Tuning Towards, Openining, Allowing Meditation

When challenging or unwanted experiences arise, most of us want to avoid or distract ourselves. This meditation invites us to gently open to that experience and explores it with kindness and curiosity. Holding it gently in our open awareness among the neutral and positive experiences also present at the same moment.

Transcript

Sitting meditation,

Turning towards,

Allowing,

Opening.

This meditation is specifically asking us to become aware of the neutral,

Pleasant and unpleasant aspects of our moment-to-moment experience.

In this way,

We consciously and systematically practice working with our own stress,

Anxiety,

Pain,

Illness and all challenges and demands of everyday life.

We practice mindfulness to soften our resistance to our actual experience.

Intention.

Practicing awareness of the whole of our experience,

Cultivating equanimity.

Attention.

Bringing our attention to both the neutral,

Pleasant and unpleasant aspects of our actual moment-to-moment experience.

Emptiness.

Attitude.

Curiosity.

Openness.

Acceptance.

And Kindness.

Settling into a comfortable sitting position.

The spine is erect,

But not rigid.

If using a chair,

Sitting away from the back of the chair,

So the spine is self-supporting.

Head balanced on top of the spine.

Finding a position for the hands,

So they are relaxed.

Supporting our stable and dignified posture.

Experimenting with the position until you feel comfortable and firmly supported.

We start by practicing paying attention to what is actually happening in the present moment.

Perhaps asking ourselves,

How do we feel?

What's the weather like inside our bodies today?

What is our experience?

Practicing dropping into our experience in this present moment.

Asking ourselves,

What is going on for me right now?

Not the thought of what is going on or remembering past events,

But opening up to any physical sensations already present.

When it feels right,

Gently noticing the movement of the breath.

It's such a constant feature that it's easy to ignore.

Taking time with it now.

Actually feeling the sensations as the breath rolls in and rolls out.

Allowing it to move through its circle of in-breath and out-breath without controlling.

Simply watching it.

This breath.

And now this breath.

Perhaps sensing the rise and fall of the belly.

Or the feeling of the air in the nostrils or upper lip.

Maybe placing the hands on the belly.

Feeling the movement of the breath,

The rhythm.

Just letting it roll in and roll out.

Riding the waves of the breath from moment to moment.

Moving the awareness now to the level of physical sensations in the body.

Investigating the experience of an alive body.

How is this aliveness known through the senses?

Becoming aware of the sensations of touch,

Contact,

Pressure in the body.

Exploring these sensations.

And when the attention wanders,

Which it may well do,

That's what minds do.

Noticing and practicing making a choice to come back with care and kindness to the awareness of the body,

The breath and the present moment experience.

With awareness comes choice.

We might choose to stay with wherever our mind has wandered.

Or perhaps we choose to come back into the present moment,

Into the physical sensations in the body.

Practicing being with the breath or feet on the floor.

Breathing down into the ground.

Without judging our experience as good or bad.

Exploring the moment by moment sensations with a gentle curiosity.

Noticing nuances of sensation.

Perhaps becoming aware of thoughts and judgments.

Resistance or bracing.

And,

As much as possible,

Practicing stepping back to observe,

To open space in awareness.

Using the breath as a vehicle for kindness.

Breathing into the body,

Softening.

Letting go with the out breath.

Noticing that sensations change.

That they,

Like the breath,

Have a beginning,

A middle and an end.

As best we can,

Gently turning towards,

Allowing,

Opening.

Now we gently turn towards our experience.

Allowing whatever may currently be found to simply be there.

With a soft,

Gentle,

Non-judgmental attitude.

Just noticing if we can lean towards what is there.

We may like to say,

It's okay,

Let me feel it.

Can we practice allowing it in?

Practicing bringing our attention down from the head into the body.

What is our actual,

Present moment experience?

As best we can,

Allowing our experience to unfold,

Breath by breath.

If there is nothing,

Just being curious about the changing movement of our experience as we ride the waves of our breath.

Noticing any tendency to move away from or towards any sensations,

Thoughts or emotions.

Judgements may arise.

Practice remembering that this is simply how it is in this moment.

If we feel overwhelmed by any sensations,

Thoughts or emotions,

Knowing that we can shift our awareness to the anchor of the breath.

Staying with the rhythm of the breath rolling in and rolling out.

In and out.

Until we feel okay.

And then,

If we wish,

Returning to the present moment experience,

Gently investigating if we can open up to any difficult sensations.

Perhaps taking our awareness there.

Bringing whatever is here in this moment into the light of our awareness.

Breathing into it.

Breathing out of it.

Just being with what is here now.

Exploring onward.

Perhaps unpleasant thoughts or emotions are here.

We might be feeling emotional pain.

As best we can.

Practicing,

Softening into it.

Does it have an echo in the body?

Practicing holding it in our kind awareness.

As we might hold a child who has hurt themselves.

Gathering them to ourselves.

Holding them.

Soothing them.

Bringing the emotional pain into the light of awareness.

Breathing into it.

Breathing out of it.

Just practicing being with what is here now.

Anchoring and coming back to the breath.

Feeling how the gentle rise and fall has been a constant companion.

Why do you feel the breath most vividly today?

How is the body?

Perhaps feeling the sensation of gravity.

The sense of being held gently,

Closely,

Without fail.

Dwelling in what the body feels.

In what it knows.

Practicing not distancing ourselves from the unpleasant aspects of life.

Allowing them to remain in the background of our awareness as we practice this meditation.

Broadening into the whole of our experience.

Maybe shifting the focus of awareness now to become sensitive to the pleasant dimensions of the moment.

Seeking out the pleasant.

Just gently allowing it into the light of our awareness.

It's already there.

We don't need to invent it.

We just gently practice allowing it in.

Seeking out the good.

The simple pleasures of our life.

It might be something like sunlight coming through the window.

Pleasant.

Calm in the room.

Pleasant.

Warm hands.

Pleasant.

Birdsong.

Pleasant.

Practicing awareness of the pleasant aspects of our experience.

Enriching it by exploring it without senses.

Absorbing the pleasant down into the body.

Lingering with the sensations.

What is pleasant right now?

And now broadening out our field of awareness to include and hold both the neutral,

Unpleasant and pleasant aspects of the moment-by-moment experience.

We sort of zoom out into a much broader quality of attention.

Practicing sitting with the neutral,

The pleasant and the unpleasant experiences.

Allowing them just to be.

Side by side.

At one moment the breath might predominate.

Becoming aware of the movements of our breath.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Our body sensations.

Sounds,

Thoughts or emotions.

Simply dwelling with an open awareness.

Attending to whatever arises.

Holding it all with a gentle,

Kind awareness.

Nurturing ourselves by making the choice to spend time specifically paying attention to and dwelling upon the pleasant aspects that we may not have noticed.

Realizing that by practicing mindfulness we are intentionally deepening our ability to be fully present to the simple wonders of our life.

Observing whatever presents itself to us at the moment.

Being spacious to whatever arises.

To the best of our abilities.

Noticing how it is all constantly changing.

Rising and falling.

Coming and going.

Sitting in stillness with whatever comes and goes.

Practicing being here now.

Opening to the totality of our experience.

Being fully human.

Exploring the neutral,

Unpleasant and pleasant aspects of shared humanity.

Returning the attention to the body as we sit.

Being present to the totality of the experience of sitting here at this moment.

Perhaps feeling the breath moving in the body.

Sensing the body sitting here.

Breathing in this moment.

Noticing the thoughts and emotions.

Exploring the experience of aliveness as it's felt through our bodies.

Practicing allowing ourselves to be exactly as we are.

And now grounding ourselves.

Earthing ourselves.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Down into the ground.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Down into the earth.

Earthing ourselves.

If it feels appropriate,

Perhaps taking a moment,

Bringing our intention of being present in our lives to mind.

Practicing being mindful of the whole of our experience.

Remembering that practicing in this way helps create a wider,

Deeper,

More open way of being in our life.

In which we may see more clearly and make more conscious choices for health,

Wellbeing and freedom.

Gently turning our awareness now to the sounds in the room.

The sounds inside ourselves.

Becoming aware of the sounds outside of the room.

Maybe starting to move and stretch in any way that feels good right now.

And when you're ready,

Opening the eyes.

The turning towards meditation is now complete.