Compassionate Awareness

We are practicing noticing the unpleasant and pleasant aspects to both be here in our experience, to build our capacity to hold both of these (rather than just hooking onto the unpleasant things in our experience). Doing this whilst practicing self-care.

Transcript

This is the Compassionate Awareness meditation and this could be something that's quite good to do after a difficult day or something tricky has happened.

So coming into a comfortable posture for your body,

Seated,

Lying,

Standing.

It is a slightly longer practice so you might want to settle down sitting or lying down.

So letting the chair or the surface that you're resting on hold you,

Letting it take your weight so that you can settle and relax into it.

Letting that surface and gravity hold your body and support you so you can let go a little bit,

You can soften a little bit more,

Relax,

Let the weight of your body sink down as your spine and your head are rising up.

Closing your eyes or lowering your gaze,

Whatever's comfortable for you to limit the distractions.

If you're sitting maybe sensing the soles of the feet on the floor,

Making contact with the earth beneath you,

Maybe a sense of being grounded with the earth and the floor beneath your body,

Maybe sensing the hands,

Letting them rest in your lap or by either side of your body,

Letting them be heavy.

When your hands are heavy your arms can then relax,

Soften,

Be heavy and your shoulders can drop down and your chest can open up.

So as best as you can letting go of whatever's happened in your day so far.

In this practice there's no need to be anywhere,

No decisions you need to make,

Nothing you need to do.

Just allowing yourself to be fully here in this moment,

Letting go of everything that's gone on before,

Giving yourself permission to take this time for yourself.

So one way to come into the present moment is to notice the points of contact with your body and the surface it's resting on.

So maybe the back of the body,

Sitting,

Lying down,

Perhaps noticing temperature,

Noticing sensations in the back of the body,

Noticing where your body touches that surface beneath you,

Noticing whatever's touching your skin,

The clothing,

The air,

The chair,

The bed.

Just allowing yourself to arrive in this body,

In this moment.

I'm going to invite you to notice the breath,

If that's comfortable for you and notice that you can use any other anchor that you may prefer instead,

So the feet on the floor,

The body resting on the surface,

If that's more comfortable for you.

So noticing the breath,

If that's okay,

Noticing the movement in your body as you breathe in and you breathe out,

That sense of expansion on the in-breath and release and softening on the out-breath.

So just like the tide,

Rolling in and rolling out,

Just like the waves of the sea,

Breathing in and breathing out at your own pace,

Your natural rhythm of the breath.

Just noticing the body as it breathes on its own,

Creating movement,

Stretching and releasing and just resting your awareness on this movement of the body as you breathe.

And if you notice your mind wandering or when you notice,

All our minds wander,

So when you notice,

Kindly bring your focus back to the breath or your alternative anchor in this moment.

That is the moment of mindfulness,

Noticing where our minds have gone and bringing them back time and time again.

So maybe you can feel the chest,

The lungs,

The ribs moving,

Even if it's a subtle movement in your body.

Maybe noticing the rise and fall of the chest,

The rise and fall of the belly,

Maybe the movement in the nostrils or the mouth.

Just resting your awareness in one of these places where you can feel the breath the most,

Feeling that movement,

The flow of air.

If you've had a particularly difficult day,

You might want to drop your focus of your breath down towards the belly,

Even putting a hand on your belly somewhere around the navel,

Feeling and sensing the movement of the belly as it expands on the in-breath and releases on the out-breath.

And every time your mind wanders,

Coming back to the feeling of the breath in the belly,

Allowing the breath to take centre stage of your awareness.

And we're not trying to achieve anything special,

We're just sitting here,

Sensing the movement of the breath in the body.

Sitting stable,

Just like a mountain.

And then widening your focus from the breath to the whole of the body,

The whole body here in this moment.

Perhaps noticing the weight of the body going down,

Being held on the surface you're resting on.

Noticing your posture,

Noticing the sensations in the body.

And I'm going to invite you now to bring your attention and your awareness to unpleasant aspects of your experience.

And knowing in this part of the practice,

To look after yourself,

To do what you need to do to practice self-care,

And being gentle with yourself and resourcing yourself how you need to.

So can you rest your awareness on anything unpleasant about your current experience?

So you might notice tightness,

Discomfort,

Might be pain,

Might be stiffness,

Or perhaps noticing your mood or your energy is low.

As best as you can,

Can you hold these sensations in your awareness with kindness,

Curiosity,

And compassion for yourself?

Not judging these parts of your experience,

Just allowing them to be here.

Not pushing them away,

Not trying to make them different,

Not trying to get rid of them,

Just feeling whatever's here,

Even though it might be unpleasant.

As long as that's comfortable for you,

Coming close and feeling those sensations.

So allowing the unpleasant sensations to be here,

Softening to them where you can.

If you don't notice anything in particular,

That's okay,

Just resting your awareness on the body and the breath.

And as much as possible,

Allowing the breath to soften any resistance you might experience towards your difficulty.

Breathing with a sense of kindness and compassion,

Using the breath to allow and soften whatever's here,

Whether that's mood,

Tightness,

Pain,

Heaviness in the body,

Discomfort,

Seeing if you can use the breath to bring a sense of warmth and compassion to your experience in this moment.

As much as possible,

If you can,

Accepting what's here rather than wishing things were different.

So for now,

Resting your awareness on anything difficult and unpleasant within your experience,

Not trying to change it,

Just noticing the sensations with compassion.

And if this becomes overwhelming at any point,

You can shift your awareness to the breath in the belly,

Perhaps even putting your hand on your belly and feeling those sensations of the rise and fall of the belly.

Seeing if you can soften,

Soothe and allow the sensations to be here,

Not telling yourself stories about how difficult it is,

How hard your day's been,

Just noticing and allowing the sensations to be here as best you can.

Holding everything with a compassionate awareness and softening where you can to whatever's here,

Letting it be here.

And now bringing your awareness to the pleasant sensations,

So letting go of those difficult or unpleasant sensations and turning towards whatever's pleasant in your experience right now,

Being curious about what's here.

We don't need to find anything grand,

It might be something subtle and that's okay.

And you might not think there is anything pleasant in your experience in this moment.

So as you rest your awareness,

You may become more attuned to something nice,

To something pleasant,

And it might be something delicate and subtle.

So it might be something like the relief of stopping after a hard day,

A busy day.

It might be pleasurable to have your eyes closed or to rest your eyes.

It might be pleasant to have a sense of not having to do anything else right now,

Just seeing if you can cultivate a kind and accepting awareness to whatever your experience is.

We're learning to seek out subtle experiences here rather than only noticing the grand things.

So sometimes some pleasant experiences we may not even recognize anymore,

We might not even notice them,

We've become that accustomed to them.

So it can be things like the absence of hunger,

The absence of tiredness.

We can learn to recognize these and enjoy them for what they are.

So resting your awareness on whatever you find.

A kind,

Gentle awareness of your experience in this moment.

And if you can't find anything that's okay too,

Don't give yourself a hard time.

Maybe instead resting your awareness on the breath.

Just seeing what comes up for you that might be pleasant and cultivating a kind and accepting awareness to it.

Perhaps it might even be pleasant to rest your awareness on the breath.

Not having to do anything special.

Perhaps just noticing it's pleasant to be sitting down if you've been rushing around all day.

Just noticing what's here.

Allowing any pleasant sensations to arise and pass,

However subtle.

And maybe you might find more sensations are pleasant than you first thought.

And maybe that gives you a sense of pleasure.

Just being curious about whatever's here.

And then inviting you to broaden your awareness to include both aspects of your experience,

Both the pleasant and the unpleasant.

The tension and the pleasurable.

Seeing if it's possible to hold them both in a broad spacious awareness.

Allowing everything to be part of your experience in the present moment.

Allowing it to come and go in its own time.

Noticing what's here and allowing and accepting it as you sit here.

You may notice all the varied and obvious aspects of your experience as well as the subtle ones.

And as much as possible allowing the difficult and the positive things to coexist together.

Holding them both.

Not grasping to the pleasurable and not pushing away the difficult.

Letting them both be here.

And this isn't always easy so don't give yourself a hard time if you're finding it tricky.

And every time the mind wanders.

Maybe coming back to the breath.

And doing that kindly.

Not judging yourself.

Just noticing when the mind's wandered and bringing it back.

That is the moment of success.

That is the moment of mindfulness.

Resting your awareness on the breath and then widening it out.

Including anything and all things about your experience in this moment.

So things like the tension,

The tightness,

The lightness,

The energy,

The warmth,

The comfort.

All the little pleasant experiences as well as any unpleasant ones.

Allowing everything to come together and exist together moment by moment.

Adopting a kind attitude.

Bringing compassion to everything in your experience right now.

And it may be easier to notice the negative aspects but as best as you can.

Widen your awareness to include the pleasurable aspects as well.

Even after a hard day,

A busy day,

Even when we're tired,

Even when there's lots of stress.

What are the pleasant aspects of our experience as well?

These little,

Subtle,

Small,

Pleasant experiences can sometimes get overlooked.

So holding them both.

Being conscious of what you find.

And then we're going to bring the practice to a close.

So letting go of the practice.

And slowly transitioning as you open your eyes and take in the room.

And being kind and gentle with yourself as you maybe bring some movement to the body.

Moving the feet,

The legs,

The calves,

Maybe the hands,

The arms,

The shoulders,

The back,

The chest.

Just stretching and moving in your own time however you like.