Hello,
And welcome to this focused attention meditation,
Inviting you to begin by bringing attention to your body,
To your posture in this moment.
Sitting in an upright way with the spine stretched upward,
But in a relaxed,
Easeful way,
Not holding the body in any particular way,
Allowing gravity to have its way with you.
And then finding a balance between these two energies,
The wakefulness,
The curiosity and interest embodied in the upright posture,
Balanced by a sense of ease of groundedness in the downward pull of gravity.
And then inviting you to bring the attention right into what it feels like as the body makes connection with the chair or the cushion that you're sitting on,
Bringing in an interest and curiosity to these sensations.
Perhaps you feel a sense of pressure.
Does it evenly spread through the body or do you feel it more strongly in some places than in others?
Bringing the fullness of your attention to these sensations and recognizing that sometimes the mind wanders away,
Maybe frequently,
And this isn't a problem in any way.
This is what minds do.
When you notice this happening,
You can make a note of where the attention has gone and then very kindly and gently bring the attention back to where we are.
In this case,
With the attention on sensation in the area of the body,
Making contact with the chair.
Bringing this sensation to fade into the background and bringing attention to the whole body sitting here or whatever part of the body you can feel in this moment.
Bringing the curiosity to what sensation feels like within the body,
The pulsing,
The tingling,
The pressure,
Warmth,
Coolness,
Unpleasant sensation,
Pleasant sensation,
Bringing an awareness to whatever can be felt in this moment and coming back to these sensations again and again.
And then allowing these sensations to fade into the background and bringing your attention to breathing happening in the body.
It might be breathing within the whole body,
Breathing happening in the belly or the chest or the nose,
Noticing where you feel your breathing most strongly.
And then inviting you to allow the awareness of these sensations to fade into the background and to bring your attention to sound.
This is a very receptive way of listening,
Noticing what sounds are arising in your environment,
But not actively going out and looking for sound.
Simply noticing what's here and noticing that the mind might want to label and name the sounds you're hearing.
Noticing this tendency and seeing instead if you can simply notice sound for the sake of sound.
Noticing the space between sound.
And then inviting you to consider all of these different focus of attention areas,
Sensation in the body,
Whether the body is a whole or the sensation of the body making contact with the chair or cushion,
Breathing happening in the whole body or in a specific area of the belly,
The chest or the nose,
Or sound happening in your environment.
Inviting you to choose one of these areas that seems to be the most available to you in the moment.
And if you're uncertain,
If you're not sure which one is working best for you,
Arbitrarily choosing one and committing to bringing the attention to this one area.
And that doesn't mean you'll hold your attention the whole time there.
Simply that you'll rest your attention and then at some point when you notice the mind has wandered,
You'll very gently and kindly bring it back to this one place.
And doing this as many times as necessary.
And as you focus the attention in this way,
Bringing a real curiosity and interest to what's happening in your experience in this moment right now.
The possibility of bringing the fullness of yourself,
The fullness of your attention to this very moment and to know it fully.
Noticing where the attention is in this moment.
Connecting with your experience.
Connecting with your experience.
In a moment you'll hear the sound of a bell ringing,
Signaling the end of this meditation.
As you hear that sound,
Bringing your attention fully to it and listening until you can't hear the sound anymore.
The sound of a bell ringing.
