Welcome to your 10-minute Spacious Awareness Meditation.
This meditation is all about realizing the vastness of your awareness and increasing spaciousness.
So whenever your container feels too small,
Feel free to use this meditation to help expand your awareness and your container so that whatever is present in it can feel just a little smaller and a little more manageable.
So start with either a sitting,
Standing,
Or lying down position,
Bringing a sense of both energy and ease into your posture.
You're making your spine just a little straighter.
And start by noticing your own breath.
So turning the breath inward and focusing on the inhale and the exhale,
Bringing your consciousness to something that we do automatically throughout the day,
But noticing how the quality of the breath changes with your awareness placed there.
Perhaps bringing a little more intentionality to the breath,
And maybe that means slowing down the exhale.
Remembering that you know how to breathe and just doing whatever feels good to you right now in this moment.
Now expanding the awareness to include the entire body and whatever sensations you can feel in your body.
Doing a scan from the top of the head down through the face,
Neck,
Shoulders,
Chest,
Torso,
And back.
Noticing what sensations stand out to you and continuing down through the stomach,
Pelvis,
And buttocks,
Upper legs,
Lower legs,
And feet.
What is it like to place your awareness on your body right now?
What can you notice now that you weren't aware of just a couple moments ago?
Allowing your body to speak to you in this moment.
And now expanding the awareness beyond the body sensations into the feelings space.
What emotions are present for you right now?
Maybe you can name them silently as you're aware of them.
It's anxiety,
It's tension,
Maybe there's a little sadness present,
Or contentment.
There can be many emotions present at the same time.
Just allowing yourself to silently name them as you become aware of them.
And now widening your container even more to become aware of the quality of your thoughts.
Are they harsh?
Critical?
Catastrophic?
Positive?
Grateful?
What are the quality of the thoughts in your head right now?
And how is it impacting your mood and your body and your being?
And just taking these moments to simply become aware.
Awareness is so critical.
No judgment,
Just kind awareness.
And now expanding your awareness to include that which is outside of your body.
So in this space,
Widening your awareness to whatever else is in your environment.
Maybe that's sounds.
Maybe they are soft and subtle sounds,
Like the sound of the air conditioner or heater being on.
Maybe there's loud or intermittent sounds like cars driving by outside or dogs barking in the distance.
You are the one noticing all of these things.
You are the observer.
These are all just sensations in your container.
Noticing if you are judging anything in your environment or labeling it as good or bad.
Something that is desirable or not.
Noticing that those judgments are not you.
They're outside of you.
A label that was added.
Noticing that there is no limit to the vastness of your consciousness.
That you can hold so many things in your consciousness at once.
Whether it is your thoughts,
The sensations in your body,
The sounds in your environment and beyond.
That there is an observer self.
This root of consciousness noticing all of these things at once.
Just seeing how big and vast your consciousness,
Your awareness can be.
Perhaps if you're really still or quiet,
You can sense connectedness with even things not in your immediate visual field.
A connection with things beyond.
Maybe to other people or animals or nature.
Maybe there's a part of you that can feel connected on a deeper level.
Allowing yourself to tap into that place of connection or just seeing if you can find it.
Finding it through stillness and receptivity rather than effort.
It's already inside of you.
Allowing yourself to drop into that space if possible and just resting there at the seat of your consciousness.
This deep place of knowing.
You don't have to strive to get there.
All that's required of you is your stillness and presence.
Just noticing what comes up from that place.
Allow yourself a few more seconds here of deep stillness and when you're ready you can either continue the meditation if you have time or open your eyes.
Thank you for joining today.
