Welcome to this calm your mind,
Open your heart meditation.
I'm Victoria,
And today we'll do a Caribbean sound meditation.
We'll start by just settling in,
Finding a comfortable place to sit,
Having a tall straight back,
Allowing your shoulders to drop away from your ears and down your back,
Letting your hands rest gently on your lap or on your legs,
Finding a position of wakefulness but ease.
For our meditation,
We'll be focusing primarily on sounds.
There's lots of ambient sounds here from the sound of the wind that perhaps you hear being picked up as you hear my voice to many other sounds that we will take time to focus on.
We'll begin by just simply focusing on the breath.
So if you'd like,
You can place a hand on your abdomen or one on your chest.
As you breathe in,
Feel your body filling up with air.
As you breathe out,
Feel yourself releasing,
Breathing in,
Expanding your abdomen,
Breathing out,
Contracting,
Noticing the steady rise and fall of the breath.
Tuning in now to the sound of the ocean as the waves rise and fall,
Noticing sometimes they're loud,
Sometimes they're soft.
Coming back to the breath,
Allowing it to slow and deepen,
Noticing the wind chimes,
Just allowing your attention to stay on one sound,
Noticing how it comes,
It gets louder,
It changes in other ways,
And eventually it transforms and another sound catches your attention.
Perhaps notice the whistling of the wind.
Maybe you can hear the crickets chirping.
As you focus in on sounds,
You may find your attention drifts.
That's okay,
Just allow it to come back,
Hearing the sound of my voice.
Bring yourself back to the present moment.
Bring yourself to the sounds you hear now,
Noticing that they're different from the sounds a moment ago,
And that they're different from the sounds you'll hear in another moment.
Like all of life,
Sound is impermanent.
It's always changing.
So we'll sit quietly for a few moments,
Just observing sounds,
Taking them in,
Perhaps visualizing yourself sitting in the Caribbean.
But doing so without judgment,
Listening to the sounds without like or dislike,
Just simply observing with openness and curiosity.
If your mind has wandered,
Bring it softly back without judgment,
Recognizing that our minds are meant to wander.
They're not meant to remain on mundane things like the breath and sound.
And that part of our mindfulness practice is training ourselves to bring our mind back over and over again,
Recognizing that we'll never be perfect.
And that mindfulness is a practice.
It's the gift of being here in this moment,
Being able to leave thoughts behind to really experience life.
So tune in now to the sounds you hear,
Perhaps expanding to the sounds around you.
Maybe cars passing by,
Voices,
Animals,
An airplane,
The hum of electricity,
Flowing water,
Just letting yourself be aware without judgment of any sounds.
Just letting them come up,
Giving them your attention and letting them go.
At any time,
You can always come back and anchor your attention on the breath.
Bringing your attention back to the sounds around you.
Recognizing that this present moment is a wonderful moment.
Tuning in on the wind chimes you hear.
Tuning into the insects you might hear.
Tuning in to the crashing waves far in the distance.
Tuning into your body,
Noticing any strong sensations that might have arisen.
Tuning into your emotional body,
Recognizing how you're feeling in this moment.
Seeing if you can feel gratitude in your body for the opportunity to just be here now.
We'll finish our sound meditation with the sound of an Aum.
Aum.
Have a wonderful day.
