stretch out the neck, shoulders.
Lift the arms above the head if that feels good.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
I hope that some creative ideas may have sparked.
And if not, I hope that you feel a little bit more relaxation
and peace as you go back to whatever you were working on.
For more Meditations for Marketers and industry
insights, please subscribe to the Think with Google YouTube
channel.
I'll see you next time.