On Looking Deeply - Beyond The Obvious

Give yourself a moment to arrive here.

Take your time to shuffle your body and yourself into a posture and a state that feels most comfortable for you at this point.

Whether that's adjusting something or simply allowing your experience to come into land,

Give yourself a breath to slow down and arrive from where you have been to where you now are.

It can be helpful to orientate yourself in space and time.

Remind yourself where you are,

And I do mean that literally,

What is the actual space you're in.

Then remind yourself what day it is and what time of day it is.

You have given yourself this space and this time to invest in your own experience.

It is likely that your mind will wander,

As it is likely that your feelings will ebb and flow.

This is perfectly normal and understandable.

Go gently with yourself during this time and remember that you can listen to it as often as is helpful to you.

Now in your own time,

Gently soften the focus of your eyes or close your eyes,

Whatever feels most helpful to you at this point as you open up to this meditation.

Our focus is looking deeply.

Looking deeply is about giving yourself time and space to be curious and to look beyond what is visible at first glance.

It is a practice from Zen Buddhism,

Particularly the tradition that's led by Thich Nhat Hanh and the community of interbeing.

But it is something that is practiced widely across different disciplines.

And it's the practice that helps us develop our ability to see.

It is the practice and the commitment to look closer,

To look more deeply.

Before looking anywhere else at what's happening outside of your experience,

It can be helpful to develop your practice first with yourself and your own experience.

And from that practice ground of your own self,

You can develop the skill and develop that skill into mastery,

Which you can then translate and transpose to what is happening outside of your experience.

But it can be hard to apply this learning outside of your experience if you don't have the felt,

The embodied,

And the visceral reference of what looking deeply truly feels like.

And so let's get curious about how you are feeling in this moment,

What you are thinking in this moment.

And let's zoom in,

Almost like through binoculars or a magnifying glass.

Let's zoom in on your thoughts.

Look at them almost like from the outside.

What's the content of your thoughts?

Are you thinking about tasks and to-do lists?

Are you thinking about other people and your relationships?

You might be thinking about something that's happened recently.

You may even be ruminating.

Ruminating means when we think about something over and over again,

As if we're on a roundabout and we can't find our way off.

We can't find the exit,

And so we get stuck thinking about the same thing again and again.

Or you may be thinking about something that's coming up and find yourself continuously planning and preempting,

Predicting a future that hasn't happened yet.

And as always in my meditations,

The key question to look at here is,

Whatever you are thinking,

Is it helpful?

Not so much about is it right or wrong or good or bad,

Positive or negative.

We always look at thoughts and feelings as information,

And then looking at is it helpful?

If you're thinking it for the first time,

If you're thinking it for the first,

Second,

Maybe even the third time,

Chances are it's helpful.

If you're thinking it for the 47th time,

Chances are it's unhelpful,

And you're finding yourself stuck on the thinking roundabout of unhelpful thoughts.

Allowing it to be whatever it is,

Noticing that as you practice looking deeply,

You may be able to see perspectives or information that haven't been accessible to you or not as visible to you before now.

Then moving across to your feelings.

Remembering feelings are always both emotions and physical sensations.

So let's start with the physical sensations.

Noticing how you are feeling,

How you are feeling,

How you are feeling,

How you are feeling,

How you are feeling,

How you are feeling,

Noticing how you are feeling in your body.

Noticing any parts or aspects of your body that feel tender or tired,

Where you feel pain,

Where you feel ease.

It can be helpful to move from the top of your head down across your face,

Bringing your focus through your neck,

Down your shoulders and your arms,

Your torso,

Your abdomen and your pelvis,

Through your sitting bones and your thighs,

Coming down through your knees,

Your calves and shins.

Down through the back of your heels,

Up the soles of your feet,

To the tips of your toes,

Getting a sense of whatever information you find at each point.

And as you look deeply at your physical sensations,

Notice how rich that information is.

You might notice that you need to move a bit more or that you need to sleep or that your digestion is struggling,

That your breathing is shallow,

That your neck is tense.

Whatever it is that your body is showing you as you look deeply,

Take notice.

Then looking at your emotions.

Let's bring your emotions into our focus.

You may find that initially you have one emotion,

But actually as you look deeper,

There might be another emotion underneath that and some further emotions even around that.

Whatever they are,

Notice the information that they carry,

What they are letting you know,

Not judging,

Not dismissing,

But also not collapsing into them,

But bearing witness to whatever is showing up,

Honouring the feelings,

Honouring the thoughts and the information that you are now seeing.

With kindness and gentleness to yourself,

Give yourself a moment to observe and absorb what you are now learning,

To be aware of what you are now seeing,

To be aware of what you are now seeing.

With kindness and gentleness to yourself,

Give yourself a moment to observe and absorb what you are now learning and with your breath stay here for a wee while.

As you live your breath,

Expand your awareness throughout your body,

Feeling the sensations from the top of your head to the tips of your toes,

Noticing whatever details your awareness is bringing to your attention.

Give thanks to yourself and to your thoughts and feelings that have come up during this meditation.

Without you investing your time and your focus in getting curious,

You would not learn why these feelings and thoughts are showing up and what valuable information they contain.

It needs both you and your feelings to take your experience forward.

Then in your own time,

Have a sense of expanding your awareness beyond yourself and your body to the space around you and the sounds that you can hear.

And when you're ready,

Gently open your eyes.

Take this experience with you forward from here,

Going gently with yourself.

And remember,

It is more helpful to be curious than critical.