Open Monitoring Meditation - Moderate

Grounded in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), this meditation brings awareness first to an anchor point such as the breath, body, or sound. It then brings awareness step-by-step to the entire human experience, specifically our physical sensations, thoughts and emotions. In doing so, we can observe, in a curious gentle way, who and how we are today. With that knowledge, we can respond skillfully to care for ourselves and our communities by harnessing the wisdom of our body and mind.

Transcript

In this open monitoring meditation we will be establishing our concentration and then starting to direct it to more fully understand the body and the mind enhancing our self-awareness while fostering our ability to place our mind where we want to place it or at least where we choose to place it and so the invitation to begin is to choose a place to place the mind and for most of us the invitation is for it to be the breath the full arc of the in-breath and the out-breath and everything in between and if the breath is in a place of comfort or safety for you to consider using a different object of meditation that is with you every moment of the day maybe it's a part of the body like the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet so we're just there with the raw sensations of say touch or lack of touch or temperature or moisture or dryness and that becomes the object if the body is not the best place to place the mind then consider sound or lack of sound and those fundamental elements of sound are where we place the mind like how loud or soft the sound is or how close or far away the pitch of the sound like how high or low it is so finding your way to an anchor point or an object of meditation of either the breath or the body,

A part of the body or sound just allowing the mind to settle settling like leaves falling from the trees to the ground so that all that's left behind is that bare awareness of the object of meditation kind of like the bare trunk and branches of a tree after the leaves have fallen so just being here with that in-breath and out-breath maybe noticing how deep or shallow it is for example or if your object is part of the body perhaps bringing awareness to the sensations in that part of the body and seeing if they're steady or if they shift moment by moment or if it's sound perhaps bringing awareness to the unfolding story of sound that we only have so much control over and so what is here moment by moment training the mind to be where we choose to place it in this case the breath the body or sound just remembering this moment we've got nowhere to go,

Nothing to do just stopping and calming,

Resting,

Being here with ourselves being here with this object of meditation of the breath,

The body or sound seeing if we can be so with some level of effortlessness so we're just simply here in this moment placing our mind where we choose to place it and if the mind has wandered by now just seeing where it went,

The mind wanders part of what we're doing with meditation is noticing where it wandered and that's telling us something about ourselves does it go to a pretty common place in this moment or did it go somewhere it's never been before or has it stayed focused on that object and whatever the answer is,

It's fine,

It's just good information and if the mind isn't with that object of meditation,

Inviting it to return not judging it in any way for where it's been,

But firmly and kindly bringing it back to this moment back to this breath,

To this part of the body,

This sound or lack of sound and then I feel like the invitation is to shift awareness,

To start to be directed towards the body itself always recognizing to respect your limits and so if being with the body is overwhelming in any way it's okay to just be with a certain part of the body that you feel comfortable to be with or if you want to skip this part of the meditation,

You can just stay with that anchor point always respecting your wisdom and listening to your wisdom more than to this recording and so inviting,

If you choose to bring awareness to the body,

Perhaps starting with the parts of the body that are in contact with the surface that it's resting on maybe it's the soles of the feet on the ground or the sit bones on whatever you're sitting on and then widening out the aperture of your awareness,

If you like,

To encompass the entire body and just seeing what messages are here and what part of the body is speaking the loudest right now,

How's it feeling?

Part of meditation is the skill of taking a step back,

The scientific term for it is decentering,

Where we're just taking a step back and seeing what's arising in the body right now,

Respecting our limits too,

Including any clinical conditions we might have where it might not be so awesome to take a step back from the body,

And so it's respecting your wisdom,

But if it feels comfortable to just observe what's arising in the body with lots of self-kindness.

Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about how if we're breathing there's more right with us than wrong with us and it's amazing this community of cells all working together in the body,

And so what are they sharing in this moment,

And can we be here for it,

Whatever that message is?

Noticing what's being experienced in the physical sensations now compared to when we began focusing in on the body,

Seeing what's similar or different and so with this meditation,

This is part of the open monitoring part where we might start with our anchor point,

And now we're shifting,

Observing the different senses in the body starting with the body itself and then if you like,

Shifting to a different sensation that's still connected to the body but has a little bit more,

Maybe,

Exterior influence,

Which is the sensation of sound you might have already spent a little time here if that's your anchor point,

And if it is,

You get to deepen it,

And if it wasn't,

Then now's the opportunity to connect in with those raw elements of sound are the sounds rhythmic or arrhythmic?

Do they feel like they're inside the room or outside the room if you are in a room or near or far?

Through silence,

Just noticing that silence,

It in of itself has its own kind of sound,

Almost like a ringing for many of us anytime the mind wanders,

Just noticing where it went,

Observing with curiosity and kindness,

And inviting it back,

Back to the sensation of sound silence and so as we shift through this open monitoring where we started with that anchor point and then shifted to the body and then to sound the domain is the domain of emotions,

Again always respecting our limits,

So it's nice to connect in with the emotions if we're in a comfort zone or a growth zone or it might be challenging if we're in an overwhelm zone,

Just be really kind and even,

Skip this one or distract away a little bit maybe,

Coming back to that anchor point or doing a little bit of a walk often and outside in nature can be nourishing,

So that wave of overwhelming emotions settles and can connect back in wherever you're at with the emotions,

Suffering lots of self kindness and even seeing if the emotions are generally negative,

Neutral or positive what is that valence of the emotion?

Is it generally positive,

Generally negative,

Somewhere in between,

Maybe neutral or maybe flavors of all of them?

Noticing if the emotions are steady or if they shift moment to moment and then if you like starting to invite awareness to shift into the domain of thoughts so here we're stepping back again and this time it's like we're watching our thoughts almost like we're watching a movie,

We're sitting there in the chairs and movies up on the screen and so our thoughts are traveling by can we just notice them,

Not judge them in any way?

We're just observing,

Seeing thoughts arising and shifting and changing,

Carrying on,

Maybe being released by new thoughts or maybe there's some space between the thoughts seeing what thoughts are present now and now and then if you like,

If it feels comfortable,

The invitation is to widen the aperture out even more to our awareness where we're observing all sensations,

Which in many ways is open monitoring in a broad kind of way so we're just monitoring what arises in the physical sensations,

In emotions,

In thoughts and so which of those three are sharing most loudly right now?

The physical sensations,

Emotions or thoughts and seeing what that content is and if it shifts and evolves over time or if there's steadiness,

Noticing that steadiness so so here we're training ourselves to be here,

To be present for our entire lives because our entire lives take place in the physical sensations,

Emotions and thoughts so if we disentangle them and train ourselves to be there with them we can live a fuller,

Richer,

More aware life if it's a good fit for us to do this kind of practice and so if you like,

Training yourself to be here right now,

In this moment that will never be here again and being here for the physical sensations or emotions or thoughts as they arise,

Arising in just this way,

In a way that will never happen again and then as those meditations starting to come towards a close and putting the attention to come back home to where we began,

To that anchor point,

That anchor point that can be pretty grounding for us at any moment in our day or any moment in our lives so whichever one you've chosen,

Whether it's the breath or a part of the body or sound inviting the mind to return back to that place knowing that the meditation is starting to come towards a close and just seeing what's here and the physical sensations,

Emotions,

Thoughts as we're ready to transition and perhaps considering what a wise next step would be and as we end this meditation,

Inviting you to bring into your life whatever is most sensible next Chime Chime