Hello there,
Bridget here.
We live so much of our lives not noticing what's happening on autopilot.
We're following the same patterns and habits over and over again in what we do but also in how we and what we think.
And this is useful when we're driving to somewhere we drive to a lot or loading the dishwasher or cleaning out the fish but it's less helpful when those autopilot habits involve a kind of a mishmash,
A big stew of negative thoughts and feelings that can build up into an uncomfortable or painful feelings that can grow into a kind of prickly sense of discomfort and unease that we can't quite work out why it's there.
So this simple presence meditation helps break those automatic patterns by bringing us to the usual stuff,
The usual anchors,
The breath,
Sensations in the body,
Sounds,
Whatever it takes to anchor us back in the here and now.
So back in the driving seat and back in some semblance or some illusion at least of control.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks a lot for listening.
See you next time.
Really taking your time to settle the body,
Whether you're sitting or lying or even standing or walking,
But just feeling a sense of arrival in the body as you,
As you let the,
Let everything rest down.
And as you kind of touch into the body with your awareness,
Can you let everything,
Everything soften a little bit,
Seeing how it is that your body meets whatever it's resting on,
Finding the contact with the back of the body as you let your awareness pour through,
Scan through the whole body,
Imagining that as your,
As your awareness moves through the body,
It can take with it,
This sense of letting go and loosening.
So softening,
Softening the eyes,
Feeling the sensation of the eyes being closed or at least being soft,
Letting the,
Letting the awareness move through the body.
Soft,
Letting the face really let go,
Kind of being interested in what in the face can you release.
Is there a frown or any other kind of expression,
Any kind of tension that you can immediately attend to and soften and smooth?
Paying attention to the jaw,
Can you unhinge the jaw a little bit?
Let the mouth,
The tongue,
The jaw be soft.
You might imagine,
You might imagine,
But not even move anything,
But you might imagine a slight smile,
Slight smile at the inside of the mouth.
Or a slight smile at the corners of the eyes.
Not a kind of harsh grin,
Just more of a kind of feeling,
A mood rather than moving anything in particular.
And let that kind of sense of warmth,
Of friendliness,
Let that kind of pour down through the neck and into the shoulders,
Let the shoulders fall away.
Dissolving,
Unravelling.
You might imagine another kind of curve,
Gentle curve,
Like a smile from one shoulder to the other.
And as that kind of broadens in your mind's eye,
Make that,
Allowing more space across the front of the chest,
In the heart area.
Allowing everything to be here.
And then,
As we kind of move through,
Softening,
Letting go,
Feeling from the inside out,
Making space for whatever's here,
Whatever's here,
Physically,
Emotionally,
Whatever you find.
And then,
All the way into the hands,
Letting the hands rest.
Letting them be easy,
Nothing to do,
Effortless,
Just letting them be there.
And then,
As we move through the arms,
Letting the hands rest.
Letting them be easy,
Nothing to do,
Effortless.
Softening the hands.
Feeling any,
Any sensations,
Any energy,
Any aliveness,
Buzzing,
Pulsing,
Coldness,
Warmness,
Whatever's there.
Coldness,
Warmness,
Whatever's there.
Maybe as you kind of,
As your awareness drops down,
And they settle more,
Maybe being aware of more subtle,
Subtle energy changes,
Movement,
Sensations in the body.
Maybe a little tingling.
And letting that awareness pour back up the arms,
Across the whole of the front of the chest again,
Feeling that,
Feeling the,
The region of the heart space.
Allowing everything to be there.
Letting life be just as it is in this moment,
Nothing to do,
Nothing to do.
Just as it is in this moment,
Nothing to do for these few minutes.
Maybe attaching your awareness to the breath,
Noticing the in-breath,
The out-breath.
This breath.
Now this one.
Again,
And again,
And again,
Each breath slightly different,
Watching the rhythm.
Finding that kind of repetition,
But also change.
And scanning further down through the body,
All the way down into the lower abdomen and the belly.
Letting the belly be soft,
So you can,
You can receive the breath into that softening,
Opening belly.
And into the whole of the pelvis,
The front,
The sides,
The back,
That kind of bowl of the pelvis.
That kind of bowl of the pelvis.
And all the way around to the very base of the spine and let that awareness,
That kind of soft light of attention,
Pour up the spine,
Initially kind of in that center.
You might imagine it right up the center of the spine and then let that awareness,
That soft focus of attention,
Let that flow out to the,
To fill the whole of the back.
So the whole of the back,
Resting,
Releasing,
And anything you,
Any kind of tension or holding or discomfort that you find.
Just trying to acknowledge it and try not to get too caught up with it,
If it's possible.
Just breathing with it,
Resting with it,
Allowing it to be here.
And then letting,
Letting the focus move on all the way down,
Back through the pelvis,
Down through the legs.
Noticing any tension,
Tightness,
Holding in the thighs,
The knees,
The calves,
Softening there as you go.
On the surface of the skin and dropping down deeper,
Deeper,
Deeper.
Maybe into,
Into the,
Maybe into,
Into the center of the bones,
Even the whole of you from inside out.
Flowing on through the ankles and into the feet and the toes.
Being interested in whatever's going on from the,
Right in the middle of the feet,
And then flowing out to the heels,
The whole of the soles of the feet,
The toes,
The underside of the toes,
The tops of the toes.
Are they warm?
Are they cool?
What sensations are there?
Maybe it's nothing,
Maybe it's numbness,
But just being interested.
I'm away,
Away,
Away from the,
Away from the brain,
Away from the head now,
Right at the other end of the body,
Feeling,
Feeling any sensations there,
And then broadening out to include the whole of the body in your awareness.
You might think,
Fingers and toes and top of the head,
And then maybe fill in the gaps so that you can hold in your awareness,
The whole body as a dance of sensations.
And receiving those sensations in this open,
Awake presence.
Knowing that probably already a million times,
Your thoughts have wandered off,
Gone off into autopilot thinking,
Planning,
Reflecting,
Revising,
Ruminating,
And seeing if you can just keep calm,
And let go,
And let go,
And let go,
And let go,
And let go,
And let go.
Ruminating,
And seeing if you can just keep coming back.
Reopening,
Reawakening in that sense of being here in the body,
In presence.
No matter how often the mind drifts away from being here,
Just finding your anchor,
Whatever that is,
The flow of the breath,
Maybe in one particular part of the body,
Or maybe a sense of the whole body breathing.
Maybe sensations in the body.
The more kind of subtle,
The better,
The ordinary,
Just whatever,
Whatever brings you back here,
Right here.
In this kind of ordinary moment,
Feeling the immediacy,
The wholeness of this present moment.
Gently choosing to arrive back right here.
This moment,
This breath,
These sensations right here.
Each time we drop back,
Deepening,
And deepening,
And making clearer that pathway back to here,
Back home.
Finding your anchor,
Finding your home base.
Being interested in the small stuff,
Noticing when we get caught up in the big things,
The small stuff,
Noticing when we get caught up in habitual autopilot-y thinking.
And then letting go,
Letting go of any focus at all,
Just coming back to the kind of fact of you,
Just sitting,
Lying here.
I'll just finish with that short poem,
Autobiography in five short chapters.
One,
I walk down the street.
There's a deep hole in the pavement.
I fall in.
I'm lost.
I'm hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to get out.
I walk down the same street.
There's a deep hole in the pavement.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Three,
I walk down the same street.
There's a deep hole in the pavement.
I see it's there.
I still fall in.
It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Four,
I walk down the same street.
There's a deep hole in the pavement.
I walk around it.
Five,
I walk down another street.
So letting any of those words just sink in or just enjoy another few moments of rest just as you let the body settle.
One more time.
Maybe feeling now the connection again with the back of the body with whatever you're resting on.
Feeling sensations on the skin.
So feeling of clothes or blankets or cushions on the skin or air on any skin that's exposed.
And then in your imagination without opening the eyes,
Having a sense of the root of the And then in your imagination without opening the eyes,
Having a sense of the room around you,
The people around you,
The people nearby.
And then if there are sounds,
Letting those come back in as well.
So getting a sense before we finish,
Getting a sense of the world beyond you.
Turning the attention from inside to outside.
And then only when you're absolutely ready,
You can start to very,
Very gently move into the space,
Move into the world.
A rock of the head,
A deepening of the breath.
Really taking your time.
If you're laying on your back,
Take your time to bend your knees.
Spend a bit of time rolled over on one side,
Choosing when you want to open the eyes and coming up,
Coming up to sitting to finish the meditation.
