Mindful Sitting Meditation

Dr Rebecca Crane from the CMRP leads a Mindful Sitting Practice - this is as it would be taught in a typical Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course.

Transcript

Welcome to this guided sitting meditation.

Finding a time and a place where you will not be interrupted by the telephone or by family or friends.

Seeing this as a time when we can set aside our usual activities and the usual mode of more or less constant doing and making time to simply be and just doing the practice as best you can following the guidance if you choose to but always doing what is best for you.

So now settling into a sitting posture either on a straight back chair or on the floor with your buttock supported by a cushion or a low stool and allowing your eyes to close if this is comfortable for you or if you prefer allowing your unfocused gaze to fall on the floor a few feet in front of you.

Having your hands resting on your thighs or lap and sitting in a way which enables you to feel firmly supported.

Your head and neck are aligned with your back.

Honouring and respecting your body and mind as you settle into this practice.

And bringing awareness to your posture.

Taking your attention directly to the sensations created at the points of contact of your body with what is supporting you.

The buttocks on the seat,

Feet and maybe knees on the floor.

Sensations of pressure,

Warmth,

Weight moving down connecting you to the earth.

And now moving your attention to the base of your spine and guiding your attention up through your spine.

Right up to the crown of your head.

Feeling the uplift of your body as you sit here.

Gently growing tall without any pressure or tension or striving on your part.

Just naturally aligned,

Erect.

Sitting like a mountain in touch with the ground while rising tall towards the sky.

In touch with the space all around you.

Having a sense of dignity,

Wakefulness.

Taking your seat.

And now gently becoming aware of breath movement in the body.

And noticing where you feel the sensations created by the movement of the breath in your body most strongly.

Choosing where you are going to move up close to your breath.

Maybe at the nostrils or the back of the throat.

Feeling the cool air coming in and the warm air moving out.

Or maybe coming up close to the chest area.

Feeling the lungs filling with air on the in-breath.

And deflating as you breathe out.

Or perhaps moving all the way down into the abdomen.

Sensing the abdominal wall rising and expanding as you breathe in.

And falling back as you breathe out.

Choosing where you are going to come up close to the breath.

And as best you can bringing your attention to this place.

Not thinking about breathing but feeling it directly.

The full duration of each in-breath and each out-breath in a particular place in your body.

Allowing yourself to be with this flow of breath coming in and going out.

And noticing if there is a tendency for the mind to want to control or manipulate the breath in some way.

And as best you can letting go of that tendency.

Allowing the breath to be as it is.

Witnessing.

Noticing.

Feeling.

Investigating the breath.

Simply being with the sensations of each in-breath and each out-breath moment by moment.

Feeling curious about how the breath is breathing.

Noticing if the breath is shallow or deep.

Regular or irregular.

Long or short.

Being present with the sensations of breath movement just as they are.

Noticing as you do this that there is nothing that you need to do to make the breathing happen.

All you are doing is simply becoming aware of the sensations of breath travelling in,

Turning around and travelling out.

Breath breathing itself.

And at some point you will notice that the mind wanders away from the breath.

You are no longer in touch with the sensations of breath moving in the body.

But have been taken to thoughts.

Thoughts of the past.

Memories.

Regrets.

Thoughts of the future.

Planning.

Wishing.

Fantasies.

Daydreams.

Judging.

And your mind may well then leap onto a train of associations so that you find yourself taken a long way away from where you intended to be in the present moment.

When you notice that the mind has wandered off,

Simply acknowledging where it has gone.

And then gently but firmly bringing your attention back to the breathing.

Back to this breath.

In this moment.

Returning with a sense of caring and self acceptance and with a commitment to keep reconnecting with the here and now.

It is perfectly normal for the mind to wander so not seeing this as a problem in any way and not giving yourself a hard time.

The practice we are doing here is not about trying to keep the mind from wandering which is impossible anyway.

But of coming to see the habitual tendency of the mind to wander.

And to develop our capacity to notice this and to bring the attention back into the present.

So with gentleness to yourself having the firm intention to keep returning to the breath each time you become aware that the mind has wandered.

No matter how many times the mind wanders away from the breathing when you have become distracted,

Preoccupied or restless.

Whether the mind has wandered for a few seconds or for many minutes the task is still the same.

Knowing and trusting that you can always use awareness of the breath to refocus your attention with a sense of gentleness and compassion without any sense of judgement or criticism.

Again and again returning to being present with the sensations of movement of the breath in the place you have chosen,

The abdomen,

The chest or the nostrils.

Using awareness of the breath as an anchor to support you in coming into the present moment.

Yes sir.

And now expanding the focus of your attention around the breath to include sensations throughout the whole body as you sit here.

Noticing the feelings of touch and contact with the chair or the cushion.

Contact made by the feet,

The buttocks,

The legs,

Your hands on your lap as you sit,

The air on your skin.

Maybe sensations of warmth or coolness,

Sensations of clothes on your body,

Tightness,

Looseness.

Aware of the space that your body takes up as you sit here,

The space around your body and the boundary between these two spaces,

The skin.

Holding all these sensations in awareness from wherever they come in your body,

Allowing them to be just as they are.

So sitting now with awareness of sensations throughout your body.

And checking in from time to time to see if your posture is as you intended it to be,

A posture that embodies wakefulness and dignity.

And again the attention is likely to wander away from being in touch with sensations in the body as a whole.

And as you notice this,

Just coming back,

Reconnecting the attention in a gentle and kindly way,

But also with a sense of firmness.

Tuning into whatever is present in your body in this moment.

Sometimes sensing the body as a whole as you sit here,

Sometimes sensing particular sensations.

Allowing the body to be as it is,

Allowing you to be just as you are in this moment.

Sensations arising,

Perhaps lingering,

Passing away.

Being here with whatever comes up without judging it,

Without reacting to it.

For all of us as we sit in this way,

We will at times experience strong sensations which draw the attention away from our focus in this moment.

They may dominate the field of awareness.

These feelings may be discomfort or intensity,

A recurring restlessness,

An itch or it may be an emotion showing itself in your body.

If this is the case for you now or at any time as you practice,

Knowing that there are choices in how to respond and work with this.

One choice is to move,

To adjust your body and your posture to alleviate the discomfort.

And if this is what you would like to do,

Then as best you can,

Being attentive to what is involved.

First noticing the thinking about moving and as you move,

Experiencing the sensations that are created and the effects of the movement in the body as you settle back into stillness,

Back into your chosen posture,

Back into attending to the breath and the body as a whole.

Noticing how that is.

So moving the body with awareness and in this way the moving is folded into the practice rather than being an opting out from it.

Another way of working with discomfort is not to move but to stay still while you experiment with turning your attention towards the intensity.

Not trying to change it but as best you can moving up towards the place in the body where this experience is most strongly located.

Moving your attention up close to it as much as feels okay for you in each moment.

Gently taking your attention to that edge where comfort begins to be challenged and staying here.

Not retreating,

Not advancing.

Not trying to push through the intensity and not trying to escape from it.

Gently exploring it.

Maybe breathing in and out of this area,

Using your breath to gently guide the attention to and around this place.

Maybe softening as you breathe out,

Investigating.

What precisely are the sensations in this place?

What do they feel like in this moment and in this moment and in this moment?

Do the sensations move?

Do they come and go?

Not so much thinking about the sensations as having a feeling sense of them.

As best you can opening and softening to it all.

Like an explorer without judgment and with a sense of compassion and care just noticing as best you can how things are for you moment by moment as you explore your experience in your body.

And if the time comes when the discomfort is no longer so compelling then returning the attention to the breath and the body as a whole.

To this breath in this moment.

To this body fully alive right now.

Or if the discomfort doesn't subside making a conscious choice as to whether to remain present with the discomfort or to return your attention to the breath.

In either case being fully present with the choice and with yourself just as you are right now,

Non-judgmentally.

And now letting the breath and body as a whole move into the background of your awareness and bringing your attention to your sense of hearing.

To sound.

Receptive to whatever enters your awareness as sound.

Not stretching out to reach for sounds but simply allowing them to come to you just as they are.

Sounds in the body.

Near sounds.

Far sounds.

Just being aware of sounds arising and falling away.

Becoming aware of pitch.

Volume.

Intensity.

And being aware of the silence between sounds as well.

The space out of which sound arises and into which it disappears.

Noticing the tendency of the mind to like some sounds and not others.

Maybe creating stories around the sounds.

Labelling them.

When you notice that this is happening as best you can just noticing where the mind has gone and then coming back to the direct experience of sound itself.

Without effort keeping it simple.

Sitting in stillness.

Being aware of sounds and the spaces between sounds.

Aware of silence.

Moment by moment by moment.

And again if at any point you notice that your mind is distracted.

Noting where the mind has wandered to and simply bringing it back to the breath to anchor and now letting sounds fade into the background of your awareness and bringing your attention to thoughts.

To the thinking process itself.

So in this practice we are focused on the breath.

On the body.

On sound.

And now as you sit here opening up to thoughts as the object of our attention.

Not seeing thoughts as distractions which take you away from the focus of your concentration.

Opening to and noticing thoughts arising passing by and leaving.

A bit like sound as they arise pass by and disappear.

You may find it helpful to imagine your mind like the spacious blue of the sky.

And thoughts are like clouds appearing in the sky.

Sometimes they are thin and wispy.

Sometimes thick and dense.

Large and black.

Sometimes seeming to cover the entire sky.

Whatever size and shape each simply appears and passes by and then eventually disperses in its own time.

The clouds are not the sky just as thoughts are not your mind.

The spaciousness of your mind is in no way affected by the thoughts passing by any more than the sky is affected by the clouds.

So as you sit here bringing your attention to the thinking process itself.

Noticing the nature of your thoughts.

Some thoughts are harder to watch like clouds in the spaciousness of the sky.

They draw us into them.

We get involved in them with the content of the thought.

Like jumping into a whole new world with its own storyline and characters and before we know it we are completely caught up in that world.

So just noticing how the mind gets caught up in the content of some thoughts.

Whenever you notice that you are no longer aware of thoughts as thoughts but have become involved inside them.

Then as best you can coming back to simply observing the thoughts as passing events in the mind as they come and go.

Noticing how they arise,

Linger and at some point move on.

So using this time to practice just witnessing thoughts and the thinking process itself.

Whatever thoughts are arising being present with them.

Thoughts of desires,

Likes,

Dislikes,

Memories,

Judgements,

Pressures,

Obligations,

All of it.

Playing with the edge between experiencing what it is like to notice a thought as a thought and getting caught up inside it.

Observing the natural coming and going of thoughts.

Some thoughts come with a charge of emotion,

Sadness,

Worries,

Fears and when this happens seeing if it is possible to allow your awareness to include your emotion and to turn toward it.

Noticing where you feel the emotion in your body.

As best you can approaching whatever emotions are present for you now with a sense of welcoming and exploring.

And noticing how like clouds and like thoughts emotions arise,

Come into your awareness and naturally disperse and always remembering that if you find that emotions become overwhelming or you become involved or carried away in the stream of thinking and feeling.

As soon as you notice that this has happened you can come back to the breath.

This in breath and this out breath.

The breath is always with you,

Always there to help settle and steady you.

Reconnecting us again and again and again with the present moment.

And then when you feel ready becoming aware again of the arising and passing of thoughts and emotions.

And now letting thoughts and emotions fade into the background and letting go now of deliberately placing the attention on a particular aspect of your experience and allowing yourself to simply be here with whatever naturally comes up.

If it is thoughts then being aware of thoughts.

If it is sounds then being aware of sounds.

And if it is sensations from the body that are predominant then being with sensations from the body.

Simply being here in the moment with whatever is,

With whatever arises,

With gentleness and compassion.

Allowing it all.

Maybe noticing how things shift,

Move and recur over and over again within your body mind as your experience unfolds moment by moment.

Perhaps being aware of the space from which all our experiences arise.

Allowing it all to be just as it is.

Awake.

Aware.

And if at any time you experience that you become lost or distracted then coming back for a few moments to directly experiencing the breath moving in the body.

Re-anchoring yourself into the present moment.

Before widening out your attention again to experiencing wider sensations,

Thoughts,

Emotions in the body moment by moment.

Sitting in this stillness with whatever comes and with whatever goes and being present with it all with gentleness and kindness.

And now narrowing the focus of your attention coming back to the breath,

Coming home to the breath.

Fully present with each in-breath and with each out-breath.

Aware.

Spacious.

Room for it all.

In touch with stillness.

And remembering that your breath is available at any time to bring you back into the present moment.

To help settle you.

To help to focus and steady you when you feel unfocused and unsteady.

And to bring you back in touch with a sense of yourself in this moment.

And as this meditation finishes,

Recognizing that you have spent this time intentionally nourishing yourself and making time to be who you are just as you are.

Practicing the ability to be present with yourself just as you are.

And allowing the benefits of this practice,

This non-judgmental awareness to flow into the activities of your day.

Thank you.

Reviews

Great time and experience.

A beautifully guided practice. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you so much. What a great session

A really good meditation with sufficient silence to implement the guidence/instruction.

Becca has a quality of teaching that is gentle, not forced, genuine and spacious. This sitting practice is suitable for beginners and experienced practitioners who would like to reconnect with the purpose of sitting practice.

Thank you for the guidance through my first longer meditation.

Beautiful - gently paced, grounding. Thorough! Thank you

Excellent
Thank you

Beautiful guidance thank u!