Hi,
I'm Sarah from Atthaya and this is the meditation Sitting with Thoughts.
Take a moment to arrive,
Finding a posture that feels both upright and at ease.
Seated on a chair or cushion,
Or you may prefer to lay down.
Comfortable,
At ease,
Hands resting wherever they feel at home.
If it feels okay,
Allow the eyes to close or keep them softly open,
Gaze lowered.
And begin by noticing that you are here,
Nothing you need to achieve,
Nothing to fix.
Simply allowing this moment to be as it is.
And I would like to invite you to gently bring your attention to the breath.
Not changing it,
Not controlling it,
Just noticing.
Feeling the breath as it enters the body and as it leaves.
And perhaps noticing the breath at the nostrils,
The chest,
Or the belly.
Allowing the breath to be an anchor,
A place to return to again and again.
In-breath,
Out-breath,
Maybe a short pause.
And again,
In-breath,
Out-breath.
And when the mind wanders,
And it will,
Simply noticing that wandering has happened.
And gently escorting the attention back to the next breath.
No judgement,
No criticism.
This is the practice.
And now gently expanding awareness to include thoughts.
You don't need to stop thinking.
You don't need to change the thoughts.
Thinking is not a mistake.
Thoughts are a natural activity of the mind.
And it can be that all of a sudden you can't think of anything.
And that's okay.
You will see that a thought will naturally arise.
You don't need to look for it.
Just let it come.
And the invitation is that you imagine your awareness as the sky.
Wide,
Open,
Spacious,
Clear blue.
And your thoughts are the clouds moving through the sky.
You may notice that some clouds are light and wispy.
And others are darker,
Heavier,
More dense.
All of them are allowed.
Where are you now?
As a thought appears,
Simply notice it.
And it can be that you find it helpful to silently name it.
Label it as thinking,
Or planning,
Or remembering,
Or judging,
Or worrying.
But if you don't find labeling helpful,
You don't need to do it.
It's an invitation.
And allow the thought to drift by.
You don't need to push it away.
And you also don't need to follow it.
We are not analyzing the thought.
Just noticing it as a cloud which comes and then goes.
You recognize a thought,
Acknowledge it,
And then letting it pass.
Like a cloud carried by the wind.
And you might notice that some thoughts may linger longer than others.
That's okay.
Some may pull you in before you realize it.
The practice is about noticing you have been caught in a thought,
Gently,
Kindly acknowledging,
Oh,
This is a thought.
And return to being the sky again.
Seeing clouds come and then go with the wind.
You are not the clouds.
You are the sky.
Just letting the cloud come and go.
At times,
Thoughts may come with emotions,
Or bodily sensations.
And if that happens,
Noticing it is enough.
Let them be there,
Too.
We are learning to be with it,
Not push it away.
Just noticing and letting it be,
And then drifting by.
And where are you now?
If you are just noticing a thought,
The invitation is meet the thought with the open and curious attitude.
Recognize it,
Allow it,
And then gently let go.
No need to make anything disappear to force.
Everything comes and everything goes.
Everything changes.
Every cloud one day will disappear.
If the mind feels busy,
That is not a problem.
You don't practice to empty the mind.
You practice to notice what's there,
What's present,
Again and again.
And whenever it feels supportive,
You can return to the breath.
Using it as a home base,
A place of steadiness.
And then opening awareness again to the thoughts,
Like clouds passing through the sky of awareness.
A breath and a thought.
A breath and a thought.
You have nothing to do and nowhere to go.
You are just staying present,
Noticing your current experience with your breath and your thought as your focus points.
And as we begin to close this practice,
Notice the quality of your awareness right now.
Perhaps more spacious or different in any ways.
There is no right experience.
It's just about noticing what there is.
Now,
Bring the attention in a friendly manner back to the body.
Feeling the points of contact with the chair or the mat.
Opening your awareness,
Noticing sounds in the room,
The temperature of the air.
And when you are ready,
Allow the eyes to open if they were closed.
And take this quality of gentle awareness with you into the rest of your day.
Remember that thoughts will continue to come and go.
And you can meet them again and again with kindness and space.
And you can welcome them as clouds.
And they will go at one moment with the wind.
