Welcome.
Thank you for joining me.
Just take a moment to get comfortable.
Once you're in a comfortable position,
Allow yourself to arrive here with me.
Start to notice the space around you.
The movement of the air.
The sounds and the distance.
And the feeling of the earth supporting you beneath you.
And whenever it feels comfortable.
Feel free to close the eyes during parts of this practice.
Allowing your attention to move more towards sensations.
The sounds.
The movement of your breath.
The direct experience that you may be having.
And if you do hear the birds,
The wind or distant cars,
Maybe even the odd plane flying overhead.
Rather than being frustrated.
Simply notice how each sound creates a slightly different experience within your body.
Maybe some of the sounds are soothing.
Some activating.
Or maybe they're just neutral.
Just hold space for them all.
Perhaps these distractions.
Carry their own energy.
Not good.
Or bad.
Simply movement.
Vibration.
Just let them all pass through your awareness.
Notice how the sounds feel different when resisted.
Compared to when they simply flow through you unhindered.
Nothing but your awareness.
Observing them.
Nothing attached.
No judgement.
No emotions.
Perhaps the world does not need to become perfectly quiet for us to experience the moments of stillness that wait deep within us.
And fostering that ability.
To find peace even when the world is at war.
Carries on or even rages on around us.
Is an art in itself.
Human beings have spent thousands of years trying to describe the subtle feelings of being alive.
In yoga,
This life force is often called prana.
Chinese traditions,
Qi.
While in the Western world we may speak of breath.
Electrical signals.
Circulation.
Or nervous system awareness.
Different words.
Perhaps describing the same human experience.
This meditation is not about forcing belief.
And there's nothing you need to get right here.
It's simply an invitation to become curious.
The sounds of the birds as they fly over,
Calling to one another.
Sound travels through space.
Whilst your breath gently moves in and out of your body.
Simple experiences.
It all forms of energy interacting with you.
Perhaps energy is not something distant or mystical.
It's something we experience every day.
Through sensations.
Emotion.
Attention.
And awareness.
Or maybe we're so busy we've tuned out to all these different types of energy.
Of awareness.
So use this practice to help tune back in.
To learn to feel.
And become aware once again.
To help with this.
I invite you to begin to rub your palms together,
Slowly at first,
Then a little faster,
A little faster still,
Creating warmth through the friction and the movement,
Awakening sensitivity within the hands.
Keep the palms moving gently together and notice how the warmth changes.
Begins to build.
Feel that warmth.
And then when you're ready.
Place those palms over your closed eyes.
And as the warmth from those palms soothes those eyes.
Just observe it and feel it.
In science this may simply be understood as heat.
Circulation.
And increase nerve sensitivity.
While in ancient traditions.
This awakening of sensations was often seen as life force energy.
Becoming more noticeable through awareness.
Both perspectives can coexist beautifully.
Just hold space for them as concepts,
As you feel the warmth of your palms.
Allow your awareness to linger.
And when it wanders,
And it will.
Simply bring it back.
On the wings of your next inhale.
And the next and the next and as many times as you need.
Keeping the eyes closed.
In fact,
You just slowly lower your palms back down into your lap.
And just feel.
The sensation of your palms and the heat still on your face.
As well as the changing sensation of that heat and energy within your palms.
Notice how maybe the sound.
.
.
Of the birds.
Of the morning chorus have become more noticeable.
Maybe your body finds it easy to feel now you've withdrawn one of your senses.
In yoga.
Practices like this were often used to gently draw awareness inwardly.
Away from constant stimulation.
And toward direct experience.
Not escaping the world,
But becoming more present within it.
Just let yourself feel and notice and observe everything as the world continues on around you.
Invite you to bring your palms back together and gently start to rub them.
As we did before,
Let in that energy.
That heat start to build.
Try and do this with your eyes closed if you can.
And then when you feel the heat,
Just separate the palms,
Keep them a few inches apart,
The hands to your front.
And then slowly move them closer or maybe slightly apart.
Curious.
And without expectation.
Notice whether you can feel the heat.
Or even the energy lessen and intensify as you get closer or further away.
Noticing the tingling.
Maybe when they gently touch.
Pressure.
Or pulsing or a magnetism.
Or subtle resistance between the hands.
Or perhaps simply increasing your awareness.
Just by trying to notice.
By being present.
Some people imagine light or colour between the hands when they do this.
Perhaps a soft glow,
Even a sphere of energy.
Or warmth moving with the breath.
Pulsating in time to the gentle inhales and exhales.
Others simply notice physical sensations.
But try to experience it nonetheless in your own way.
If you're someone who connects more through sound.
Perhaps the rhythm of your breathing.
The birdsong.
The movement of the wind.
The subtle hum of life around you.
Somehow feels connected to your palms.
And if you connect more through feeling,
Simply notice texture of whatever you may be sat on.
Temperature.
The subtleties from where you're warming the seat and your exposure to the air around you.
Pressure.
Or movement.
Or vibration within the hands.
As you breathe,
Perhaps imagine the breath feeding energy into the body.
Into those hands.
Into maybe a sphere of energy within your hand.
And as you breathe out,
Feel the jaw.
The shoulders and your face softened.
If it becomes too much holding your hand,
Just let them rest within your lap.
Noticing how your attention shifts.
Can change the experience.
Of even the simplest of acts.
Where awareness moves.
Sensation follows.
This practice is less about forcing an experience.
And more about learning to listen.
And to feel more carefully.
Perhaps the more deeply we pay attention,
The more alive the world begins to feel.
I invite you then to bring your palms back together,
Creating once again some heat.
And then place those palms onto your chest.
Feel and notice them resting.
Feel the warmth meet the body.
Feel the movement of the breath.
Perhaps even the subtle rhythm of your heartbeat.
A quiet reminder that energy has always been moving within you.
Again you're welcome to keep your hands here or just release them down,
Whichever is more comfortable for you.
And if you do release them,
Imagine your hands are still there.
In many traditions,
The heart is seen not only as a physical organ.
But also as the centre of our emotion.
Connection.
Compassion.
And presence.
Take a slightly deeper breath in.
And simply notice how it feels.
Not how you think you should feel.
But genuinely feel.
Where they are experiencing warmth.
Tingling.
Emotions,
Stillness.
Or simply a quiet moment of awareness as the breath moves effortlessly.
The heart beats continuously.
And life moves on continuously.
Before we finish.
Let's return once more to where we began.
I invite you to bring your palms back together.
Robin.
You can fill in the heat And when you're ready,
Place those palms back onto your eyes.
And notice whether the sensations may feel different now.
Maybe warmer.
Surrounding sounds and the feelings within karma.
More sensitive.
More relaxed or quieter.
And then when you're ready,
Put your arms still up with your palms on your eyes,
Just let the palms and the hands return back to your lap.
Just allow your eyes to stay closed or have a soft gaze.
Notice the sounds once more.
The movement of life carrying on around you.
And perhaps now instead of that movement.
That noise.
Feeling like distraction.
They simply feel part of the experience of life itself.
Maybe during this practice you noticed how even the smallest moments of awareness.
Can subtly change the way we experience ourselves.
And the world around us.
And perhaps little by little.
Moment by moment.
This practice reminds us that energy is not always something dramatic.
Are mysterious.
But something quietly woven through everyday life.
Through us.
Through breath.
The sensation of warmth or cold.
Sound.
Movements within us and around us.
And perhaps the more deeply we learn to notice.
The richer our experience of life itself will become.
Because the world around us changes.
Because our connection to it deepens.
Feel free to return to this practice whenever you wish.
To explore.
To reconnect.
Become curious again.
To deepen your awareness.
To hone that subtle relationship between yourself and others.
And the world around you.
And the energy moving through both.
Thank you for joining me today and I look forward to sharing a practice with you again soon.
Namaste.
