Hi,
This is J.
G.
Larochette over here at Mindful Life Project.
Thanks for joining.
Today we're going to be focusing on skill two,
Mindful listening.
There are seven skills that we teach at Mindful Life Project.
How many skills?
That's right,
Seven.
And the second skill that we use in our practice is mindful listening.
Go ahead and repeat after me our little tagline on how to use mindful listening to be in the present moment.
Using mindful listening,
Sounds are all around.
I use my ears and my heart.
This moment is found.
So what we're using our mindful skills for is to get back in the here and now to be present.
If our mind has a lot of thoughts,
If there's a lot of emotions,
If our body's feeling some tension or looseness,
Whatever,
To use our mindful skills to get in our upstairs brain instead of being stuck and caught in our downstairs brain.
Mindful listening is just using sounds to get into the here and now.
Not judging sounds,
Not wanting sounds to be a certain way,
Not saying good sounds,
Bad sounds,
Just sounds.
And when we get distracted,
What do we do?
We use non-judgment because we can gently come back.
Mindfulness can never be done wrong.
Mindfulness can only be done where?
In the present moment.
So the moment we realize we're distracted,
The moment we realize we're not present,
Actually guess what?
We're present again.
So go ahead and repeat after me our mindful sit chant to get into a mindful position.
I've got my feet on the floor.
I've got my spine in the line.
I've got my hands in my lap.
My heart to the sky.
And then gently letting our eyes close if that feels comfortable or a soft gaze below is always available.
And we'll start our mindful listening practice by using the vibratone sound to stay with the sound as long as we can.
Or if we get distracted,
Just coming back to it.
Let's get going.
So just starting by noticing that your body is sitting down.
And notice those places you feel touch.
It's your feet maybe touching the floor.
Notice your sit bones in the chair.
And then wherever your hands are,
Notice how they feel.
What are they touching?
Are your hands facing down?
Are your hands facing up?
Are your fingers cold or warm?
Just notice.
And now we're going to use sounds from all around us to get back into the here and now.
One sound at a time.
Let's use our curiosity and focus on sounds.
So you might hear sounds that are in the room you're in.
You might hear sounds even further away outside of your room or outside of the building.
Cars in the distance,
The wind,
Maybe birds.
You can have fun using mindful listening because sounds are coming from different places,
Different spaces,
And different lengths.
So hear what sounds come to your right ear first,
Your left ear.
What sounds are coming from in front of you or behind you.
And if the mind has thoughts,
No judgment,
Come in the next sound.
If the body feels distracted and needs to move instead of judging it,
Just notice that,
See what it needs,
And then come back to the next sound.
Whatever emotions or thoughts come from the sounds,
You can just mental note it like you're giving yourself a little text message.
Maybe it's sound,
Sound,
Sound,
So we can name it to tame it.
Or maybe it's letting the sound be,
Letting the sound be.
Whatever we need to name it and then come back to letting the next sound grab our attention.
And for the last 15 seconds of mindful listening,
See if you notice what sounds are the smallest sounds around you,
The littlest,
And then the loudest.
And then we're gonna use the sound of the bell to stay in the here and now and we're gonna see how long can we stay with the sound,
Can we stay with it all the way,
Halfway or less,
Without judging.
And then whenever you're ready,
It's your practice.
You can wiggle toes,
Wiggle fingers,
Stretch your body,
Open your eyes.
And there you go,
You practice skill two,
Mindful listening.
See how you can use mindful listening in your everyday life.
When you're talking to friends and family,
When you're in school,
Listening to your teacher,
When you're out in nature,
Maybe sometimes when you get distracted,
You can use sounds to get back in the present moment.
Keep up the great work.
You're a mindful leader.
I'll see you next time.
