Welcome!
This is the third of a series of meditations on being present now.
I am Italian and I speak English as a second language,
So if my accent and my lexical and grammatical errors do not interfere too much with your mindfulness practice,
I hope that you can find some hints or insights here on the art of being present.
We're going from about 15 minutes of the first session to the 30 minutes of the tenth and last session.
So this one will be about 18 minutes long.
To start,
We can take a deep breath and get in touch with our breathing,
So that we can use our breath to keep our mind here.
As we have done in the two previous sessions,
We can just simply follow our breath or we can place one hand on the chest,
The other on the abdomen and feel the movement in the body,
The rising and falling of the abdomen or the chest.
And if it helps,
We can also pull our shoulders up while we're breathing in and then slowly and gently while we're breathing out,
Let the shoulders go back down.
So while we are breathing out,
We let go.
We let go of all the tensions in the body and the mind.
We can feel the sound of the breath while the air is coming in through the nose and when it's going out.
If there are sounds in the environment where we are,
Maybe little sounds or big noises,
Whatever is there,
We can pay attention to the sound.
Maybe it's pleasant or maybe it's unpleasant or maybe neutral,
Nor pleasant nor unpleasant.
Whatever sound is present right now,
We just hear it as it is without thinking about it,
Without judging and without getting lost into interpreting,
Analyzing or maybe into imagination or fantasies about that.
We just hear the sound.
We are awake.
We are alive.
And so we hear.
We hear sounds,
But we can train our mind not to elaborate,
Not to process all that information that is coming so that it doesn't build up any meaning.
It's just a sound and we hear it just as sound.
We can even repeat mentally the word sound.
Sound.
And then we slowly and gently go back to our breathing,
To the feeling of the breath in the body.
And if thoughts arise or emotions arise,
We try not to get lost in them.
We see them,
But we don't follow them.
We don't get attached to.
We don't grasp the emotion or the thought.
We see them and we let them go.
If it helps the mind to stay here,
We can count our breaths.
And when we breathe out,
We can let go of all the tensions in the body and the mind.
The body is relaxed.
All the muscles are soft and relaxed because if there are tensions in the body,
The mind cannot be quiet.
So we have to pay attention to our body and let go of all the tensions.
And if a tension or a sensation is too strong and doesn't go away,
We can go there gently with kindness to feel it.
Maybe it's warm or it's cold.
Maybe there is a pressure or a vibration.
Whatever it is,
We just feel it without judging and without wanting it to go away.
Because if we start to desire it to go away,
We create a conflict.
We get in conflict with ourselves,
With our tensions,
With our sensations,
And we don't want that.
We are trying to develop a space inside,
The space of awareness where everything can be just the way it is so that we can be,
I can be just the way I am.
I don't have to be different.
I can be right now just the way I am right now.
And to train this ability to stay with myself no matter what,
I have first to get in touch with what's good inside of myself.
So to do that,
We can smile,
Move our face muscles into a small smile that's coming from our heart.
The smile develops from the heart,
From inside,
From inside the chest,
Inside the body.
It's like a sensation that's arising.
And then the muscles of the face move.
And so while I'm breathing in,
I'm smiling.
And while I'm breathing out,
I'm smiling.
And let's feel inside.
How does it feel to smile?
Maybe an image of a face,
Of a smiling face appears,
Maybe a color or a song or something that's helping us to connect to our joy inside.
Maybe a thought,
An image.
In this case,
We want to feel it.
So let's see.
Is there joy?
Is there peace,
Tranquility,
Calmness?
And let's see if we can feel gratitude.
Let's say thanks.
Thank you for being here now,
For taking a few minutes to rest,
To be with yourself the way you are.
Thank me for being here with myself the way I am.
So let's get in touch with this joy,
Peace,
Gratitude.
Thank you.
Thank me.
Let's feel.
Let's feel in our chest,
In our body,
The sensations.
Maybe this joy,
Gratitude and peace are felt like a vibration in the arms or in the belly or in the face.
Maybe there is warmth.
All the emotions happen in the body.
So we can know them in the body like sensations.
And as we have to become familiar with all the emotions,
Also the one that we don't like,
Like anger,
Fear,
Disgust,
Sadness,
Let's start with the ones that we like.
Joy,
Happiness,
Calm,
Gratitude.
Let's get in touch with those emotions,
With those sensations in the body that refer to those emotions before any thinking.
We're not thinking about this.
It's not thinking.
It's just feeling,
Feeling the arms,
The hands,
Warm sensation or cold or a pressure or a vibration moving around.
Let's feel the body,
The sensations.
And slowly let's go back to our breathing.
Find the in-breath and the out-breath.
Being mindful,
Aware of our breathing and of the sensations in the body,
Help us to get in touch with our nature,
With our very nature instead of being identified with the thinking,
With the rational verbal mind.
We are not the mind.
The mind is just a tool that we have,
Very potent,
Very complex tool that we have to get by in life.
But the mind is not me.
So the thinking is just something that happens.
I become aware of it,
But I'm not it.
I am the presence that's seeing the thinking.
This is not a theory.
We don't want to think about this.
We want to experience this.
And to do so we use the mindfulness of breathing.
And that's why we go back slowly and gently to our breathing,
To the feeling of the breath in our body,
To the movement of the breath,
To the in-breath and the out-breath.
Now let's get ready to open our eyes.
But first as usual let's stay still a little longer to feel our body and our mind.
How do I perceive myself in the environment when I'm still with my eyes closed compared to when I start moving my fingers,
My hands,
Maybe stretching a little bit and then slowly opening my eyes?
Let's just pay attention to this different perception.
One is not better than the other.
It's just different.
It's just a different mode of our mind that we can become aware of.
Now let's start breathing more comfortably.
