Hi,
My name's Ash King.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Now,
In today's guided meditation,
We're going to be exploring a little mindfulness exercise that will allow us to observe what sensations,
Thoughts,
And feelings are present in our mind and body today.
So to kick off,
I'd like for you to find somewhere quiet where you're able to have some time out just for you.
Find a comfy seat,
Perhaps sit on the floor,
Or maybe lay down if that feels good.
And when you're ready,
Just closing down the eyes and allowing your awareness to move to your breath.
Just observing as your body inhales and exhales,
Bringing your awareness to your nostrils,
Sensing the air as it comes in and as it comes out slightly warmer,
Noticing the rise and fall of your belly or your chest.
And now,
Just some controlled inhales and exhales here.
So we're going to inhale for three and pause at the top of our breath.
And then we're going to exhale for seven.
I'll count you in.
Taking a nice deep breath in,
Two,
Three,
Pause,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Again,
In,
Two,
Three,
And pause.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
And once more,
Inhaling,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And pause.
Exhaling,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Now,
In this mindfulness practice,
We're going to go into our mind as if we've walked into a beautiful forest for a bit of a birdwatching experience.
Just as we would with birdwatching.
This is going to be all about observation and not about intervention.
So we're going to see things and we're going to spot things,
But we don't want to rush in and meddle with our hands or try to overthink or over-reason with ourselves here.
So what we're going to do is we're going to watch as thoughts and feelings and sensations become present in our bodies.
We're going to take this approach much like we would going on a birdwatching expedition,
Observing over intervening.
So returning that focus to your breath,
I'd like for you to clear your mind and then allow for any experience or thought or sensation to come up in your mind and body.
Maybe it's a thought about things you've got to do today or things that happened earlier today.
Perhaps it's an emotionally charged thought like,
I don't like this or I'm doing this wrong.
Maybe you're feeling some kind of feeling in your body,
Nervous or tense,
Angry,
Frustrated.
Maybe you're noticing or sensing things from the outside world,
The sound of a siren outside,
A neighbour's baby crying,
A dog barking.
Now I would like for you to simply recognise when each of these sensations or thoughts or feelings come up in your experience and almost like you would when you're out birdwatching is make a little note.
So when you notice yourself thinking,
I'd like for you to make a note thinking.
When you notice yourself feeling,
I'd like for you to make a little note feeling.
And when you notice yourself sensing,
I'd like for you to make a little note sensing.
You can always return to your breath as a perch or an anchor to give you some consistency through this practice.
Just allowing yourself some time here to observe what arises for you and try not to meet any of this with a sense of judgment.
This isn't right or wrong and your experience cannot be good or bad.
It merely is what it is and all we're doing is making a mental note of what comes up in the forest of our minds.
Is your mind busy?
Are you seeing a lot of birds in there today?
Or is it quite quiet and still?
Are there a lot of thoughts becoming present?
Or maybe a lot of feelings or sensations?
Just allowing them to be as they are and just as we would on our bird watching expedition,
We sit here and we observe without judgment or without the need to meddle or intervene.
Are you able to recognize those thoughts?
Or do you become swiftly engrossed in them?
And do they take you down a rabbit hole of more thinking and more feeling?
Today,
Is it difficult to detach from your thoughts and feelings?
Are you able to just to make a note or observe?
Or do they grip you in their claws and take you away?
And now gently returning to the breath feeling the physical presence of your body.
Perhaps you can feel wherever your body is in contact with the chair or the floor or the bed.
Scrunching up your face nice and tight and then just releasing and letting it go.
I'm just wriggling the fingers and the toes.
A practice such as this can be useful in that it allows us to develop greater understanding of our internal experiences.
Many of us have plenty of thoughts and feelings throughout our day but we rarely spend a lot of time reflecting on how those thoughts and those feelings help really influence the behavior and choices that we make in our lives.
Once we develop a greater understanding of the thoughts and feelings that come up regularly for us,
The more we are empowered to respond to these thoughts and feelings in healthy and nourishing ways.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
