Welcome everyone.
Today we're going to be doing a practice that will focus around anchoring our attention.
And we're going to be exploring different things,
Different elements,
Different sensations,
Where we can focus our attention on.
And we're going to be using attitudes of compassion and gratitude in today's practice.
When we define mindfulness,
We define mindfulness as the ability to bring our attention to our present moment experience with certain attitudes or qualities.
The qualities and the attitudes we're going to be focusing on today are compassion and gratitude.
So we're going to be exploring how we can bring our attention to the present moment via these anchors with a filter of compassion and gratitude.
With that being said,
At any point in time,
You are free to change things up.
My guidance is just a suggestion.
If something feels better for you in the moment,
Feel free to do that.
And also important to be in a posture or in a position that's comfortable for you.
If you haven't already,
I encourage you to find a position or posture that expresses compassion,
That expresses the ability to to alleviate suffering.
Compassion is the ability to recognize and acknowledge suffering and act with kindness to alleviate that suffering.
So maybe the position you're in could be softer or gentle,
More kind.
Maybe your body has a certain amount of pain.
Maybe your body has been seated in a certain way or positioned in a certain way that's leading to some pain or discomfort,
And we can alleviate that by changing the posture up a little bit.
And the posture might be able to represent more gratitude as well.
The fact that you're here right now,
The fact that you can sit or stand or lay down,
It's something we can appreciate.
Even if we're in pain,
Even if things aren't going well for us,
The fact that you're here means there's more right than wrong.
We have the instructions and the position out of the way.
The invitation now is to shift our attention to sight,
To the sense of seeing.
Shift our attention to sight,
To the sense of seeing.
And I invite you just to notice where you are looking right now.
Maybe it's on the screen.
Maybe it's on a particular point in the screen.
Maybe you're looking around.
So whatever it is that you're doing now with the eyes,
And they might even be closed,
Exploring the possibility of being more aware that you're looking,
More intentional that you're seeing right now.
And exploring not needing to judge what you see.
Exploring the possibility of being more grateful that you can see.
That you have one of these senses,
No matter how,
No matter the level of your sight,
It's one of these senses we can use to become more aware of the present moment for us.
Sight is always here and now.
By focusing on the eyes,
By focusing on what we can see,
We practice being more mindful,
More present.
The invitation now is to,
If you'd like,
Of course,
To shift your attention to sounds.
Tuning in to the soundscape.
Sounds near,
Sounds far.
Constant sounds.
Sounds that come in and out of our experience.
Listening always happens now.
And as you listen,
You may notice judgments.
I like this sound.
I want more of it.
I get a little sad when it goes away.
I don't like this sound.
Oh,
I wish it wasn't here right now.
Exploring the possibility of having a more compassionate attitude in such moments.
Understanding the suffering with wanting something to be a certain way and the suffering with not wanting something to be a certain way.
And if we can respond to that with more kindness.
A simple,
It's okay not to like this.
A simple,
It's okay not to like this.
It's okay to like this.
Can really change things up.
Just as we practice compassion,
As we listen,
We can also practice gratitude.
Appreciating and savoring.
Savoring the feeling of being able to hear.
Just like there was a point in your life when you didn't hear before and there will be a point where you won't hear again.
We can perhaps savor more the fact that we can hear right now.
And before we move on to the next anchor,
Just a few words about having a distracted mind or finding difficulty with paying attention to one particular anchor.
Part of this practice today is to train our attention.
To notice when the mind is somewhere else and then return it back to seeing or listening.
And each time we notice,
We train.
Each time we bring the attention back,
We train our attention.
These are also moments where we might find ourselves being critical or harsh to ourselves.
And in that sense,
We can practice being more compassionate.
Or understanding that it's difficult to pay attention.
That this is part of the practice to get distracted.
And to even express gratitude that my mind thinks and my attention wanders.
And this allows me to be safe and recall important things for me and so forth and so on.
Okay,
Moving our attention now to the anchor of touch.
We can use the whole body for this.
We can feel temperature on the skin.
Pressure where the feet or the sit bones or the hands are making contact with something.
Our sense of touch allows us to sense the clothes on the skin,
The accessories that we wear,
The body hair that we have.
To a lesser or greater extent,
Of course.
Taking some time to anchor our attention on the sense of touch.
And what may be interesting or exciting for some of us is how the anchors continuously change.
How what we see changes,
What we hear changes,
What we feel with the sense of touch.
It's evolving,
It's morphing,
It's different as each moment passes.
So,
Noticing this,
Contemplating if that makes it easier or more difficult to focus.
And what's more that we might explore is,
Rather than touch,
Then the nervous system.
So,
What we can sense with the body,
We might be able to sense inside the body,
More of an introspective.
Organs,
Soreness,
Tightness,
Softness.
Practicing gratitude.
Practicing compassion for what you notice.
Moment by moment and touch by touch.
And finally,
Let's move our attention to the anchor of breathing.
To the anchor of breathing.
Exploring the sensations of the breath.
Exploring where it's easiest for you in today's practice to notice the breath.
Maybe you can hear the breath.
Maybe you can feel it in the belly or the chest.
Maybe the sensations around the nostrils or the throat are easy for you to detect,
To pay attention to.
Now,
I would,
I would state that in order to be more resilient,
To find more joy,
Acceptance,
We have to maintain some sort of presence.
And it can be quite supportive to stay present as we're anchored with our attention to some of these points,
Sight,
Sound,
Touch,
The breath,
That we're not swept away by any of these points.
We're not swept away,
Overly distracted or lost in thinking because a part of us is maintaining presence.
That even now,
As you listen,
As you understand,
You can still keep much of your focus on breathing,
On feeling,
On sensing.
This supports us in not only understanding what we're paying attention to,
But how we respond,
How we react to the stimulus,
To what we're consuming,
What we're in relationship with.
And so as we begin to end our practice for today,
I invite you to continue to explore training,
Nourishing,
And cultivating this human capacity that we have to maintain presence via our anchors to our present moment experience,
Doing so in a more compassionate way,
A way that recognizes suffering and acts to alleviate that suffering,
To minimize that suffering,
And with gratitude,
Appreciation,
And thankfulness.
Thank you for practicing.
All the best.
