Hi,
I'm Sarah from Metaya and this is the half an hour sitting meditation.
Let's begin by taking a moment to arrive.
Allow yourself to turn inward,
Leaving behind whatever came before this moment.
As you settle,
You might bring to mind an attitude for this practice,
An intention that can help you,
Like openness,
Curiosity,
Friendliness,
Or a gentle way of meeting whatever arises.
There is no need to create these qualities,
Simply noticing them as intentions you can return to at any time.
Bring awareness to the body and find a posture that supports both ease and alertness.
Feel the contact of the legs with the floor or the chair,
Sensing the pelvis and allowing the spine to rise naturally,
The back upright,
And the chin slightly tucked,
The crown of the head lifting gently.
And as you settle in,
Let the shoulders soften,
The hands resting where they are comfortable.
Allow the body to feel supported.
And now bring awareness to the body as a whole,
Gently scanning through the body,
Noticing sensations in the feet and legs,
The pelvis,
The lower back,
The abdomen and chest.
It can be that you feel something in temperature,
Pressure,
Movement,
Tingling,
And it can also be that there is nothing at all at this moment.
And go further up to the shoulders,
Arms and hands,
The neck,
Face and head,
The shoulders and the back.
There is no need to change anything.
Simply feeling into the body as it is and allowing yourself to arrive fully,
To arrive fully into your body and being ready for this practice.
And now I would like to invite you to take a moment to notice what is present right now.
What do you notice in the body?
In the mind?
Whatever is here,
Allow it to be here.
And meet it with the same openness and friendliness you set as your intention at the beginning.
It can be that you notice something as neutral,
You notice ease or softness,
Or discomfort somewhere.
All of this can be felt,
Arise and then fade.
Fade away and then comes another feeling or sensation.
And now I would like to invite you to gently bring the attention to the breath.
Allow the breath to follow its natural pattern without trying to change or control it.
Following the in-breath,
The out-breath and the pause.
And noticing how the pause naturally goes again into an in-breath and which goes to an out-breath and then pause.
And where do you feel the breath?
At the nostrils,
In your chest,
Or is it more the movement in your abdomen?
Wherever you feel it the most,
Try to use it as a place to rest your attention.
Gently resting your attention in your breathing,
In the movement of your breath.
And whenever you notice the mind has wandered,
Acknowledge that gently.
Know that it's the normal,
Natural way of the mind to wander away and return the attention to the breath.
It's not about how many times you wander away,
It's about noticing it and coming back to the practice.
And now the invitation is to notice experiences as they arise,
Naming them lightly,
Without analysis.
Focusing on the body sensations,
Like pressure,
Warmth,
Tension.
Perhaps silently naming them as body or whatever arises in your mind and allow them to come and go.
What do you feel and where do you feel it?
If nothing arises,
That's also fine.
And now I invite you to gently drive your attention to your hearing and noticing sounds.
Sounds that are near or far,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Simply hearing the sound.
See if you can hear without trying to analyze the sound.
Analyze it and as you hear it,
You can,
In the next moment,
Again,
Be curious on what do you hear now.
And where are you now with your thoughts?
In case you have wandered away or your mind has drifted off,
Come back to the sounds and to what you hear.
Now you can bring your attention to your thoughts.
Let go of all the sounds.
And noticing the sounds.
And bring your attention to your mental images,
To words,
To the planning or remembering.
And the invitation is to see them as mental events.
You might find it helpful to name it as thinking,
Planning,
Eating,
Or whatever category it fits in.
It can also be that you just recognize the thought,
See it as a cloud,
And then let it pass.
As a temporary mental event.
And where are you now?
It can be that a thought is so sticky that it stays.
And we get into that negative spiral,
Fear or anxiety.
Or we just love the thought and we go in a dreamy world.
But know that the practice is about coming back and noticing what's happening in our mind.
And thoughts are different,
One from another.
What they have in common is that they come and at one point they go,
As the clouds on the sky.
Let them pass.
And now you can bring your attention to your thoughts.
From the thoughts to the emotions.
Perhaps sensed as feeling tones in the body,
Neutral,
Pleasant or unpleasant.
Try to allow them a space to be here.
Whatever arises has now some space to be felt.
And if it helps you,
You might find naming or labeling the emotion helpful.
As positive or negative,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant.
Or you can also just feel it,
Or pair with the color that you see.
Without going deep in that emotion,
Allow it to be here.
Sitting in an open awareness.
And notice what is in the foreground from moment to moment,
And what moves into the background.
Being aware of what is here.
And when your mind wanders,
You might want to choose to smile at the fact that your mind is here.
The fact that your mind has just wandered.
And reminding yourself that that's normal,
And you come back to the practice of noticing what is here at this moment.
And now I would like to invite you to allow your attention to open.
As an open field.
You are no longer choosing a particular focus for your attention.
You are simply practicing resting in awareness.
And whatever arises,
A bodily sensation,
A sound,
A thought,
Or an emotion,
Notice it.
And notice without wanting to change it or solve it in the moment.
You have nothing to do at this moment.
Simply being aware of what is here.
And as you practice simply resting in awareness,
You may notice moments of effort or tension.
Or moments of drifting.
And notice these two as experiences.
Gently returning to a sense of balance.
Bringing alertness,
Being present without strain or striving.
And I would like to ask you to reconnect briefly with the breath.
Or with a sense of contact in the body.
Allowing awareness to re-center.
As this practice comes toward an end,
Allow the awareness to gently widen.
Sensing the body as a whole again.
The contact with the chair or the floor.
The space around you.
There is no hurry.
You can begin to come back in your own way.
Listening to what your body and mind need right now.
And the invitation is to take a moment to acknowledge that you made time to practice.
To pause.
To take care of your well-being.
And you can be grateful for that.
And when you hear the bell,
You can finish the practice at your own pace.
You might stretch,
Adjust your posture,
Or do whatever feels right for you.
Before gently returning to your other activities.
