To get started you want to be in a comfortable but alert position.
If you're in a chair or sitting on a cushion try to raise the top of your head towards the ceiling and at the same time you let the rest of your body relax into the seat so you are straightening and elongating your spine.
You can have your eyes open or closed.
If they are open you can look at an object in front of you or you can have your eyes half open with a soft gaze so you're looking through rather than add something and now you let your attention freely wander among anything that you can see hear or feel that includes visual sight as well as visual thought memories anything you can hear like external sound as well as auditory thoughts and mental talk and anything you can feel in the body physical body sensations anything you can smell and taste and emotional body sensations anything that you can tangibly detect in the body that is associated to an emotion whether it is pleasant or unpleasant and when you notice where your attention lands let's say right now you notice you're hearing what I'm saying then you label it with one of three labels when it's something that you hear you just use the label here in your mind if it's something that you see you just use the label see and if it's something that you feel you use the label feel and after you label it you keep paying attention to that experience so you just keep listening to what I'm saying for about three seconds and then you repeat the process the pace should be more or less like this here feel feel see any pattern is fine you're not trying to direct your attention to any experience whatever you notice you label with one of the three words see here or feel and then you keep experiencing it for around three seconds before you repeat again you every time you notice you're getting distracted that's a good thing when you start labeling again you are strengthening your focus you you simple distinction between see here and feel you develop your sharpness and the ability to clearly distinguish different senses from one another whatever you're noticing and experiencing might be pleasant unpleasant both or neither and if you try to be equally open to all of those options you're developing your openness try to keep a steady pace with the labels there is not a lot of breaks in between the labels there is not going to be a lot of breaks in your focus whenever you notice and label any experience one of two things will happen either the sensation sound or sight will still be there after you label it if that happens then good that gives you the opportunity to really dive into it and find out details about that characteristic and that sensation or in the moment you notice and label the experience might disappear if that happens that's also good and you just try to enjoy the restful state that follows for the next few seconds if you attention is drawn to the same experience over and over that's fine Just another thing to notice.
If you notice,
Your mind is active.
A lot of thoughts,
Visual thoughts,
Auditory thoughts.
That's fine.
No need to make those go away.
But every time you notice,
You label it with C or here,
Depending on the thought.
And then you pay attention to it for a few seconds.
It's possible that you notice more than one experience at the same time.
That's fine.
Then you just pick one.
It doesn't matter which.
And then you label and experience that one.
If you notice emotions in the body,
Anxiety,
Restlessness,
Boredom,
On the unpleasant side,
Or joy,
Happiness,
Compassion on the pleasant side,
Then you can,
Just like with physical sensations or sounds,
Try to detect certain characteristics.
Like where is the sensation located in the body?
Is there a shape to it?
What is the size?
Is there a flavor to the experience?
Is it a static sensation?
Is there a force that's expanding or contracting?
Maybe it's moving.
Trying to detect those characteristics heightens your sharpness.
The more your sharpness gets heightened,
The easier it is to stay open to what you're experiencing.
And that creates a positive feedback loop.
Because the more open you are to what you are experiencing,
Whether it's pleasant or unpleasant,
The easier it is to experience details.
And the more details you can detect,
The more open you will be to them.
Okay,
Great job!
