Guided Mindfulness Meditation

This guided mindfulness meditation on breath, body, and sound is intended to bring the mind to a state of calm focus, creating the conditions for insight, compassion, and change. The instructions offer a sequence of mindfulness techniques from scanning the body to breath awareness to sound awareness.

Transcript

Letting go.

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Sending your continued messages.

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Nominating you.

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Goods.

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Blessings.

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So begin by setting aside any need to figure something out,

Plan,

Rehearse a conversation or a future event,

Set aside the need to replay an event from the past,

Set aside the need to evaluate or solve problems,

Set aside the need to judge your current experience as pleasant or unpleasant,

And see if you can just remain open to whatever is happening right now in the body,

In the mind,

In the immediate environment.

And to start also with an attitude of acceptance,

Accepting the current conditions just as they are.

We're not trying to do anything or change anything,

Simply accepting conditions just as they are in the mind,

Body,

In immediate environment.

And we're going to tune in to the current conditions in the body by first bringing our attention to the forehead area.

Simply bring your attention to the forehead and notice any sensations that might be occurring there right now.

So you might notice the feeling of cool air against the skin,

Or you might notice perspiration if the room is warm or if you're outside.

You might notice if there's a touch of your hair or hat against the forehead.

You might notice if the muscles of the forehead are tight.

And if you notice tension there in the forehead,

You can allow it to relax.

Not fighting against the current sensation,

But simply allowing.

Next we'll move down to the eyes,

Mentally tracing around the eyes,

Over the surface,

Over the eyelids,

Noticing if there's tension,

Warmth,

Pressure,

Pulsing.

Any physical sensation present around the eyes.

You might notice if the muscles around the eyes are tired.

You might notice if the eyelids are shut more tightly than necessary.

And to the extent possible,

You can allow them to relax.

Next we bring the attention down over the cheekbones,

Nose,

Sweeping over the face,

Mentally kind of scanning,

Just noticing what's there right now.

Feelings on the surface,

Sensations beneath the surface.

You don't have to be able to label them,

Just experience them.

Bring the attention down to the jaw,

Noticing if the jaw is tight,

If there is room to allow the jaw to relax and hang without tension.

This is a place people commonly store tension in the body is in the jaw.

Next bring the attention down to the shoulders,

Mentally tracing from the base of the neck out towards the edge of the shoulder,

Noticing sensations on the surface,

Like cool air or the touch of clothing,

Sensations beneath the surface like soreness,

Heat,

Pressure,

Whatever's there,

Not trying to create or change,

Just noticing.

But if you notice that,

For instance,

The shoulders are raised unnecessarily,

A common stress reaction,

One that some people have more often than not,

Shoulders raised,

If you notice that there's room for them to relax falling down toward the body,

You can allow that relaxation to happen.

Moving down next to the hands,

You'll first notice the point of contact between the hands,

If the hands are touching each other or if the hands are touching the legs or the arms of a chair,

Noticing that subtle pressure of contact,

Perhaps the heat or tingling,

Noticing any sensation of perspiration or coolness or warmth on the surface of the hands as you mentally trace over,

Then perhaps going internally,

The parts of the hand,

The palms,

The knuckles,

The fingertips,

Just examining,

Investigating,

Without judgment,

Noticing what's there.

From the hands,

We then move to the feet and similarly investigate the current sensations,

The points of contact with the floor,

The parts of the foot,

The heel,

The soles of the feet,

Toes,

Sweeping the attention through,

Noticing what you can,

Setting aside the need to judge.

Then anytime you notice the mind wandering,

Piecing itself with something more interesting,

You can simply notice that movement away from the present and without any sense of a problem or an error or struggling against yourself,

Just bringing the attention back into the feet,

Back into the body.

From there,

You can widen the attention and get a sense of the whole body sitting,

The weight of the body,

The structure,

All of the sensations arising in the feet,

Hands,

Shoulders,

And face.

And now we move more closely to awareness of the breath,

Noticing where in the body you feel breathing happening.

Where are the sensations of breathing most obvious and natural?

It might be right at the nostrils where the breath is entering the body.

It might be in the chest or in the lower belly where there's expansion on the in-breath,

A sense of filling up and the emptying out and contraction on the out-breath.

Or you might just feel breathing happening throughout the body,

The whole body,

The subtle movements throughout that occur during this ongoing process of breathing.

Investigate those areas,

The nostrils,

Chest,

Belly,

In whichever place is most comfortable.

Settle the attention there and see if you can say,

With the breath,

From the very beginning of the in-breath to the point of fullness being full of breath,

The very beginning of the out-breath as you begin to exhale,

And then reaching a point of emptiness where all of the breath has exited the body,

And then beginning again with the next breath,

As if it were an entirely new event,

The first time breathing.

And if the mind wanders away from the breath,

Try not to consider this a problem or a failure.

Just notice the movement of mind into the future,

Planning or worrying,

Or into the past,

Rehearsing,

Replaying,

Trying to figure something out.

Or perhaps the mind has moved into judgment about the present,

Boredom,

The need for more stimulation or distraction.

You might notice the difference between being lost in thought and then being aware of thought,

Kind of stepping outside of the thought to notice that you are thinking,

Planning,

Worrying,

Noticing this difference in perspective.

Without any sense of judgment or a problem,

Bring the mind back to the breathing,

Back to the sensations,

Starting with the next breath.

If it is difficult to keep track of the breath,

You can mentally count the breathing,

Adding a number to each exhale.

One.

Two.

Three.

Going up to ten,

And then counting back down.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

And if this helps you be focused to keep the mind with the breath,

Then use numbers.

Ten,

Nine,

Eight.

Ten.

Nine,

Nine,

Eight.

Three.

Each time the mind wanders,

We simply notice the movement.

Set aside the need to judge and bring the attention back to the breath,

Starting again.

Notice the qualities of breath,

Whether the breathing is shallow or deep.

Notice what happens when we empty out,

When we fill back up.

You might notice all the physical sensations on the surface,

Beneath the surface.

And perhaps there's sound.

If you're in a quiet environment,

You might hear the sound of your own breathing.

And we might then open up the possibility of taking sound into the meditation.

If you're wearing headphones,

You might want to remove one so you can hear the sounds that are close by.

Perhaps an air vent or a fan or birds or people talking in another room.

Not the need to fight against the sound or have things be different.

Noticing the sounds as they occur close by.

Perhaps those in the distance.

Cars or highway noise.

Wind,

Rain,

Whatever's present right now.

So we've shifted the focus of meditation to sound.

We can still feel the breathing,

We can still feel the body,

But we're bringing sound to the foreground of our attention.

I notice if there's a mental reaction,

Judging a sound as pleasant,

Wanted or unwanted,

Unpleasant,

Neutral.

I notice sounds that are constant,

Like an air vent.

Sounds that come and go,

Like a bird or voices,

Clock,

Chiming.

You might notice the absence of sound if the room is quiet.

Or the sound of the voice giving instructions.

Another noise in the room.

And if the mind has moved away from the immediate sounds into thinking,

Planning,

Or thinking or planning,

Rehearsing,

Seeking distraction,

Remembering,

Fantasizing.

Simply notice that movement of mind,

Notice that irritation or boredom.

Notice how that feels in the mind and maybe even in the body if you've become tense in the shoulders or hands or if there's fidgeting,

Nervous movement.

And not judging yourself for those movements,

Those habits.

But allowing the body to be as relaxed as possible and returning to the immediate sounds,

The distant sounds occurring right now.

For the last part of the meditation you can allow body sensations and breathing and sounds,

All of the current phenomena to be present.

To allow them all into your awareness,

Kind of opening up,

Zooming out to contain everything happening right now in terms of your own sensory information,

Sounds,

Sensation or discomfort or in the body,

The ongoing movement of breathing.

Feeling how it is to refrain from interfering,

Refrain from the need to produce something,

To use your time,

The need to be distracted or entertained.

Just noticing these basic tensions,

Seeing if it is possible to not need anything,

To be open and relaxed.

Okay.

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Reviews

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