Finding a posture that's comfortable for you so that you feel well supported and alert.
Allow your attention to turn inward,
Noticing the flow of your experience as it's arising right now.
Tuning into your body.
What's here to be felt?
Becoming aware of your emotional tone.
Noticing any thoughts that are coming and going.
Allowing and acknowledging whatever is here.
Letting it be here without judging.
Gradually shifting your focus of awareness now to the process of breathing.
Breathing normally and naturally.
And as you breathe in,
Being aware of the fact that you're breathing in and that you're breathing out.
Feeling the rising and falling sensations as you follow the breath.
And this might be in the nostrils,
In the belly,
In the chest.
Wherever you notice the breath most vividly,
Allow your attention to settle there.
Paying attention to the in-breath for its full duration until it turns around and becomes the out-breath and following that too.
Every time your mind wanders,
Gently bringing your focus of attention back to the breath over and over again and again.
And letting your focus on the breath go now and gently expanding your focus of attention to include the whole body.
Your whole body from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet.
Front of the body,
Back of the body,
Sides of the body.
Seeing if it's possible to pay attention to the sensations being generated in the body moment by moment,
Including the sensations of breathing.
Opening to the multitude of sensations throughout the whole body,
Changing moment to moment.
Allowing yourself to be present and inquiring.
Allowing these sensations and letting them be.
Noticing any changes.
Acknowledging any persisting sensations and giving them space to do whatever they need to do.
Noticing how one body sensation can take center stage in your awareness and then another comes along and then perhaps another.
Letting go of your focus on sensations now and bringing your attention to hearing.
Opening to all the sounds that are arising and passing away moment by moment.
No need to go searching for sounds,
Let them arrive to you.
Noticing how your attention rests with a sound for a while and then another sound takes centre stage.
The coming and going of sounds.
Sounds far away,
Sounds close to and even sounds inside your body.
No sound.
Noticing how sounds arrive,
Linger and then dissolve in awareness.
No sound.
No sound.
And if your mind wanders as minds do,
Notice where it went and very gently escort it back to the soundscape,
To sounds right here,
Right now.
No sound.
And now from the awareness of sounds to thoughts coming and going as we sit here.
Just like paying attention to sounds and body sensations,
See if it's possible to get a sense of thoughts having the same kind of flow.
Thoughts arising,
Lingering and dissolving moment by moment.
Perhaps seeing yourself flying in a field on your back and thoughts as clouds in the sky.
Watching the thought arrive,
Moving across the sky and dissolving.
Being aware of the next cloud arising,
Moving across the sky and dissolving in the same way.
Seeing if it's possible to not react to thoughts,
Observe them,
Acknowledge them.
As you watch them arrive,
Linger and dissolve in awareness.
Knowing you can always come back to the anchor of the breath if you need to.
No sound.
Support clouds arising,
Lingering and dissolving.
No sound.
You might notice that there's different kind of thoughts here.
Analyzing,
Planning,
Remembering,
Comparing,
Dreaming,
Likes,
Dislikes.
No sound.
You might find that you get vividly involved in these thoughts.
Sometimes we only know that afterwards.
So watching that process too.
Using awareness of a way to return to the present moment.
No sound.
Recognizing that these thoughts are fleeting,
Changing,
Impermanent.
No sound.
Bringing the mind back every time it wanders over and over again and again.
Escorting it back to observing thoughts.
Coming and going.
No sound.
And throughout this practice of watching thoughts,
You might be able to name the emotion or emotions that are here moment by moment as well.
Emotions being like the weather pattern of the sky.
Sometimes the sky is sunny and bright.
Other times stormy or rainy.
Being aware of the changing nature of this weather pattern.
Emotions coming and going.
So letting go of your focus on the breath or body,
Sounds,
Thoughts or emotions.
And on the next out breath,
Opening your attention wide.
Instead of directing attention,
We're going to practice open awareness.
Noticing whichever of these phenomena is most prominent for you in this moment.
So it might be the breath.
It might be the body sensations.
It could be sounds that take center stage.
It could be thoughts or emotions coming and going.
Noticing where your attention is shifting to.
Making space for the flow of inner life.
Whichever of these phenomena is most prominent in your awareness,
Let your focus rest there for a while with curiosity and kindness.
Noticing whichever of these are here arising,
Lingering and dissolving.
And then noticing when another part of your experience calls your attention.
Again,
It could be the breath,
Body sensations,
Sounds or thoughts.
And let your awareness settle there for a while.
Arising,
Lingering and then dissolving.
It's a bit like sitting by the edge of a river and watching whatever goes downstream.
Sometimes there's sounds.
Sometimes you notice body sensations,
Sometimes emotions.
Sometimes the thoughts come and go.
Observing this process and allowing whatever calls for your attention to be center stage in awareness.
Coming back to the anchor of the breath anytime you need to.
Okay.
Learning how to give space to whatever is arising inside with equanimity and balance.
Bringing your focus of attention back to the breath.
Noticing wherever the breath is most obvious in this moment and let your attention settle there.
Widen your attention now to be aware of the whole body,
Your whole body sitting here in this moment,
Breathing.
And if it feels right for you,
Connecting to a sense of gratitude to yourself for your practice today.
Thanking yourself inwardly.
You're welcome.
