Okay welcome to this mindfulness practice called Developing the Witness and as with all of these practices you're welcome to let your attention go to what gives you the greatest sense of harmony.
So everything that I offer is an invitation.
Your eyes can be opened or closed and you can use whatever anchor is most effective for you if you just need to turn your attention towards something to take you away from any sense of distress.
So in this practice we will do a brief body scan and some breath sensing but then just abiding in being the observer or the witness.
Okay so I think we'll get started so just take a moment to find your body in its most comfortable position in the environment that you're in.
Just make any little adjustments just to be five or ten percent more comfortable.
Just really indulge yourself.
Feel the plane of contact between you and the surfaces supporting you.
Perhaps feeling the sensation,
The pressure points between your feet and what they're contacting.
And open your senses so that you're hearing sounds.
Just letting the sounds come to you,
Not chasing after them,
Just letting them come through your senses.
Noticing whether there's any taste left over in your mouth.
Whether there's any scent that you can detect in the air.
I know that your eyes can be opened or closed and either way letting your attention settle on what is coming to you through your sense perception of sight.
Your senses wide open so that you are an openness to receive whatever comes to you through your senses.
I know that at any time you can just turn your attention towards whatever gives you a sense of comfort and ease.
It might be an external object or it could be your breath.
Sensations in your feet,
Just anything at all that works for you.
My invitation is to follow if you like on a journey around the body.
Sensation in the mouth,
The teeth,
The tongue,
The jaw,
The ears,
Temples,
Eyebrows.
The sensation of the space between the eyebrows,
Bridge of the nose,
Your left eye,
Your right eye.
Tracing sensation down the tip of the nose,
The left side of the nose,
The right side of the nose.
A sensation inside the nose,
Your whole face as sensation,
Back of your head,
The crown of your head,
Inside the head,
Whole head as a sphere of sensation.
Tracing that sensation down inside the throat and neck,
Out along the tops of the shoulders and streaming down the arms,
Upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Wrists,
Backs of the hands,
The fingertips and the palms of the hands.
Your whole left arm,
Your whole right arm,
Both arms.
Sensation of your collarbones,
Your shoulder blades,
The chest bone,
The ribcage,
Front,
Sides and back.
Your upper body,
Sensation from your abdomen,
Internal organs,
Lower back,
Sacrum and tailbone,
Your glutes,
Hips,
Upper legs,
Knees,
Shins and calves,
Ankles,
The tops of the feet,
The soles of the feet,
Left leg,
Right leg.
All the parts of the body together as one,
The legs,
The torso,
The arms,
The neck and head.
Whole body as sensation.
Observing the breath that's entering and leaving the body,
Your body being breathed.
Feel yourself as the one who is observing the breath as it enters and leaves.
Just noticing whatever else might be moving through your field of consciousness.
It could be thoughts,
Images,
Feelings,
Emotions,
Perhaps memories,
Sensations in the body.
All of these changes coming and going.
Settle yourself back as the one who's just watching this passing show.
Just like clouds moving across the sky.
Feeling yourself as the sky,
As that quiet background.
Noticing that all of these changing movements in your consciousness arise from this unchanging background.
Just abide as awareness.
Let your attention rest in awareness.
Feeling what awareness feels like.
The comings and goings,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions.
Just knowing yourself as this quiet background.
Does it feel familiar?
This unchanging aspect of who you are.
What does it feel like in your body and mind as you just allow yourself to rest back as awareness?
Can you identify a center,
A periphery?
What happens to time?
As you rest in this awareness,
Just simply being without anything that you need to do or understand or to acquire.
Feel yourself as this sense of simply being.
And ask yourself,
Is there anything else that you need to be any more complete than you already are?
As simply being.
Just resting in awareness.
This quiet,
Unchanging background.
Indescribable,
But yet undeniable.
Noticing the arisings that distract you or bring you away.
Just set them all free to be here.
Your experience perfect just as it is.
Just knowing that this quiet background is always available to you.
Beneath the surface turmoil of life.
Always holding you.
Always ready to receive whatever turns up in your experience of life.
Take a little time now to reorient yourself back into the rest of your day.
You might want to run through the senses.
Feeling the sense of touch,
Supports beneath you,
The sounds around you.
Taste and smell.
When you're ready,
If your eyes were closed,
Perhaps opening and closing them a few times.
As you find your way back into the rest of your day.
Thank you for practicing.
