Listening For The First Time: Mindfulness Of Sounds

"The mind is to thought, what the ear is to sound." Let your awareness of sound anchor you to the present moment. Listen as if it’s the first time you’ve ever used your ears! Take in the tone, pitch and depth with a fresh appreciation. Notice any tendency to get side-tracked into thought-land.

Note: This is a useful practice for those who have emotional difficulty focusing on the breath. Sounds or other external anchors tend to be less triggering.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindfulness of sounds practice. Today we will be focusing our attention on the sounds that we can hear and through doing this we reconnect with our direct experience so sensing our world as opposed to conceptualizing and analyzing it. In a few moments you'll hear some bells and the invitation is just for you to listen to the sounds of the bells and also the sounds of anything that might be going on in your immediate environment and listen as if it's the first time that you've ever used your ears so be curious about the sound and all of its elements you know its pitch its tone how long it goes on for receiving each sound almost as if you're a microphone so directly without categorizing or labeling what you're hearing and follow that sound until you can't hear it and also notice the silence in between sounds naturally you will find yourself distracted at some point by a thought or an emotion and obviously this is very normal just notice that tendency for thoughts and emotions to arise just like sounds do and just return your attention back to what you're hearing as soon as you notice that you've gone off try not to judge or be frustrated just simply gently guide your attention back the end of the practice will be signaled by three bells in quick succession so before we begin I just like you to consider this quote the mind is to thought what the ear is to sound so we'll just begin by adopting an alert yet comfortable posture so whether we're sitting lying or standing and if it feels okay you can leave your eyes open with a soft downward gaze just take a few moments to arrive in your body so leaving all that's occurred before and all that will occur after outside of this practice so just notice how it feels to be in your body in this moment now shift your focus to your ears and to the sounds that you're hearing right now you you you you you you you you you you you you

Reviews

I really enjoyed this, particularly as I have medical issues that impact breathing (thus making a breathing focus much more challenging for me) and having had years of work as an audio technician and editor. I'm used to and extremely comfortable using my sense of hearing, and that made this an outstanding practice for me, hands down.

I think the ending bell was a bit harsh in contrast to the delicate tones of the bowls being used otherwise, however. Still, bookmarked and downloaded this one. Thank you for sharing this lovely practice. I see the light within you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

Very thoughtful and centering, thank you!!