Mindfulness Practice - Watcher Of The Thoughts

This mindfulness meditation will tap you into awareness beyond the thinking mind. Learn to let the thoughts rise and fall as they pass on. Release the inner narratives and sink into inner peace.

Transcript

Welcome to this morning's meditation. So just take a moment wherever you are to really settle down and find a comfortable seat. So for this practice you could be sat on a chair, On the floor, On a cushion. You could even be laying down. That's the most comfortable position for you to take today. But just take a moment before we begin to just take some movements and wiggles with the spine, With the shoulders. Maybe you join me in rolling the shoulders up to the ears and down the back. Maybe you roll the neck. Just take a little bit of movement before beginning to come back to stillness. So eventually just begin to find length through the spine. Maybe noticing whether the spine is stacked. So you've got the pelvis, The shoulders and the back of the head moving in a line. Maybe you notice where the hands are resting. Maybe they're resting on the legs. Maybe the hands have fallen into the laps. You've got one hand on top of the other. Maybe you found your own resting point for the hands today. Just take a moment to notice where they are. Notice the sensation of them resting on the legs or in your lap. Noticing the cross of the legs or however your legs are positioned. Sense of contact with the floor, Maybe the texture or the feeling of your clothing against your skin. Really turning that focus more inwards. Through our lives there's lots of information coming in from around us. And as we come towards meditation, Just really want to turn that inwards. I always think of it as turning down the volume on the outside world, Filtering in. Noticing what you feel in the body and just draw you in that bit deeper. As you sit and observe, Maybe you notice your breath, Your breathing. Maybe this is the first time this day that you've actually stopped to notice the breath. Just observe for a moment. And it's really difficult to observe without judgment, But see if you can. If the mind wants to add a label to your observation, Just notice that. Is the breath slow and long? Is it short and shallow? When we don't judge these, We just allow ourselves just to notice. The breath can really tell us how we're feeling. It's short and shallow. Maybe we're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, A little bit rushed, A little bit pulled from pillar to post. It's slow and deep and moves down into the belly with every inhale. Maybe we're feeling calmer, More grounded. You might even notice that it fluctuates between the two. There's this amazing tool. It's when we're not watching it, It carries on, It sustains us, It keeps us going. But when we do watch, We can direct it. We can use it to actively move ourselves from whatever state we're in towards a more calm, More balanced state just with the breath. So just begin to deepen that breath if you haven't already. Taking the breath in through the nose, It fills up the belly, The ribs, The chest. And every breath out, Everything draws back in. If you stay and purposely deepen or elongate that breath without forcing, Notice subtle shifts. The breath is fast and shallow, Often the mind is racing. As we slow down the breath, We often slow down the frequency of thoughts as well, Creating those little pockets of space. As you really begin to observe, You might even notice how some thoughts come in and throw you off center a little bit and the breath might speed up, The mind might race. It's okay because we've got this tool and we just come back to the breath. Let it settle, Let the breath deepen. Begin to take counted breaths. So remember here, If my count is too slow, You can go off in your own pace and take a count that works better for you. You choose my count as inspiration. My count works, Then follow me. We're going to be doing in for four, Out for four. And then we're going to slowly add in a box breath. So it'll be in for four, Hold for four, Out for four, Hold for four. And we're going to start just with a big inhale in through the nose. We're going to open the mouth and just sigh it out. Feeling the lips, We're going to take an inhale through the nose for four, Three, Two, One. Inhale through the nose for four, Three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Exhale for three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Exhale for three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Exhale for three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Exhale for three, Two, One. Inhale for three, Two, One. Exhale for three, Two, One. Adding in our hold in the house of four. Hold for exhale for four. Hold for inhale for hold for exhale for four. Hold for inhale for hold for exhale for four. Hold for inhale for hold for exhale for four. Hold for slowly taking away the hold so we're going to inhale for four. Exhale for four. Hold for. Inhale for. Exhale for. Inhale for. Hold for. Exhale for. Inhale for. Exhale for. Hold for. Letting go of the counted breath but just let the breath rise and fall. It might stay in that pattern. It might drop to something that's more natural for you. So just really beginning to really notice. Notice the thoughts rise and notice the space when they don't. See if you can really fully enter that space. Even feeling like you become the watcher of your thoughts in that moment. Waiting for the next thought to rise from that space. It might come thick and fast. You might need to find and really look for the pauses. It might come naturally. You might come naturally. Sink into and savour that space watching, Wondering what will my next thought be. So when we practice like this we remind ourselves that we are not our thoughts. Thoughts come and go. They are fluctuations of the mind. Chitta vrittis. They are not us. They might be what we use to define ourselves with our preferences, Our likes, Our dislikes. But when we just begin to create that space, Begin to notice that we are more than that. That they are passing visitors that come and go. Some are pleasant. Some are not. Some replay out the past. Some imagine the future. But all of them come and go. Sometimes with intensity. Sometimes with emotions. See if you can drop beyond that to that space. Space of watching. Remembering even if the thoughts come thick and fast, There's no space between the thoughts. Don't worry. That will happen in time. Keep showing up. Keep becoming that watcher. Get that space. Be in that space. Wait there for the next thought to rise. That thought will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. It will rise. Always drawing yourself back. Watching the thoughts. Watching the space between the thoughts. Practicing compassion and love for ourselves for every time that we get swept up in a thought. That we get taken away and we follow it. Losing that watcher. Remembering that it's okay. Keep coming back. Watching. When you drop into that space of watching, When judgement does want to come up, You begin to notice that there's just extra thoughts in the mind, Almost like just cluttering up the space. And maybe there it's easier just to let them go. Just letting go. We're going to begin to visualize clarity moving through our bodies. It's going to become a body scan. See if you can begin to sense the floor below you. See if you can picture there pure, Bright, Brilliant white light. And this white light, Maybe you see it in your mind's eye, Maybe you sense it, Maybe there's a feeling. We're going to draw it through the whole body so that the whole body is filled with this luminosity. And as we do, We're going to visualize that it's clearing the whole body. As it gets up to the mind, We're going to visualize that it's clearing the mind. So just begin to draw this white, Brilliant, Luminous light up slowly through the body. It infuses every cell that it touches from the toes, Up through the legs, The pelvis, The belly. The lower back. Ribcage and all the vital organs it homes. The middle, The upper back, The chest. The arms all the way down to the fingers. The neck, The shoulders, All the way up to the jaw. The mouth. The nose. The ears. The eyes. The scalp. The crown of the head. And the mind. Your cleansing, Purifying white light comes all the way through the body. All the way through the mind. From here, We're going to spend the last couple of moments in silent meditation. So I will turn down the background music. Remember, Any sounds that come into your space, Welcome them in. They can just remind you. I'll come back to watching, Watching the mind, The thoughts, Temptations to follow the thoughts, All the space between the thoughts. I'll keep the time. Rest here. Rest here. Rest here. Rest here. Rest here. Rest here. Rest here. Slowly letting sounds come back in. Taking a final moment here before we come back, Just with that idea that as we watch the thoughts, Watch the space between the thoughts, That we realize that these are just our story, Narrative, Our preferences. But beyond all of that, There's you. It's the one who watched. And we remember this in moments where the mind is really running in circles around us and create that little bit of space that we need. Between that chatty mind. I'm going to take about two or three big breaths just before we come fully back. So begin to deepen the breath in through the nose. Open the mouth, Let it go. Take another one deep breath in. Big sigh out. If it resonates with you, Bring the hands together for prayer position. Anjali Murtva. Thumbs gently rest against the heart. Take a pause in this moment of gratitude. Grateful for yourself for making time out of this day for your practice. Grateful for your body that was able to sit in stillness so that you could begin to settle the mind. Even grateful for these practices that have been around thousands of years that enable us to come to this space of stillness within. Maybe bow the head down towards the hands in gratitude. And then begin to rub the hands together, Create some warmth. You can slowly place that warm hands over the eyes. Then you can blink the eyes open so that you look first softly into the darkness of the hands. Or slowly moving the hands away, Arriving back, Letting the light into your space. Thank you all so much for practicing with me today.