Guided MBSR 5 Points Open Awareness Meditation

This 45-minute guided practice begins with awareness of breath before exploring other anchors of sound, body, emotions, thoughts and events in open awareness. This meditation is inspired and influenced by the teachings of Jon Kabat-Zinn as described in the book Full Catastrophe Living and taught in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Chris Altizer is trained in teaching MBSR through the University of California San Diego Center for Mindfulness Training.

Transcript

Welcome to this seated meditation.

Taking this opportunity to choose the posture in which you'll take this meditation,

Choosing to be seated in a chair,

On a cushion on the floor,

Or standing,

Whatever works for you today.

If seated on the floor on a cushion,

Sitting so that the knees are below the hips if that feels comfortable for you today.

If you are seated,

Choosing your posture to be upright and dignified,

Embodying a quality of attentive wakefulness,

Whatever that means for you in your body today,

In this moment.

If on a cushion or chair,

Taking a position that offers greatest stability and stillness,

Finding posture that allows breathing to happen with the least amount of effort or difficulty.

Sitting relatively upright,

Not stiff but natural and dignified to you.

Having your shoulders balanced over your hips,

Your head balanced over your shoulders.

Taking the next several moments to find the posture that's right for this meditation.

To adjust,

To get a sense of stillness and stability.

Settling into the posture,

Embodying a quality of attentive wakefulness.

If it suits you to close your eyes today,

Inviting your eyes to gently close or taking a relaxed,

Unfocused gaze a few feet from your body,

Inviting the body to become still.

Inviting your awareness to settle on the breath as it moves in and out.

Noticing the body breathing,

Inhaling lightness and cool fresh air,

Exhaling slightly warmer air,

Releasing tension.

Simply observing the breath without trying to change it at all.

Noticing where the breath is most experienced,

Perhaps in the belly,

In the chest or the nose.

Noticing by perhaps placing a hand on your belly and noticing the body's movement with the breath.

Paying attention to each breath without changing or controlling how you're breathing right now.

Simply observing how you are breathing right now.

Noticing how air enters,

Filling the lungs as much as it naturally does.

Noticing any pause before this in-breath becomes this out-breath and following the out-breath all the way past the nostrils till it once again changes and becomes an in-breath.

You may notice your awareness getting caught up by thoughts.

This is the natural activity of the mind.

Awareness may get caught up ten,

One hundred or one thousand times in this meditation.

This is what the mind does.

Without judgment,

With kindness,

Each time you notice awareness getting caught up by thoughts,

Gently and firmly inviting your awareness to return to the breath in this moment.

And this moment.

And this moment.

And this moment.

Noticing where your attention is now.

You And coming back,

Wherever your attention may wander,

Knowing you can return it to this reliable anchor of the breath.

This anchor to the present moment.

You you you you Now inviting your attention to shift from the anchor of the breath to another anchor,

Whichever anchor you may choose,

Knowing you can always return to the anchor of the breath.

Exploring the shift to a different anchor,

Noticing this change,

Finding stability,

Knowing that for any instruction that isn't right in this moment,

You can always return to breath with safety and kindness.

And now,

As you are ready,

Allowing the focus of your attention to come to the experience of sound.

As sound is entering awareness moment by moment.

Just as you invite your attention to focus on the breath,

Inviting it now to focus on sound or sounds,

Volume,

Tone,

Frequency,

Or whatever sound or sounds arising in each moment.

You you you sound arising,

Sound present,

Sound fading,

And perhaps noticing any tendency to name or label the sound as it is being experienced.

Perhaps a memory or a story is attaching itself to the sound.

Each time,

Noticing your attention,

Getting distracted by thoughts about the sound,

Inviting it to simply return to the sound as it is being experienced in this moment.

Exploring the sound with kind curiosity.

Is this sound new or familiar?

You you you you And now,

As you are ready,

Shifting the anchor from sound to physical sensations that may be present in the body.

Beginning to explore physical sensations that are here now or arising or fading away.

Noticing these sensations as if you were experiencing them for the first time.

New,

Fresh,

Whatever and wherever in the body they may be.

Is it possible to explore these physical sensations with curiosity and freshness?

Appreciating the quality of physical sensations.

Throbbing,

Pulsing,

Or tingling.

Temperature of warmth or coolness.

Perhaps increased sensation where the body is resting against a chair or a cushion or fabric or floor.

You may notice sensations from multiple parts of the body and explore them.

You Where is your awareness now?

What sensations are available for your direct experience?

Each moment,

A new moment.

Each sensation,

A fresh sensation.

You you If physical sensation becomes too distracting or prominent in your awareness,

You can choose to set an intention to adjust the body position.

If you choose to adjust your position,

Noting precisely the experience of forming the intention to adjust the body,

Then mindfully moving the body into a position of greater ease and then noticing how the body feels now.

Noticing the entire experience of considering,

Choosing,

And adjusting.

Where is your awareness now?

What sensations are available for your direct experience?

Each moment,

A new moment.

Each sensation,

A fresh sensation.

You you you And now as you are ready,

Beginning to allow attention to shift focus from physical sensation to emotions that may be present.

Perhaps sadness,

Boredom,

Joy,

Agitation.

Whatever may be present or whatever may be arising or fading away.

Whatever is here now is available for your exploration.

You you you Perhaps noticing the quality of the emotion.

Is it persistent or shifting?

Perhaps a strong emotion or mild?

Is it pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral?

Beginning to explore whatever emotion is present with precision and intention.

Bringing the sense of kind curiosity to whatever is presenting itself even if you feel you already know it.

To see it as if seeing it for the very first time.

Once again,

Perhaps noting any story or memory that is formed or attached to this emotion.

Allowing awareness to notice and name the emotion as you are experiencing it.

This is joy.

This is sadness.

This is impatience.

Directing your attention each time it becomes distracted back to its current focus.

The emotions as you feel them in this moment.

You you And now as you are ready.

Beginning to allow attention to explore another aspect of awareness.

To shift awareness from the focus on emotions that may be present to the experience of thoughts as they are arising,

As they are present,

Or as they are fading in the vast expanse of the mind.

Noticing thoughts without getting distracted by the thoughts of themselves.

Noticing the quality of the thoughts.

Are they persistent or passing?

Are they linking a chain to other thoughts?

Are they comparisons,

Judgments,

Planning,

Memories?

Do thoughts seem to be calm or chaotic?

Are thoughts pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or simply neutral?

You you you you you you Each time coming back to thoughts.

If your awareness has wandered after a particular thought,

Simply inviting it to come back to this center of attention.

Thoughts arising.

Thoughts being.

Thoughts passing.

You And now as you have been focused on breathing,

Sound,

Physical sensation,

Emotion,

And thoughts,

Inviting your attention to widen its focus.

To begin to explore the open field of awareness.

Noting whatever is arising to be examined.

Noting each of these mental events,

Whether experiences of breath,

Sensation,

Thought,

Or emotion.

Noting these events as they come into awareness.

Occurring without intention.

Simply arising and allowing awareness and exploration of what's happening in the moment.

And with curiosity and kindness.

You Noting whatever is here available for your observation and consideration in this moment.

You may notice the arising and fading away of various mental events just like water flows or clouds pass.

Mental events arising,

Being present,

Passing away.

Whatever is here available for your consideration but without getting caught up in planning,

Memory,

Judgment,

Or comparison.

You you you Noticing perhaps if any event is pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral.

Exploring it as if it has never occurred before.

Is it possible to discover something new?

You Greeting each new mental event as an opportunity to explore,

To consider,

To allow.

What is happening now?

You you you you you you Noticing where your awareness is right now.

What's occurring in this moment?

What's happening in this moment?

What's happening in this moment?

Noticing sensations of breath or other physical sensations.

Perhaps noting sound that's arising,

Or emotion that may be present or fading away.

Or thoughts that may be crowding into the mindscape and passing over like clouds on a summer day.

Appearing,

Fading,

Simply noticing.

In this practice of choiceless awareness,

Allowing a fuller exploration of life as it is happening,

Moment by moment,

All experience is welcome.

You And now when you are ready,

Beginning to let the lens of attention begin once again to narrow.

Once again centering your attention on a place in the body where the breath is most prominent.

Settling into the rhythm of the body.

The breath breathing the body.

Nursing the body with newness and freshness with each in-breath.

Releasing tension and inviting relaxation with each out-breath.

Breath following breath.

As this period of open awareness meditation draws to a close with the sound of the bells,

You may choose to notice the sounds of the bells as they arise.

As they are present and as they fade.

Then,

Once faded,

Gently opening the eyes.

Moving the body with kindness and attention.

And appreciating yourself for making the time to practice mindfulness in this way.

Reviews

Awesome! Thank you for this wonderful meditation 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽