Hi,
It's Julie Potichur for the Balanced Mind Meditation Center.
This meditation is going to help us practice moving the focus of our awareness,
Shining the light of our attention on different senses to enable us to strengthen our attention skill building.
So let's start by taking three nourishing breaths in through our nose and out through our mouth together.
Little longer on the exhale,
Calming down the nervous system,
Letting this last one out with a sigh.
Now gently closing your eyes or a gentle downward gaze if that feels better to you and just allowing your breath to find its natural rhythm.
We're going to now turn our attention to our senses.
So let's choose hearing first.
Resting your awareness in the closest thing that you can hear in your environment,
Stretching all the way out to the farthest thing that you can hear.
Now shifting your awareness to your sense of sight.
So if your eyes are closed,
Noticing what light is coming in through your closed eyelids or if you just have a gentle downward gaze,
Noticing what colors or shapes are in your vision.
Losing your awareness and seeing.
Now shifting your awareness.
So the sense of touch,
Noticing where your body is touching whatever you are sitting on or standing on,
Lying down on,
Noticing where your body's making contact with what is supporting you.
And also noticing the air on the skin,
Whatever skin you have exposed and noticing where your hands are resting.
Now shifting your awareness to the sense of taste,
Shine the light of your awareness inside your mouth.
And then the last of your five senses,
We're moving now to your sense of smell.
See if there's any aromas in your environment.
Now taking a deeper breath,
We're going to be shifting our awareness from outside of our body,
Our five senses to inside our body,
The inner sensations,
Interoception.
So breathing in,
Breathing out.
We're going to be moving around through our bones and muscles and organs.
Starting first with our head,
Your forehead,
Becoming aware of your skull,
Your eyes.
Relaxing your jaw,
Dropping your awareness down to your neck and your shoulders,
Your arms,
Your upper back,
The front of your chest,
Your lower back,
Your hips,
The bones in your legs,
Letting relaxation move down your legs to your feet,
Noticing what's there.
Letting relaxation move from your shoulders down to your hands and noticing what's there.
And now moving deep inside your body from your pelvis,
Your reproductive organs,
Moving up through your intestines,
Shining a light on your lungs and your heart.
Seeing whatever information you might be getting from your guts,
Your stomach.
Taking a few moments to really move the light of your attention around the inside of your body,
Becoming aware of whatever sensations you feel.
Now taking a deeper breath,
We're going to be shifting our awareness again.
And now it's time to focus on the activities of our minds itself.
Nothing,
Sensations,
Images,
Feelings,
Thoughts,
Memories,
Hopes,
Dreams.
Just becoming aware of these stories,
Mental activities,
Inviting them all in.
Now getting curious,
Imagining these mental constructions as clouds blowing through the big sky of your mind,
Seeing how do they arise and pass?
Is there a gap between these mental activities?
Is there a gap between these mental activities?
Watching these sensations and images and feelings and thoughts come and go.
You're seeing what's happening in your mind.
You're being aware of open awareness.
Now I'd like us to move into a loving kindness practice because as we've seen and learned that our inner connection is so important and so real.
And it's how we are going to raise the bar for humanity.
So calling to mind an individual that brings joy to your heart and to your mind and wishing these phrases,
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy and may you live with ease.
It's so easy and pleasing to wish these gorgeous loving kindness phrases to a being that naturally makes you smile.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy and may you live with ease.
Now adding yourself to that snapshot and of course the phrases become may we be safe,
May we be happy,
May we be healthy and may we live with ease.
Opening up this circle of compassion to friends and family and co-workers wishing for safety and health and happiness and ease and then painting this brush around the entire planet to all living beings on earth.
May we be safe,
May we be happy,
May we be healthy and may we live with ease.
Now wiggling your fingers and wiggling your toes when you hear the sounds of the chime coming back into this space.
May we be safe,
May we be healthy and may we live with ease.
Thank you so much for your practice.
This meditation is based on Dan Siegel's The Wheel of Awareness.
Thank you.
