Kindly Awareness of Thoughts

Welcome to this Kindly Awareness of Thoughts practice, by Amanda from Human Evolution. This practice is designed to help you notice what is happening in your mind and body and to bring a sense of kindness and acceptance to whatever you find there. It can also be used before sleep for relaxation, or during stressful times for grounding.

Transcript

Welcome to this thoughts and awareness meditation practice.

I'm Amanda from Human Evolution.

So before we start our practice today,

Let's take a few moments to get into a nice comfortable posture.

This practice can be done in any posture that suits you.

Lying,

Sitting or wherever you happen to be right now.

So as best you can,

Make sure that your back is supported and erect.

And that you're comfortable.

Perhaps you have a blanket for warmth.

And see with the posture if you can avoid any feelings of tension or holding.

What we're looking for is a relaxed but erect posture if we're sitting or if we're lying.

Feeling fully supported by the ground.

Feeling comfortable.

Just make any adjustments you need.

Let's start to settle into this practice.

So first feeling into the physical body.

Let's bring our awareness down through the body.

To bring ourselves fully into the present moment.

Just start by relaxing the muscles of the face.

Particularly the jaw,

We can hold a lot of tension there.

And around the eyes,

In between the eyes.

And relax the eyes and the eyelids themselves.

Just feeling into the forehead,

The scalp,

The back of the head.

The ears,

The throat.

Just relax the whole head.

Release any tension.

Just feel any sensations in the neck and shoulders.

Perhaps the shoulders will just drop away a little from the ears.

Feeling into the arms and the hands.

Just softening the hands.

Notice what that feels like.

Perhaps you've been clenching your hands all day.

Notice the feeling of air moving into the chest and the abdomen.

Feel any sensations in the chest,

In the sides and the back of the chest.

As you breathe.

Soften a bit across the collarbones.

Soften into the belly,

The lower back,

The pelvis.

Again,

We can hold a lot of tightness in the hips.

So just release any sense of holding.

Allow yourself to be supported by whatever you're sitting or lying on.

Feeling now and sensing into the legs.

What do you feel?

What's the temperature like there?

Can you feel the weight of the legs on the ground,

On your chair?

Can you feel down into your feet?

And relax the feet and the toes.

Just feeling what both legs and feet feel like.

See if you can expand that sensation,

Noticing into the whole body.

All of the many sensations that are arising all the time.

And our intention today is to practice an attitude of curiosity.

See if we can avoid or at least observe any judgement that might arise.

But really trying to welcome any experiences that we have with an attitude of curiosity.

A friendly interest towards our own body experience.

Because whether we like it or not,

That is what's happening in our present moment.

And our intention is to see if we can meet that with acceptance and with interest.

And notice if there's any urge to push away something we don't like.

And with this same attitude of interest and curiosity,

Let's start to observe what's happening in the mind.

So what's happening?

Are you thinking?

Are your thoughts arising?

Is it a busy mind?

Perhaps there's not much happening.

Perhaps it feels calm.

Whatever's happening in the mind,

Let's see if you can notice it.

Can you notice it without becoming caught up in it?

Without letting thoughts carry you away?

It's not easy to do.

Let's see if you can notice what thoughts are arising.

And just acknowledge them and let them go.

Acknowledge and let it go.

Knowing that if it's something important,

You can pick it up again later.

But for now,

During this practice,

We're just going to let it go.

So in meditation,

We can't stop our minds from thinking.

We can't stop them from wandering.

Because that's what minds do.

They're always thinking,

Even when we're asleep,

They're always up to something.

So as best we can,

What we do here is to notice what the mind is up to.

And try and bring an attitude of kindness and curiousness towards whatever's going on.

Noticing any wish to push something away or to dwell on something,

Replay something.

Whatever we notice.

Let's see if we can be gentle about it.

About the fact that we're human and this is difficult sometimes.

But as best we can,

We'll just acknowledge those thoughts.

Let's see if we can put them down.

We might have to try this many,

Many times.

Because sometimes if the mind is busy,

We'll get carried away with a worry or planning.

We might need to come back many times to what we're doing in the moment.

Every time you notice that your mind's wandered and you bring your attention back to the present moment,

That is the practice of mindfulness.

And to help us,

Any time we like,

We can tap into the breath,

Feeling the movement of the breath in the body.

Or we can tap into the physical sensations arising in the body.

Bring our attention back to focus on these,

Always available for us.

Always bringing us something of interest.

Just noticing what's happening in your mind.

Any planning,

Any memories,

Any thinking ahead,

Worries.

Whatever it is,

Observe it.

Observe it with that attitude of friendliness towards yourself.

Again,

Something that doesn't always come easily at first.

And that we can just try to practice the kind curiosity about what's happening right now.

If your thoughts get carried away,

You notice that you've become distracted.

Just observe where they took you to and what feelings arose in the body as your mind was off on that train of thought.

Perhaps you notice more tension somewhere in the body,

Or perhaps there's different feelings going on.

What's happened to the breath?

Just put those thoughts down,

Let them go.

Bring your awareness back to the breath,

Back to the physical sensations in the body.

Back to this present moment and this moment.

And remember that when we catch our minds wandering,

To be kind to ourselves about this,

Our minds will always wander.

It's our intention to notice when that's happening and just softly cultivate that awareness with kindness.

This is as much part of our practice as the observing.

Developing that sense of compassion towards ourselves,

To be a friend to ourselves when times are difficult.

So when you notice your mind wandering,

With great kindness bring your attention back just to observing what's going on in your mind,

In your emotions.

In your breath,

Your body.

Just being here.

Being here in this body,

With this mind.

Just noticing what that's like.

Perhaps you have to bring your mind back from your thoughts again and again,

Each time kinder than the last.

Feeling into the breath in the body.

Start feeling again into the body as a whole now.

Just a broad sense of awareness.

Every part of your body,

Living,

Feeling.

Notice the movement of the body under the influence of the breath.

What's the quality of that movement like?

Is it different than when we started the practice?

Feeling into the breath.

The physical sensations of where your body is in contact with the floor or the chair.

Where you can feel the air and the clothes you're wearing touching your skin.

Just feeling into all of those sensations.

For the moment,

I'll ring the bell to end the practice.

Thank you.

Reviews

Amazing! Are you the ACT auntie?? Haha. Thank you!

Excellent practice, a pearl on this platform. Thank you

Wonderful for a beginner right through to experienced meditators who need a gentle reminder on mindfulness. Thank you Amanda 🌟💖

I thoroughly enjoyed this meditation today...Namaste🙏🏽

A goddess sent meditation! Beautiful and mindful! Namaste!🌈

Loved it! Wish the pauses were longer so I could have more time to practice the self-kindness that you speak of. Thank you

Very soothing voice and good basic guidance. Thank you for the reminder of being kindly towards what I observe in my body and mind. 🙏🌟

Enjoyed the stillness I felt during this meditation. Thank you

I liked what was available here. I personally would have benefited from background music to help keep me in the listening mode and not drifting off into thoughts.
🙏🏽Namaste