Intimacy With What Is: Breath, Body, & Being

A guided meditation to bring us powerfully into the present moment. We will use awareness of breath, body, and the world around us to bring us into intimacy with our own inner experience. Mindfully making space inside of us, we can receive our own important insights, and gently tap into the wisdom within. We will build our ability to be with what is arising within us so we can allow ourselves to be more fully touched by life. Let us find ourselves intimate and in-contact with this moment, and be fully here now

Transcript

So welcome.

This meditation is an intimacy practice with our own inner experience.

It will begin with a spoken inspiration section and then we will go into a guided seated meditation exploring intimacy with our breath,

With our body,

With our felt sense of being here.

I'm not talking about intimacy as something that we do with another person here.

I'm talking about the soft subtle intimacy and the beauty of being with our own breath,

With our own body in the place in which we are sitting.

I'm talking about touching in deeply to our own inner experience and allowing ourselves to be touched by life.

Sometimes I know for me that my meditation practice can become another task that I have to do,

A way of maintaining my wellness that has to be slotted into my schedule.

It can be almost a perfunctory pause and yet I know that my meditation is way more delicious when it feels like a space to unfold into and when this time is a gift that I give to myself.

We often give so much of our life energy away to those around us and attending to all of the tasks that need doing.

It is deeply replenishing to bring all of that energy back into ourselves and sit and let it settle for a while.

When we practice meditation we are building our own abilities to be present with ourselves.

We are putting aside distractions,

Doing,

Technology,

Talking and coming in closer to the sense of life moving within us.

We get to be soft with ourselves,

We give ourselves moments that matter.

By making this space to meditate we create space to know ourselves deeply.

When we know ourselves we can be clear on our own motives,

We have space to be skillful and act wisely and we get in contact with our own good guidance.

To become intimate with our inner experience is to give ourselves time.

It is no good imploring ourselves to hurry up and connect.

Intimacy in being known is a process of deepening,

Of dropping in,

Of giving ourselves this space to see what unfolds.

Today as we watch the breath and the body we will slow down.

We may get to see the subtleties of life,

To hear the way that the wind is blowing in the trees outside or the flicker of the candle flame.

There is so much beauty in being with these micro-moments of life and I believe that it serves us greatly to build up our ability to be present with these moments.

And when we sit,

We sit still with ourselves.

Sometimes our relationship with ourselves isn't always an easy one and yet it is what it is.

When a little child is upset it is usually because something is wrong.

We would do well to think the same way of ourselves when we are out of balance and be good and gentle with ourselves as we practice.

When we become intimate with ourselves we step in besides ourselves.

We get to have our own back and we cultivate care for ourselves.

So in today's practice we will simply sit still with the different aspects of ourselves arising just as we are and just as we are.

So let us begin.

Find a comfortable seating position to begin with.

Ideally you'll have your spine straight.

You can be lying down if you need to or if you're very tired you may want to stand.

Close your eyes,

Lower your gaze.

Begin to settle.

And we'll start with noticing our breath.

The rising and the falling of the chest and of the belly.

Notice the sensations of your breath.

Become intimate with the breath.

The breathing in and the breathing out.

Notice the subtle sensations.

It may be cool air at the tip of the nose.

It may be the belly rising and falling.

You may notice your clothing feels constricted with a big in breath.

Notice the fact that the breath both moves of its own accord and we can also shift and shape our breaths.

Take a deeper breath and sigh it out.

Repeat in your own time.

We're not looking to change our breathing patterns here merely to build our muscles at being intimate with what is.

Keeping our breath as the place of practice.

You may notice as you seek to become intimate with the sensations of your breath you get to become intimate with the contents of your mind with thoughts arising and passing.

That's okay.

Just let them be.

Don't follow those thoughts.

Just keep coming back to the breath.

To the intimate feeling of being breathed as best you can.

Breathing in.

I know I am breathing in.

I'm breathing out.

I know I am breathing out.

I know that I am breathing out.

I know I am breathing in.

I know I am breathing out.

I know I am breathing out.

I know I am breathing in.

Noticing the way that the breath moves the body.

Feeling what it feels like to be breathed.

Becoming intimate isn't something that we can do with our mind.

It is a subtle thing sensed in the body.

It will serve us to be located in the here and now in touch with all of our senses in order to be truly intimate with ourselves.

So we will also come into contact with our sense of touch.

Notice the surface that is supporting you.

That is underneath you.

Feel the felt sense of that.

Feel the part of your body that is touching that surface.

The physicality of your body.

Of bones and muscles and blood.

You may have some kind of subtle sense of aliveness within you.

Feel the surface that your hands are touching.

Feel the fabric on your skin.

Feel the places both where our body touches the world around us where we are sitting and where we are touched.

Clothing may be the faint movement of air.

Become intimate with your other senses.

Sound.

There will be my voice,

The music.

There may be other background sounds.

The sounds of life reaching out and touching the body.

See if there is a smell in the room.

If there is any taste lingering on your tongue,

Maybe this morning's toothpaste or coffee.

Come into sensing your physical form into the somatic.

Into being intimate with being in this body in this moment.

Keep breathing deeply through it all.

As the mind begins to settle,

You may get to feel more of our inner experience.

To become more intimate with our inner world.

You may get more touched by life.

Beginning to sense this experience of being alive.

Being in a body,

Being here,

Breathing.

See if you can notice those subtle sensations within the body.

It might be a feeling or an emotion.

We are here as a willing witness just to notice these things.

We are not seeking to change things.

Just to be intimate with what arises.

Right now it is like this.

Right now this is what is so funny.

Stay with the sensations as best you can.

I know that there can be so much in motion internally while we sit still.

As best you can be fully here.

And finally,

Feel the intimacy of the air around you.

This may feel hard to do.

We are sensing into the subtle currents of life.

That sense of here I am sitting in this room,

In this place,

In this moment.

This moment in life.

Intimacy will bring us into feeling our own interconnectedness.

We so often feel like separate selves.

And yet we are here,

Part of it all.

Sometimes it is more comfortable to feel our separation.

There is much in this world that can be hard to be with.

Yet on some level we know that we feel better when we feel ourselves to be part of it all.

So feel into your own core,

Your body breathing.

The rum around you.

The nature outside.

The people you are connected with.

Being part of this planet,

This life.

Feel some sense of connection with it all.

Here I am pausing for a moment to be intimate with my breath and with my body.

On a planet full of billions of people all doing their best.

Take a moment to feel the wonder of that.

Wow!

I'm alive.

That's extraordinary.

Take a moment to feel grateful for that.

This gift of human life that may not always feel like a gift and yet we are here.

Meditating,

Daring to be with our own experience.

So we will finish this session with an extract from a poem by Mary Oliver.

What I loved in the beginning,

I think,

Was mostly myself.

Never mind that I had to,

Since somebody had to.

That was many years ago.

Since then I have gone out of my confinements.

I have become the child of the clouds and of hope.

I have become a friend of the enemy,

Whoever that is.

I have become older and cherishing what I have learned.

I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this,

Which is all I know?

Love yourself,

Then forget it,

Then love the world.

So have a stretch.

Wiggle your fingers and your toes.

Gently move your head,

Your neck,

Your spine.

Have a yawn and thank yourself for your practice,

For your willingness to dive in,

To be intimate with life.

It is brave to do that in these times.

It is brave to stay still with ourselves.

So I thank you for your practice and for being part of this Insight Timer community.

And I wish you a wonderful day ahead.

Reviews

What a beautiful meditation. Thank you. Just the right pace and your wonderfully soothing and encouraging voice.

Very calming and relaxing ...thanks!

So thoughtful So subtle So beautiful. The Mary Oliver poem at the end was perfect!

Very nice the first time. Perfect volume of music and the speaker's voice. Really 'relishment'.

I loved this. So soothing and grounding. And the Mary Oliver poem was a beautiful touch. Thank you!

Such a beautiful companion to being with what is! Thank you. I appreciate all the awareness points leading us into greater presence.

Excellent! Just what I needed. Thank you. Namaste 🙏

A simply marvelous way to get in touch with yourself. The content and presentation were thoughtful and fulfilling. Thank You.

This was deeply wonderful. Thank you so much. What a delight to find this meditation on such a simple yet profound topic and a potent practice.

Enjoyed this very much. Thank you!