Everything Is In Your Awareness

A mindful meditation practice that explores the present moment and brings us to the realisation that everything we can ever know is always within the space of our own awareness. A simple yet proud meditation.

Transcript

You can have your eyes open or closed at any point during the meditation.

I generally start off and most of the time have my eyes closed,

But just whatever works best for you.

So I'm going to take a couple of deeper breaths in to begin.

On the deeper in-breath I like to feel as if I'm bringing my awareness into the body and into the present moment,

Increasing my alertness.

And on the out-breath that feeling of relaxing into being present,

Relaxing into the body,

Into the present moment.

Okay,

So let's begin to explore the present moment together,

See what we can find and experience within our awareness,

Within our consciousness.

So what's the first thing that you become aware of?

So I'll share my journey,

But yours may be different.

So usually the first thing I become aware of is the body and how the body is feeling.

So I feel the energy of the body,

The sensations throughout the body,

And I feel the weight of the body.

So getting a sense of the whole body and the weight of the whole body.

And then I notice how that weight is being supported.

So feeling the chair and the floor.

And that allows me to begin to relax the body and allow the body,

The full weight of the body to be held and supported by the chair and the floor.

As I become more present with the body,

I'm feeling its weight,

Feeling it being supported,

Allows me my awareness to really inhabit the body more to become really fully present within the body.

So let's take a few moments just really exploring the feelings,

Sensations and awareness of being present with and in the body.

Really allowing your awareness to explore all the physical sensations associated with your body.

This can feel like your awareness filling the body or your body filling your awareness.

The next thing I normally notice is the breath.

It's my awareness present with the body and the movement and the sensations caused by the breath.

The next thing I'm going to choose to explore more.

So feeling the breath enter the body,

Really exploring how that feels and being aware of the breath as it leaves the body and noticing all the sensations related to that.

So now being fully present with your breath,

Bringing your awareness fully into the breath,

Filling your awareness with your breath,

Becoming absorbed by the experience of breathing in and out.

So next I'm going to become more aware of my thoughts.

We often identify with our thoughts.

So it may feel a little strange at first to be aware of your thoughts as you think them.

We're very attached to our thoughts and the contents of our thoughts.

Let's see if we can direct a neutral open awareness and accept whatever thoughts happen to be there passing through our awareness,

Through our mind.

And notice how there's a part of you that is aware that you're thinking and so is not your thoughts.

Your thoughts are something that you're experiencing.

So they are separate from you in that sense.

So just like the breath and the sensations in the body,

This experience of thinking is also just something else happening within your awareness,

Within your conscious experience.

So let's spend some moments just really noticing what that feels like to be aware of your thoughts as you think them.

Being the observer or the listener,

The awareness,

The consciousness,

The consciousness,

And just allowing any and all thoughts to pass through your open awareness.

So even if the thoughts are negative or troubling in some way or just seem not very calm and too fast or too busy,

In a sense that's a really useful experience because then you can more easily feel the contrast between the one that is aware and the thoughts.

So in a sense we're just giving space and our awareness is the space within which the thoughts occur.

So for this meditation it doesn't actually matter what the content of your thoughts are,

Positive or negative.

Our aim is to experience giving our thoughts space,

Giving them complete freedom to be and do whatever they want to do.

So So I'm interested in the experience of being aware of your thoughts,

But generating a feeling of disinterest in the actual content of the thoughts.

This meditation is about developing our awareness of whatever is there.

We're not trying to change our experience of anything,

Not aiming or expecting to think or experience one thing or another.

Just having that freedom to just be with what is and giving it the space of our awareness.

So we can do the same with how we're feeling or with our emotions.

We can choose to become more aware of those and allow those to express themselves within our open and welcoming awareness,

Again without judgment,

Without trying to change them in any way.

Having our awareness to be the space within which our emotions can freely express themselves.

So let's move on to exploring another aspect of this present moment and actively listening with alertness,

With openness to all the different sounds you can hear where you are right now.

This is a really nice opportunity to allow your awareness to widen and broaden and move outside of yourself,

Beyond your mind,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

Beyond the body and the breath,

To the environment where you are and listening to all the sounds that you can hear in the So listening to loud and quiet sounds,

Continuous and occasional sounds,

Sounds that are close by and the most distant sounds,

Being open to each and every sound as it comes into your awareness.

And maybe beginning to get a sense of an awareness of a quietness or a silence.

A quiet,

Silent space within which the sounds are arising and falling,

Going and going.

So maybe sensing a silent space that doesn't require the absence of sounds,

But coexists with,

Between and behind all sounds.

Just as objects exist within space,

Sounds existing within silence.

So finally,

Let's see if we can get a sense of the wholeness of the present moment.

So we've been going through different aspects one after the other.

Let's see if we can just now get a sense of each moment as one whole experience,

That will include thoughts and feelings,

Breath and body sounds,

The space around us.

But getting a sense of the wholeness of the present moment,

Each moment one experience.

And allowing yourself,

Your thoughts,

Your body,

Your breath,

To be within and part of that one experience of the whole present moment.

Allowing yourself to be part of the present,

Not separate from it,

But an integral aspect of what's happening in this moment.

Body and breath,

Thoughts and sounds,

All happening together moment by moment,

And all happening within your open awareness,

That silent space of your awareness.

So let's finish with a few minutes of silence without commentary,

And just allowing yourself to really relax and enjoy just being present,

Being with yourself,

Being with your environment,

And just allowing everything to happen.

Moment by moment,

Just as it is within this open,

Still and silent awareness.

Okay,

So we can begin to bring the meditation to a close.

Maybe take a few deeper breaths to bring yourself into the body,

Feel the weight of the body,

Bring a bit of movement back into the hands and the feet,

Maybe have a bit of a stretch.

Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this, in particular moving from one aspect of awareness to another. Thank you 🙏

Loved the different dimensions of brining awareness to my meditation 🧘‍♂️ thank you 🙏

Great thankyou 🧘‍♀️🥀

Lovely, gentle guidance followed by a silent period before ending. Calming. Thank you. 🙏

Thank you for this clear and wholistic experience. Perfect exercise and just what I needed right now. You guided my consciousness to a fresh awareness of Who I truly am, steadily shining throughout all the transitory sensations and thoughts that I was identifying with too closely. I appreciate you sharing!