Hello,
My name is Charlene Fox from Healing Minds and Wellness and I welcome you today to this meditation on the senses.
Our meditation intention today is to awaken your senses,
Present moment awareness,
To focus attention and develop concentration.
Typical benefits are create a sense of mental space resulting in physical space and relaxation.
A sense of connection,
Inner and outer worlds combined using senses as a bridge.
So I invite you to find a comfortable seat or lie down.
You do not have to have your legs crossed,
Just as long as you're comfortable and that allows for good posture.
Place the hands in a way that allow the shoulders to relax.
Sweep in a deep breath in through your nose and as you breathe out,
Close down your eyes.
Continue to breathe in and breathe out.
Bring your awareness to the sense of sight now.
Noticing the top eyelids and the way it connects with the bottom eyelid.
Spend a few breaths here,
Noticing the connection of the eyelids.
Do the eyelids meet easily and peacefully?
Or is there some fluttering?
Whatever the case,
See if you can just notice without labeling it as good or bad.
Just observing what is.
Perhaps there's an opportunity here to allow the eyeballs to soften a little more back into the eye sockets.
As we breathe,
Releasing the creases in the corners of the eyes.
Observing what you see here,
Even with the eyes closed.
You do not need to strive to find anything to see.
Just noticing what arrives in the sense of sight.
Shifting the awareness now to the sense of taste.
Bringing awareness to the mouth.
Begin by relaxing off any unnecessary tension in the lips,
The tongue,
The inner cheeks and the jaw.
See if you can increase the sense of space inside the mouth there,
Where the sense of taste lives.
Does the mouth feel dry or otherwise?
What do you notice about the taste buds on the tongue?
Noticing the mouth without any kind of opinion or judgment.
Instead,
Allow the noticing mind to rest its awareness on anything that arises here in the sense of taste.
Now shifting their awareness to the sense of hearing.
Allow the whole body to relax here as you take a deep breath in and release a long breath out.
Take a few more deep breaths like this.
Listening to the sound of your own breath.
Being okay with the sounds around us.
We expand our domain of hearing now to take in the sounds near and far.
You don't need to seek out sound.
Simply allow it to arrive into your field of hearing.
Without labeling sounds.
Notice the diversity.
The various lengths of different sounds.
And the range of pitches.
Notice how each sound has a beginning.
Notice how each sound has an end.
Allowing sound to become part of your existence as you sit or lay here.
Breathing in and out.
Imagine now that the sounds aren't separate from you.
Instead,
Recognize them as a valid part of this present moment.
Without you placing any preference on them.
Notice how sound is always changing.
As you sweep the next breath in,
Notice the air that passes through the inner rims of the nostrils.
Bring your awareness in now.
Noticing the breath as it gets experienced at the inner rims of the nostrils.
Keep the mouth relaxed.
And spacious as you breathe in and out of the nose.
Do you observe any aromas from the environment around you?
Maybe you notice the texture of the air here at the tips of the nostrils.
Or the temperature of the air.
Or whether the breath in and out is smooth.
Or choppy.
Resting the awareness on the sense of smell.
As you continue to breathe in and out here.
Allowing the whole body to feel relaxed now.
As you continue to breathe in and out.
Bringing your awareness to the sense of touch.
Noticing the skin.
And the whole body.
Noticing any clothing that touches the skin.
Noticing parts of the skin that are exposed to the air around you.
The forehead.
The cheeks.
The whole face.
Even though we're not using our hands to touch anything here.
Rest the awareness on the felt sensations that unfold throughout the body.
You may feel your heart beating.
Or a breeze across the surface of your body.
Maybe you notice a sense of aliveness on the surface of the skin.
And if you didn't discover anything,
Just notice that.
Without any preference or desire to find anything.
Without any likes or dislikes.
Just observing.
As though you have the curious mind of a scientist.
Inspecting and observing the sense of touch.
Watching things unfold.
Moment by moment.
Now notice the whole body breathing in and out.
Rest in here.
With a spacious awareness.
Letting go of the need to focus on any one sense in particular.
Instead.
Resting the awareness on the whole body.
As it exists here.
Noticing the response in the body.
On the breath in.
And the response of the body on the breath out.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
And again.
Taking a breath in.
And a breath out.
Bringing that awareness to the fingers and the toes.
As we wriggle them.
Cupping the eyes with your hands.
When you're ready.
And slowly blinking them open to let the light in.
And welcome back to the room.
Thank you so much for joining me with this meditation on the senses.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
I look forward to sharing more with you in the future.
Love and kindness to all.
