Beginning if you can by choosing to bring yourself to a position,
A posture that embodies both ease and alertness.
Choosing a posture with intention tells our brain that we're now choosing to do something for ourselves,
To take a few minutes to step out of the everyday,
To cultivate a different state of awareness.
I'd recommend sitting upright if you can,
In a chair,
Cross-legged on the floor,
On the side of your bed,
The spine self-supporting,
Becoming aware of your body,
Touching the surface beneath you,
Your feet on the floor,
Your seat supported,
Allowing the eyes to close if that feels comfortable for you.
Bringing a sense of the length of the spine,
From the base of the spine to the crown of the head,
Setting up the body straight but not stiff,
Your shoulders relaxed,
The head and neck balanced,
Chin tucked slightly in,
Bringing your attention to the movements of the breath in the body to help you settle.
Noticing where you notice the breath,
This can be your anchor point to return to,
Or you might choose a physical sensation of your feet on the floor or the hands resting in your lap.
Expanding your attention to take in the body as a whole,
As if the whole body were breathing,
Helping you to be aware of all the sensations in the interior landscape of the body.
Noticing any areas of obvious tension,
Relaxing the jaw,
Dropping the shoulders.
Always remembering you can come back to the breath and body to anchor yourself if your mind becomes too distracted or overwhelmed as we practice moving our attention to a different focus.
Now when you're ready,
Allow the focus of your attention to shift from sensations in the body to hearing,
Opening to sounds as they arise.
And there's no need to go searching for sounds or listening out for particular sounds.
Instead,
As best you can,
Simply remain open so that you are receptive to awareness of sounds from all directions as they arise.
Sounds near,
Sounds far,
Sounds in front,
Behind,
To the side,
Above or below.
In this way,
Opening up to the whole space of sound around and within you,
The soundscape.
Perhaps notice how the obvious sounds can easily crowd out the more subtle ones.
Noticing any spaces between sounds,
Moments of relative quiet.
Noticing when the mind wanders away as it will and gently with kindness,
Returning your awareness to noticing any sounds around you.
Acknowledging that auditory phenomena are all around and cannot escape them.
Even if you isolated yourself in a soundproofed room,
You'd still hear internal sounds of your heartbeat,
Your pulse.
Whatever you hear in your environment,
Try not to judge the sounds as good or bad.
Simply notice how sounds come and go as transient events.
This constantly fluxing soundscape is just like your thought stream.
It's never still or silent.
Our environment fluxes constantly like the waves on the sea or the wind in the trees.
As best you can,
Be aware of sounds simply as sounds,
As raw sensations.
Noticing the tendency that we all have to label sounds as soon as they're received.
A car,
A voice,
A bird,
A radio.
And see if it's possible to notice this labeling and then refocus,
Drop down below the label to the raw sensation of the sound itself.
Notice how sounds change with each moment,
Whether internal or external.
Sounds rise and fall.
Hear them appear and disappear.
Just notice that your awareness is no longer focused on sounds.
Gently acknowledge where the mind has moved to and then retune the attention back to sounds as they arise and pass away from moment to moment.
You may find that you're thinking about the sounds.
See if it's possible to reconnect with direct awareness of their sensory qualities,
Patterns of pitch,
Of loudness and duration rather than their meanings or judgments or stories about them.
And now letting go of awareness of sounds and shifting our focus of attention so that thoughts are center stage in our awareness.
Seeing thoughts as best you can as events in the mind.
Just as with sounds where you were noticing their arising,
Lingering and passing away.
So now as best you can attend to thoughts that arise in the mind.
Noticing when they arrive,
Seeing as they linger in the space of the mind.
Almost like clouds moving across the sky of the mind.
And eventually see if you can detect the moment when they dissolve.
There's no need to try to make thoughts come or go in the same way that you related to the arising and passing away of sounds.
Just letting thoughts come and go on their own.
Just as clouds moving across a vast spacious sky is sometimes dark and stormy.
Sometimes light and fluffy.
So two thoughts can take different forms.
Sometimes clouds fill the entire sky.
Sometimes they clear out completely leaving the sky cloudless.
And if any thoughts bring with them intense feelings or emotions,
Pleasant or unpleasant as best you can.
Noticing any emotional charge,
Any intensity.
Noticing what's already here.
Perhaps noticing and naming any strong emotions present.
Anxiety,
Peace,
Frustration,
Calm,
Anger,
Relaxation.
Just as sounds are to the ears,
So too thoughts are to the mind.
Both appear as if from nowhere.
Both can seem random and we have no control over them arising.
If you feel your mind is being drawn into thinking or feel scattered and unfocused,
You might like to notice where this is affecting your body.
If you sense a feeling of tightness or tension in the face,
The shoulders,
The jaw,
The hands.
Perhaps a sense of wanting to push away thoughts and feelings.
See if you notice this,
If you can return your focus to the breath.
To a sense of the body as a whole,
Sitting and breathing.
Return to your anchors.
And at a certain point you might like to let go of any particular focus at all.
Letting go of focusing on sounds or thoughts or the breath and simply rest in awareness itself.
Open to whatever arises in the landscape of the mind,
The body,
The world as best you can.
Completely awake,
Not holding onto anything,
Not looking for anything,
No agenda.
Simply being.
Here,
Now.
And bringing this practice to a close by returning awareness back to the breath.
Aware of the surface beneath your body.
Noticing how it feels to have given yourself this time.
Namaste.
