So welcome,
And taking a moment to find a stable and comfortable position for this breath,
Body,
And sound mindfulness meditation practice.
Allowing for the activities and decisions and conversations of the day to pause and letting awareness drop into this moment.
The breath and the sensations in the body and the sounds around you are anchors to the present moment.
These are places to return to again and again when the mind pulls us off into the future or the past,
Into the doing and planning of the day,
And allows us to return to the breath,
Return to the body,
Return to the sounds that are life emerging moment by moment.
And so allowing your attention now to drop into your breath,
Perhaps just noticing the rise and fall of the shoulders as you breathe in and breathe out,
Or taking in other movements of the body in response to the breath.
As you inhale,
Noticing the belly expanding,
And as you exhale,
The belly collapsing,
Bringing a sense of curiosity to your breath.
So perhaps noticing the breath as it enters and exits through the nose or mouth,
Noticing the subtle texture of the air and the nostrils.
You might follow the air in through the nose or mouth,
Down through the throat,
Into the lungs,
And back out through the mouth and nose.
Breathing in and knowing you're breathing in,
And breathing out knowing you're breathing out.
And then in your own time,
Beginning to shift your awareness from your breath to the sensations in your body,
Taking in the entirety of the body from head to toe,
And allowing your attention to land in the feet,
Taking in the sensations that are emerging in the feet and the toes in this moment.
And perhaps this is a sense of temperature,
Warmth or coolness,
Where you might take in the points of contact between the feet and the floor or a cushion or a sock,
Noticing the subtle pressures at these points of contact,
And allowing your attention to expand from the feet to the hands and fingers.
Here too,
Taking in whatever sensations are emerging in the hands in this moment,
Perhaps noticing a coolness of air or warmth of a body,
Maybe noticing a sense of moisture on the hands or dryness.
You may notice very little sensation in the hands and taking in that absence of sensation.
And then letting your attention shift from the hands to the whole of the body,
Taking in the front of the body,
The sides,
The back of the body,
And then allowing your awareness to wander in wonder of the sensations emerging in your body in this moment.
And perhaps picking up on a specific part of the body that is speaking to you now.
And perhaps this is part of the body that provides a sense of comfort or ease or warmth,
Or perhaps your curiosity brings you to a part of the body that is feeling tender or uncomfortable.
And finding a part of the body that is emerging right now and allowing your attention to arrive and zoom in,
Taking in all aspects of this part of the body in this moment,
Circling this body,
Looking at it from the sides and the back.
You may notice that stories or thoughts have emerged in connection with this parts of the body.
And just notice that those have arrived.
There may be well-worn grooves of longstanding stories of this part of the body,
Noting that they have emerged and then letting them soften and allow your attention to return back to the sensation in the body as it exists in this moment.
So often we can get lost in these stories,
Past injuries,
What happened years ago.
And each time we find ourself off in the past or in the future,
We have an opportunity to return to the present.
Each time we find ourselves in the past or future,
We return.
And so returning your attention back to the part of the body and on the return,
Seeing if you might deepen the awareness,
Deepen the listening.
Each time you return,
You have the opportunity to deepen into this moment.
And then in your own time,
Beginning to shift the awareness from this part of the body to the sounds around you,
Taking in all of the sounds,
Both near and far,
Perhaps noticing sounds inside of you or of people or animals moving close by,
Perhaps noticing sounds off in the distance,
Tree leaves rustling or a car passing by,
Noticing the different vibrational aspects of the sounds as they land on your eardrums,
Perhaps taking in the texture or weight of the sounds,
A lightness or a heaviness,
A sharpness or dullness.
You may notice that sounds are arriving with a label from the mind.
And the invitation here is to imagine yourself as a newborn baby having never heard this sound before with no name for it.
And might you listen again to this sound without a label as if you're a baby hearing it for the very first time.
As you scan this symphony of sounds around you,
You may notice some sounds are feeling welcomed while others are feeling unwelcomed.
Some sounds that bring comfort and others discomfort.
And just notice that this labeling,
This condition,
This belief about what this sound is has emerged.
You may even notice the body has responded to certain sounds and bringing awareness to this response of the body.
And then remembering that many sounds,
Just like many things in life are beyond our control.
And so might you receive the vibrations of these sounds in a way without judgment,
Without label.
And here again in your own time,
Now beginning to return your attention from this sound landscape back to the landscape of your breath.
Breathing in and knowing you're breathing in,
Breathing out and knowing you're breathing out.
Breathing in this present moment,
Breathing out calm,
Breathing in awareness,
Breathing out presence.
Inviting a few deeper breaths in.
And as you exhale,
Noticing how the exhale allows the body to soften.
And so as you inhale,
Perhaps noticing parts of the body that are being held in tension.
And as you exhale,
Releasing,
Softening,
Letting go.
As these deeper breaths invite more oxygen into the body,
Allowing that oxygen to begin to wake up parts of the body,
Bringing movement into the hands and feet,
Perhaps inviting a stretch of the shoulders.
If your eyes are closed,
Beginning to allow them to flicker open,
Inviting one final stretch.
And taking a moment before we finish to notice any shifts or changes in your body,
Your breath,
As well as your mental and emotional landscape.
Remembering that this returning to the breath,
To the body or the sounds around us is a practice of showing up for life as it truly is.
