Awakening To The Sense Of The Body: Six-Minute Meditation

In this short meditation, we’ll focus our sense of awareness along the spine in four conscious breaths and then allow the sense of the body to arise in consciousness prior to any image of the body. By fostering a deeper awareness of the sense of the body as a presence in the space of consciousness, we can deepen our commitment to awakening.

Throughout our day, we can consciously attune to the sense of our body as a way to bring ourselves back to the present moment.

Music by Piotr Witowski, image by Gerd Altmann, from Pixabay

Transcript

Welcome friends, Today let's center ourselves in conscious awareness and experience the sense of the body. First find your comfortable position, Upright but not tense, Erect and tall. Take a couple of comfortable breaths and allow your body to relax. Now, Intentionally, Take a deep slow breath in and hold, And as you release, Allow your sense of awareness to pool beneath the crown of the head and rest. Another deep slow breath in and hold, And as you release, Allow that sense of awareness to pool down the center of the brain and brainstem to the top of the back of the neck and rest. Another deep slow breath in and hold, And as you release, Allow your awareness to pool down the spine to the area behind the heart and rest. Another deep slow breath in and hold, And as you release, Allow your awareness to move down the spine to pool in the tailbone and rest. Take another four breaths on your own, Holding at the top, And as you release, Allowing your awareness to center beneath the crown of the head and then down the spine incrementally to pool in the tailbone. Take about a minute. Welcome back. Now, From this center position, Let's explore the sense of the body as it arises into conscious awareness. With our eyes gently closed, We sense our bodies in the space of consciousness. Take a deep breath, Hold, And as you release, Allow into the spaciousness of your awareness a sense of your arms and torso. You'll notice that the sensation is of an energy field roughly in the shape of your arms and torso and located spatially relative to the center of your awareness. That is, Your arms and torso are slightly below, But you'll also notice that almost immediately in the thinking mind arises a visual image of your arms and torso. We see our arms and torso in our mind's eye, But these two experiences are not the same. Take another deep breath, Hold, And on the release, Allow your awareness to give rise to the sense of your legs. Did you notice how quickly the mind created an image of your legs, But just a moment after the sense of your legs in the space of consciousness? Many traditions teach that the conscious awareness of the body is a pathway to enlightenment. In a way, By sensing the body as a field of energy and consciousness separate from the visual image that arises in our minds, We enter the present moment most fully. Throughout our day, We can practice being consciously aware of the sensation of bodily experience prior to thought and thus step out of the busy thinking mind. We can, For brief moments at least, Be awake. Let's take a few moments, Breathing deeply and slowly, And experience this. Allow your awareness to sense different areas of your body and see those areas as feeling only, As a sense of an energy field, A life field, A field of force. Simply that. As the thinking mind offers up visual images of the body, Allow them to pass. Simply be with a sense of the body as existing as a field of energy in the spaciousness of conscious awareness. Take a few moments. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you have a beautiful day.