MBSR Choiceless Awareness

This is a 45-minute mindfulness of the breath meditation for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction that explores not only the body, but our thoughts and emotions, extending out into choiceless awareness. We are incorporating other feeling states as the meditation progresses.

Transcript

This is Dr.

Christiane Wolf,

And this is a 45-minute guided meditation.

We will start the meditation with focusing on the breath,

Then move to the whole body,

Including sounds,

And then move on to emotions,

Then thoughts,

And then towards the end,

Open into choiceless awareness.

So starting by finding a comfortable posture,

Either seated on a chair or maybe seated on the ground,

Cross-legged or kneeling.

Just taking a moment to make minor adjustments,

Checking the body for areas of tension that is easy to let go of.

Closing the eyes if that feels okay for you.

And starting out by getting a general sense of what's it like to be here in your body in this moment.

Getting into the body,

The areas of contact the body has with the chair,

With the ground,

With the mat or the cushion.

And then moving the attention to the breath,

If you like,

Making the next couple of breaths a little bit deeper so you can really feel the sensations of the breath in the body.

Anchoring the attention in the body with the breath and noticing where do you feel the breath the most.

Maybe at the nostrils,

The back of the throat,

The chest,

Or the belly.

And using that place as the anchor or the resting place for your attention.

And then letting the breath breathe itself so you don't have to make it any longer or deeper than it naturally would be.

And whenever the attention wanders off and you notice that you're lost in thoughts or the attention is anywhere else,

Maybe somewhere else in the body,

You notice that,

Just notice and come back to the breath.

If it is helpful,

You can say,

Thank you,

Not now,

And just return to your anchor.

I'm really grateful.

During this meditation,

It is actually not important where the mind wanders off to.

So we're not judging that or evaluating that.

We just know whether it's on the breath or not.

And if it's not on the breath,

We say,

Thank you,

Not now,

And just come back,

Starting over with this brand new breath.

Namaste.

Namaste.

This repetition of bringing the attention back to the breath,

That is the mental strength training.

That is how we grow our strength to come back and to stay present longer and more often.

That is how we grow our strength to come back and to stay present longer and more often.

Just one breath at a time.

Or maybe even just this in-breath.

Okay.

And just coming back again.

Okay.

Where's the mind now?

Okay.

And now opening the awareness to include the entire body sitting here.

Instead of just feeling the breath,

Now feeling into the entire body,

All the sensations that might be there.

And just staying with whatever is most predominant in any given moment.

That could be the breath.

It could be attention in the body.

It could be sound.

If there are a lot of sounds around you,

You can really focus on the soundscape without excluding the rest of the body.

You're noticing any other physical sensations moment by moment.

Okay.

And as always,

When the mind wanders off,

Just noticing maybe making a very light mental note to where it went,

Not to investigate more,

But just to know,

Like itching,

Itching,

Planning,

Planning.

And then just coming back,

Feeling the entire body.

Okay.

Okay.

Where is the mind now?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Where's the mind now?

Okay.

And now allowing the body,

The whole body sensations,

The physical sensations,

To just move into the background a little bit and turning the attention towards emotions.

Noticing if there is any emotion present,

Or maybe a couple,

Or maybe there isn't really any.

And if there is an emotion,

You could name it what it is,

If you know.

Okay.

And then noticing how it manifests in your body,

Or in your experience right now.

How do you know it is this emotion and not another one?

Or maybe you don't know.

Okay.

What are the physical manifestations of this emotion right now?

If there are physical manifestations right now,

Maybe a tension somewhere in the body,

A tingling,

A flutter,

Heat,

Energy,

Spaciousness.

And when the mind goes into the thoughts about this emotion,

Just noticing and coming back to actually feeling,

Feeling it.

We're not interested into why this emotion is here right now.

We're just staying with how it shows up right now.

And feel into it in a fresh way,

Not thinking it won't change.

What's it like now?

And now?

And now?

And maybe it is helpful to say to yourself,

This is what sadness feels like,

Or boredom,

Or joy,

Or whatever that emotion is right now.

Like you are a friendly scientist and you want to find out about emotions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Where is the mind now?

And now?

And when you're ready,

Allowing the emotions to move a little bit into the background,

And bringing the attention to thoughts or thinking,

The thinking process.

Watching thoughts.

And you will get caught in some of them.

And you can,

As we have done before,

Let them go.

Maybe watching them like clouds move through the sky.

The sky is not bothered by the clouds.

You might notice that there are thoughts that you like,

Thoughts that you'd rather not be thinking.

And then just random thoughts,

Or maybe images or pieces of music.

And can you just watch them?

And when you get lost,

Without judging,

Just letting them go again and noticing that that moment was a moment of being awake,

Of knowing that you are caught in a story.

A moment of waking up.

You're not your thoughts.

You're not your thoughts.

You're not your thoughts.

Where is the mind now?

And now.

You're not your thoughts.

You're not your thoughts.

And now making the container of your awareness even wider.

Making it so wide or so spacious that it includes all of what we've just done.

So it includes the body.

Includes emotions.

And includes thoughts and images.

And we're watching whatever arises,

Is here for a little bit,

And then changes or disappears.

We're not picking and choosing.

We're just present with whatever is here in this moment.

Your awareness can hold it all.

Just like the vast blue sky holds everything.

And whenever it just starts feeling busy in your mind or the mind is really caught up in a thought or something else,

Then just narrow,

Narrow this open space again and come back to the breath,

Focusing on the breath for a little bit.

Being very specific with the sensations of the breath.

And when you're ready,

Opening up again into choiceless awareness.

And then just being very specific with the sensations of the breath.

Where is the mind now?

And now.

And now.

And now.

And now.

In about a minute or so,

We will be ending our meditation.

If you feel like you can come back to the breath for this last minute.

Opening up in any way that is good for you.

You can come back to the breath for this next minute.

You can come back to the breath for this next minute.

You can come back to the breath for this next minute.

You can come back to the breath for this next minute.

You can come back to the breath for this next minute.

Reviews

Amazing practice, so helpful. Would definitely recommend especially if you’re struggling with sitting in silence on your own. I think it gives you a compassionate way of dealing with your thoughts. Will add to play list to repeat. Thank you 🙏

Brilliant 👌😊

Excellent. Have been reading about choiceless awareness, but wanted some guided assistance. Here it is.

Good solid and centering meditation. Thank you.

my new favorite; gently directed meditation subjects help focus attention
new mantra for today: “thank you; not now”
so good

Nice, well paced meditation with ample silent periods.