We are going to practice walking meditation for a few minutes,
A variant of it,
Then walking,
If you want,
And then a sound meditation.
Those are practices that I am mixing to give you an alternative to body mindfulness meditation.
So start by taking a posture that is alert yet relaxed.
You can be sat or you can be in a stood up position,
Like you should be getting used to now.
Start by letting your attention go inward.
Feel your breath,
Taking slow,
Deep breaths.
Breathing in through your nose and out through your nose,
Slowly.
Feel if there are any tension in your body.
Can they relax?
Notice your emotional landscape today.
Are the emotion pleasant or unpleasant?
Observe if there are thoughts floating in your mind.
Can you see them and let them go?
Now bring your attention to your body,
From your head to your toes.
You're going to gently scan down your eyes and the muscles around your eyes,
Your mouth and the muscles around your mouth,
Your jaw,
Your throat,
And the muscle of your neck.
Can you bring a gentle smile on your face?
Continue down your chest and shoulders,
Your arms,
Elbows,
Wrists,
Hands,
Each fingers.
How do they feel?
From the inside out,
Can you feel vibrations,
Tension,
Cold or hot?
Now back to your chest and shoulders,
Down toward the belly and the middle back,
The lower back,
The hips and buttocks,
Your legs,
Knees,
Lower legs and ankles,
And finally your feet and the point of contact from your body and the floor,
The seat,
The bed.
Now we're going to start a variation of a walking meditation using your hands.
It's a variation on Jonathan Faust's meditation.
So bring your attention to your hands and place your hands on your laps,
If you're sat,
Or on your upper thigh,
If you're stood up.
This is for those of you that do not like walking meditation or do not,
Cannot do the walking meditation,
Or those who just don't have the space to do it.
Bringing attention to your hands and again from the inside out,
Placing your hands on your lap,
Palm down,
Start feeling them fully.
You're going to move your hands like you would move your feet while walking from the ground.
Lifting one hand up into the air while breathing in and bringing that hand down while breathing out.
And then on the next in-breath bringing up the other hand and then out-breath bringing it down.
Breathing in,
Hand up.
Breathing out,
Hand down.
And again,
Breathing in,
Hand up.
Breathing out,
Hand down.
Up,
Up.
And while you're doing that and following your natural breath,
Focus both on your breath and the movement of your hand.
If your mind wanders,
Because that's what mind do,
Bring it back to the breath.
If you lose the rhythm,
Put your hands back down and start again.
Now you can either continue this exercise or you can get up and start the same with walking.
Start by standing and having a soft stance with a bit of flexibility into your knees and joints.
If you want you can wear shoes but you can also kick them out and be bare feet like me.
Bring your attention to your feet and toes like you did with your hands.
And observe the pressure between the feet and the floor.
Observe without judging.
Is there more pressure on one leg or more pressure on your heel than on your toes?
Now you're going to take on one slow step forward at the same time as you're taking your in-breath.
Breathing in,
Moving one foot off the floor,
Feeling the sensation of that foot lifting and the weight shifting on your other leg.
Breathing out,
Putting that foot back down forward.
Then continue with shifting your weight onto that foot and breathing in,
Lifting the other foot.
Breathing out,
Putting this other foot down while shifting the weight back to that foot.
Breathing in,
Foot up,
Breathing out,
Foot down.
Breathing in,
Foot up,
Breathing out,
Foot down.
Breathing in,
Foot up,
Breathing out,
Foot down.
The idea is that you adapt your walking pace to your breathing pace and you're focusing on the sensation of your feet moving,
The pressure on the sole,
The muscles tensing to go up and down,
The balance of your whole body resting on your feet.
Do as many steps forward as the room allows you to,
Then pose with your two feet on the ground.
Rest,
Then turn slowly with each movement in rhythm with the in-breath and the out-breath.
And do the same walking back.
Pose,
Breathe and feel your whole body resting there,
Standing.
Now,
I would like to invite you to either continue standing,
If this is comfortable,
Or find a comfortable seated position.
And we're going to shift to mindfulness of sounds.
While I get the instrument,
Bring your attention to your feet and to your whole body into the room.
Feel the sensation present there,
Then gently open to the sounds that are around you.
What can you hear beyond my voice?
Can you hear your own breathing?
Any sounds from the house,
Or outside if you are outside?
Can you also notice your body reaction to some of the sounds?
Are your jaw clenching,
Your eyebrows frowning?
As you're continuing to bring the attention to the sound,
Also keep part of it onto your focus point,
The breath or the body.
I'm going to introduce some bells and chimes.
Bring your attention to the sound only,
From the start to it disappearing.
When you can't hear the sound anymore,
Focus back on your focus point.
Now bring your attention back to the room you are in.
You can open your eyes and stretch if this feels comfortable.
Thank you for your practice.
