Hello,
My name is Chantelle Walker,
Registered psychologist in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Welcome to Breath,
Body,
Sounds,
Thoughts and Emotions.
So settling into a comfortable yet alert posture,
Bringing your attention as best you can to this moment.
Allowing your eyes to close or taking a soft receptive gaze if you'd be in front of you.
Noting the physical sensations of where your body is making rest on whatever it is that you're sitting or lying on.
Settling into this moment.
Now bringing your attention as best you can to the sensations of breathing as you breathe in and out.
Bringing attention as you breathe in and you breathe out.
Perhaps even noticing as you breathe in there's a bit of a pause at the top of the inhalation.
And as you breathe out there's a bit of a pause at the end of the exhalation.
At any time you notice that your attention is moved away from your breathing,
Just know that this is what minds do.
Then gently and kindly escort your attention as best you can back to the sensations of breathing in and breathing out.
Now when you're ready,
Releasing your attention to the sensations of breathing.
And establishing your attention on sensations in the body as they present themselves to you.
When a particular sensation is arising and capturing your attention,
Focusing here and investigating it fully.
Noting the sensations characteristics,
The depth,
Shape,
Parameters of the sensation,
Whether the sensation is large or small.
Whether the sensation is intermittent or seems to stay in place.
Noticing whether the sensation is pleasant or unpleasant,
If there's tension or ease.
Really getting to know sensations as they arise.
You find that your attention is taken outside of the body by thoughts or emotions,
We note them.
And then we gently and kindly turn our attention back to the focus in this moment.
Which at this time is the bodily sensations as they come and go.
And again we're getting curious about sensations.
Really getting to know them.
The size,
The shape,
Whether or not the sensation has tension or ease.
Whether or not it's pleasant or unpleasant.
Getting to know all sensations.
Whether we like them or not,
Getting to get curious about the sensations.
And if more than one sensation is captivating your attention,
As best you can focusing in on one sensation.
Letting your attention rest here.
Whether or not the sensation is piercing.
Whether or not it's intermittent.
Noticing the size of the sensation.
Really getting curious about the sensation.
And when you're ready,
Releasing this primary attention on sensations in the body.
And letting your attention now shift up to the ears.
Allowing your ears to be open and receptive to sounds as they arise and pass.
Not searching for sounds or listening for particular sounds.
Instead,
As best you can,
Opening your ears so there is receptivity to the awareness of all sounds from all directions as they come and go.
Sounds that are close.
Sounds that are far.
Sounds that are in front of you or behind you or to the sides of you.
Noticing sounds that are above you or below you.
Noticing the sounds inside the room that you're in.
Perhaps noticing sounds outside of the room that you're in.
As best you can,
Really getting curious about sounds without naming sounds.
Or paying attention to the particular characteristics of sounds.
Hearing the pitch.
The tone of sounds.
The volume of sounds.
The spaces between sounds.
Whether or not sounds are discrete or continuous.
Being aware of obvious sounds and even more subtle sounds.
And if there's no sounds at all,
Noting this.
As best you can,
Being aware of sounds simply as sensations.
When you find that you are thinking about sounds,
Reconnect as best you can with the direct experience of their sensorial qualities.
The patterns of pitch,
Timbre,
Loudness,
Duration.
Whenever you're noticing that your attention is no longer focused on hearing,
Gently acknowledging where it has moved.
And then returning your attention back to sounds as they arise and pass from moment to moment.
Without harshness,
Without story.
Just coming back gently to hearing over and over again.
And on your next exhalation,
Releasing your attention to hearing.
On your next inhalation,
Letting your attention now move to your object of awareness,
To thoughts.
Thoughts as sensations arising in the mind or as mental events.
And just like with sounds,
We're noticing thinking as it arises,
Develops and passes away.
Noticing when thoughts appear or when they disappear.
There's no need to try to make thoughts come or make thoughts go.
You're simply letting them arise into awareness naturally.
In the same way that you noticed sounds arising naturally.
Some people find it helpful to imagine the mind as a sky.
And thoughts are like clouds that pop into awareness.
Taking a few moments and noticing whether there's a lot of cloudy thoughts.
Or just a few thoughts that fleet into awareness and then quickly pass away.
Perhaps noticing that with thoughts come different types of emotions.
Perhaps noticing that there's feelings like happy or sad,
Fear,
Anger,
Joy.
And again,
We're simply being with these feelings and thoughts as sensations that arise in the mind's eye.
So perhaps again,
Just imagining the mind as sky and noticing that these clouds,
That some of them are dark and stormy.
Some are white and fluffy.
As best we can,
We're not getting caught into the story of our thoughts or feelings.
We're observing them just as we would watch the clouds that move in the sky.
They come,
Maybe they stay for a while and they naturally move away.
If at any time you find that yourself particularly caught up with a thought or an emotion,
Seeing if it's possible to let this emotion or thought move away like you would with a cloud that moves away in the mind's eye.
And then letting your attention settle on the next thought or the next cloud.
And if you find that there's no thoughts or emotions,
Then just being with this blank sky.
Resting in ease,
Waiting for any thoughts or emotions that might come into your awareness.
No need to make them happen.
Just resting in ease.
And when you're ready,
Letting go of thoughts and emotions and letting your attention rest once again with your breathing.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Allowing the sensations of thoughts and emotions to move into the background and let your foreground of attention be with that breath.
The full inhalation,
The full exhalation.
And in a few moments,
Coming to the end of this practice.
Perhaps opening your eyes if they've been closed.
Stretching.
Taking a few deeper inhalations and exhalations.
Thank you for joining the Breath,
Body,
Sounds,
Thoughts and Emotions Meditation.
Have a wonderful day.
