Welcome to this 30-minute meditation on turning towards,
Allowing,
Opening,
It's best practiced in a seated position.
This practice helps us notice the neutral,
The pleasant and the unpleasant aspects of our moment-to-moment experience.
It invites us to be present with whatever we find and in this way we can practice working with the stresses,
The pains and the challenges that we may encounter as part of our everyday life.
During this practice we move through three stages.
Awareness of breath and body,
Gently turning towards our experience and broadening into the whole of our experience.
So the intention is to practice being aware of the whole of our experience,
However we find it and we do this by bringing attention to the neutral,
The pleasant and the unpleasant moments of our experience with an attitude of curiosity,
Openness,
Acceptance and kindness.
Before we start,
Just taking a moment to check in with your posture,
Noticing how you're sitting,
How you're being supported by the ground,
Checking that you're not holding your body too stiffly,
Too tightly,
Seeing if you can keep your spine straight and seeing if you can tune into a sense of dignity,
Of alertness,
Feeling the contact points with the ground and feeling the length in your spine.
You might want to have your eyes closed or have your gaze softly resting on the ground.
So starting by checking in what your experience is in this exact moment.
Where is your mind?
Is it present or thinking about something in the past or the future?
Is it busy or quiet?
Just checking,
Just noticing,
Not needing to change whatever you find and then noticing if there are any emotions present in this moment.
Maybe you can feel these in your body,
Maybe there's nothing,
But again just being open to whatever's present,
Just noticing and then checking what's happening with your body,
If there's any body sensations,
Seeing what's happening for you in this moment and opening to whatever you find,
Allowing your experience to be exactly as it is and then inviting you to move your awareness to your breath,
That constant feature,
The constant rhythm in our lives,
Just noticing how the breath is in this moment,
Being present with the breath rolling in and the breath rolling out,
Simply witnessing your breath,
Not needing to change it,
Just trusting your body to breathe,
Just being aware,
Maybe checking where you can feel the breath most vividly in this moment,
It could be the nostrils,
Belly,
The chest or somewhere else,
Just being curious and maybe placing your attention there and as best you can,
Staying present with each breath,
Noticing that each breath,
Each in-breath,
Each out-breath has a start,
A middle and an end.
It's likely that from time to time your mind might wander off,
Whenever this happens maybe just noticing where it's gone,
Future,
Past,
Planning,
Dreaming,
Worrying and then bringing it back with love and kindness,
Remembering it's just what the mind does,
It's not a mistake,
It's just the nature of the mind,
Like a puppy that hasn't been trained and then widening the awareness to the sensations of breath in the entire body,
Maybe noticing how the breath changes the sensations,
Where you're in contact with the chair,
The cushion or the floor and any other sensations that are present in the body,
Simply exploring the experience of having a very alive body in this moment,
Maybe noticing that the sensations in the body may move,
They may change,
Maybe noticing that the sensations,
Just like the breath,
Will have a start,
A middle and an end and now gently turning towards whatever your experience is in this moment,
Allowing whatever the current experience is to simply be there,
Could be sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Just opening to these with a soft,
Gentle,
Kind,
Non-judgmental attitude,
Whatever we can find we lean towards it,
You could say it's okay,
Let me feel it,
Not needing to find anything particular,
So as best we can just allowing our experience to unfold breath by breath,
If there's nothing there,
Then allowing that to be our experience,
Not needing to get anywhere,
Not needing to find anything special,
Just being curious what's happening for us in each moment and allowing that to be,
Maybe noticing if there's any tendency to move away from or towards any sensations,
Thoughts or emotions,
Maybe noticing any judgments that may arise,
Remembering that this is just how things are in this moment and if anything feels too much,
Be it sensations,
Thoughts or emotions,
Knowing that we can always come back to the refuge of the breath,
Staying with the rhythm of the breath,
Rolling in and the breath rolling out or with the contact points between our body and the ground,
We can stay with those until we feel ready to return to our experience of this moment and anytime you notice your mind has wondered,
Just bringing it back with gentleness,
With kindness,
Bringing it back to your experience of the present moment and then maybe noticing if there's any physical discomfort or tension in the body or if there's any unpleasant or difficult thoughts or emotions,
Seeing if there's anything there,
It's not just that's your experience but if you do find anything challenging,
Anything you might see as unpleasant,
Maybe just noticing how that feels,
It's thoughts or emotions,
Does it have an echo,
Any sensations in the body and maybe you could try softening into any discomfort you find,
So not pushing it away but simply seeing it can be held with kind awareness,
In the same way we might hold a child who's hurt themselves,
Just holding them to our body,
Soothing them,
Breathing into any discomfort,
Breathing out of it,
Just being present with it,
With whatever the experience is in this moment,
As best you can noticing what the experience is in this moment,
Whether there's any tendency to move towards or away and being present with whatever you find,
With gentleness,
Openness and kindness and then maybe shifting the awareness to explore if there are any pleasant dimensions to this experience,
So not needing to create anything,
Just noticing if anything is there for you,
So it's more of allowing whatever's there into the light of our awareness,
Maybe there's some simple pleasures,
It could be something like feeling fresh cool air on the skin,
Pleasant,
Maybe hearing birds singing,
Pleasant or feeling the gentle flow of the breath in the body,
Pleasant,
Maybe feeling a softness in the stomach,
Pleasant,
So seeing what's there for you or your experiences and opening to these experiences,
Allowing them to be absorbed into the body and if you notice your mind has drifted off somewhere,
Just gently with kindness,
Bringing it back and once more focusing,
Exploring any pleasant aspects,
Any pleasant dimensions to your experience in this moment and now broadening the awareness to hold the neutral,
The unpleasant and the pleasant experiences at the same time,
So holding them softly and as best you can just being present to them all,
Allowing whatever's there simply to be side by side,
It might be that at one moment our breath is more prominent,
In the next moment there may be some strong body sensations,
So just dwelling with an open awareness,
Present to whatever arises in your experience,
So just observing whatever presents itself in each moment,
Being spacious to whatever arises,
Maybe noticing how the experience changes from moment to moment,
As best you can sitting in stillness with whatever arises in your experience,
Opening to the totality,
Whatever you find neutral,
Unpleasant or pleasant,
Just allowing yourself to be exactly as you are,
Opening to this experience,
Being fully human and then returning the attention to the body,
Sensing the body sitting here in this space,
Allowing ourselves to be exactly as we are,
Maybe noticing how the body is being supported by the ground,
Feeling supported,
Feeling grounded,
Noticing the body,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Maybe taking a moment to acknowledge our intention to be more present in our lives,
Remembering that practicing this way gives us an opportunity to experience life in a much deeper way,
In a way where we can be more conscious in our choices and our actions and then maybe starting to move your body a little,
Fingers,
Toes and stretching in any way that feels good for you,
The meditation practice is now complete.
