How Are You Feeling?

Hello and welcome.

I'm Charles and in this session you will have two different guides walking alongside you.

I will guide you through the first part,

More of a conceptual exploration for a few minutes,

And then my good friend Saka Brizby will take over and guide you through a practice based on what I've shared with you.

So the focus in this session is using the body as a means of transcending the thinking mind,

That thinking,

Narrating sense of self that we often identify as living in the head.

You might call it the ego.

And we will experiment with identifying ourselves beyond just living inside the head,

Beyond the limits of the thinking mind.

And learn from what our body has to teach us in this moment if we can only listen clearly enough.

And now let's just take a few moments to settle in with each other.

And you can take a few deep breaths with me,

Breathing in deeply,

And then breathing all the way out on the exhale.

Breathing in and filling up your belly.

And then exhaling and letting it all go completely.

And just waiting for the inhale to come back in naturally on its own.

And become aware of how the breath is always happening and has always been happening since you were born.

It requires no conscious effort,

But then you can also consciously take control over it.

The breath is unique in that way.

It's this automatic function that you can also take conscious control over.

So it's a good tool for becoming aware of what is beyond the thinking mind.

So maybe notice yourself attempt to control the breath in any way,

To restrict it or try to make it deeper.

And then see if you can become aware of the breath and also totally let go of control over it at the same time.

Awareness without control.

No interpretation,

No good or bad.

Just feeling and experiencing the breath as it naturally occurs back and forth in and out.

And now become aware of the body and just notice whatever stands out to you.

Become aware of your hands.

Your stomach.

Your shoulders.

Your neck.

Your face.

Your feet.

And become aware of how you can become aware just by me mentioning one of these parts of your body.

Become aware of this awareness of your bodily sensation.

And notice if there's any tension or feeling of holding on,

Any restlessness.

And see if the body knows how to let itself come to rest.

Maybe letting go of conscious control and seeing if the body just knows how to do it.

And going along with the instruction,

The guidance of the body.

No need for protection or defense in this moment.

And you can feel the body being pulled down toward the earth by the force of gravity.

And maybe allow yourself to flow with this downward pull.

And then at the same time,

Feel how the ground firmly supports you in this stable position.

Pulled down and supported.

The thinking mind doesn't need to do anything right now.

You might notice its desire to do something,

Any urge to plan or remember or judge or predict.

And let all of that be okay.

Acknowledge the thinking mind doing what it does.

But then,

If you will,

Come back to just feeling the body right now as you live and breathe here and only here in this moment.

Anything outside of this,

Just this,

Exists only in the mind.

So come back to being just here and fully aware of this one experience that you're actually in right now.

And maybe just take a few more deep breaths there,

Here.

And breathing in,

Returning to just being here with me.

Soaking all of this in and feeling as though we just started this practice.

Because really,

We just did start right now.

Okay.

So I'll talk a little bit now about how it is that we have a sense of how we're feeling or how we're doing.

And then Sake will take over and guide you through a meditative exercise based on this concept.

So I was recently having a conversation with Sakeb.

He's become a friend of mine through noticing each other's work on Insight Timer and then being connected by a thoughtful listener.

And so we were having a conversation and we started with the typical,

How are you doing?

Hey Sakeb,

How are you doing?

Which led us to really question that question.

What does it mean,

How are you doing?

And how do you get a sense of how to respond accurately to that question?

You might notice for yourself now,

If I were to ask you,

How are you doing?

First,

What is your automatic response to that?

How do you automatically respond to me asking you right now,

How are you doing?

Maybe if we were passing each other in the hallway or saw each other on the street and I said,

Hey,

How are you doing?

What would your automatic response be?

And then what is your deeper,

Genuine,

Present moment based response?

And how do you gauge the genuine response?

Where does the answer come from?

You might just go inward and consider that for a moment.

How do you assess your genuine response to the question of,

How are you doing?

I think often that question is really just a way of saying hello.

How are you doing?

Good,

You?

Yeah,

Good.

It's often just sort of a salutation exchange.

But in our conversation,

Sakab and I noticed that when we tried to assess how we were actually doing,

At that moment,

We struggled to identify a clear answer.

And we both noticed that our search for the answer felt like it existed mostly inside the head,

Inside the thinking mind.

And it felt very limited and kind of inauthentic for me at least,

Like I was just searching for something to say,

Going into my thinking mind bag and finding a familiar phrase to answer the question and move on to the next thing.

But I wanted something real,

Present and new,

Not to say something just to say it.

And I think it seems we often identify ourselves,

The I,

In how am I doing,

As being centered in the head.

And maybe that's because things like vision,

Hearing,

Speaking,

Those functions seem to be occurring from the neck up.

So it can feel like I am up here in the head,

And then from the neck down is just my body.

It's kind of like the mythological centaur creature.

The centaur,

Half man,

Half horse.

Me up here in the head and my body down there separate.

But are the various parts of my body from the neck down really any less me than my head and face?

Is this head and the stuff inside it really the center of me,

Or is it equally just a part of my whole human experience?

So after struggling to find a genuine answer to this question of how am I doing by looking in the head and the thinking mind,

We began asking other parts of the body.

And we found that these other parts actually had a lot to say.

But not in the typical way,

Not in words or familiar phrases,

But in feeling in the direct communication of feeling.

And so you might ask,

How do you communicate feeling like that?

And that is what we're going to finish with just for a little bit here.

Asking a few parts of the body,

How are you doing?

Or maybe how are you feeling?

And then just being open to their response in the moment.

And with that,

I leave you in the very capable and wise hands of my good friend,

Saqib.

Namaste and welcome.

My name is Saqib.

And I'm your guide for part two of this meditation,

Which is called,

How are you feeling?

My friend Charles just told you that how it dawned upon us to ask this question to each and every part of our body.

How are you feeling?

This is precisely what we will do in the second part of the meditation.

As Charles mentioned in the first part of this session,

That because we are conditioned to center our awareness in our heads,

We tend to neglect the rest of the body.

And this might be the reason that we experience discomfort,

Dis-ease or disease.

So now I will guide you to reconnect to these different parts of the body.

This will help us pay attention to their present feeling and maybe initiate the healing of those parts that we have unintentionally neglected.

So let's begin now.

I would request you to get into a very comfortable posture.

Just make sure that your back is straight but is relaxed at the same time.

You can now gradually close your eyes.

And as you close your eyes,

Bring your awareness to your breath.

And as you breathe in and out,

Let your awareness follow the flow of your breath.

In through your nose,

Into your windpipe,

Into your lungs,

And back from your lungs,

Through your windpipe,

And out through your nose again.

And as you breathe in and out,

Let your awareness follow the flow of your breath.

If you find your awareness distracted,

Acknowledge that you are thinking and without any judgement,

Gently bring your awareness back to your breath.

And as you breathe in and out,

Let your awareness follow the flow of your breath.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

We will start with that part of the body where our awareness usually is.

So bring your awareness to your head now.

To your entire head which also includes your face.

And ask this question to your head,

How are you feeling?

Most likely the answer will come in the form of a feeling,

But it might also come as a visual or as a sound or as a clear knowing.

The idea is to just be open to whatever comes through.

So ask your head,

How are you feeling?

And now bring your awareness to your neck.

And ask your neck,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Move your awareness to your shoulders.

And ask your shoulders,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Bring your awareness to your arms.

And ask your arms,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Move your awareness down to your hands.

And ask your hands,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now bring your awareness to your chest with more focus to your heart.

And ask your chest,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Move your awareness downwards and ask your abdomen the same question.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Bring your awareness to your back.

And ask your back,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Move your awareness to your pelvis and hips.

And ask the question.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Move your awareness downwards and ask your thighs,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Ask your knees.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

Ask your calves.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And finally bring your awareness to your feet.

And ask your feet,

How are you feeling?

And now let's start connecting to our body.

And now you can gently bring your awareness back to your surroundings.

And gradually in your own time,

You can open your eyes and come out of the meditation.

So,

How are you feeling?

I hope the different parts of your body were able to tell you this.

And I hope that you got some new insights today about your own body.

Thank you for joining us in the meditation.

Take care and have a wonderful day.

Namaste.

Namaste.