Feel Out, In, Hear Out, In, See Out, In

This meditation brings sensory clarity by guiding us to attune to the body and distinguish between various sensations. Attention is brought to physiological sensations (feel out), and emotions (feel in). Then, we note sounds around us (hear out), and auditory thoughts (hear in). Finally, we explore visual perception (see out), and mental images (see in).

Transcript

Okay, So take a few deeper breaths as you get into a comfortable seated or lying down posture, If you won't fall asleep. Or finding a posture in which you can relax but also feel alert, Alert and awake. And then breathing in a way that helps your body to settle and that calls your attention in to the present moment. You might even imagine on your inhale you're breathing in and calling in all the different tendrils of your attention to here and now, To your body, This moment, This room, This space. And then on your exhale, Feel if you can soften, Relax your body a little bit and taking a few breaths like that. And now we're going to begin this sensory clarity meditation by feeling your body. So bringing your attention, Your awareness into the physical sensations in your body. Orienting to the sensations in your body and noticing what you notice when you pay attention to body sensations. And we'll begin with the category that emotions and young calls feel out, Feel out. Feel out are all the sensations in your body that are connected with kind of biological systems. So those are, So first you can start like the sensations of your breathing, So the respiratory system. So just for a moment just seeing it what you can feel related to breathing. And you can name to yourself, Feel out. This is one kind of feel out, One kind of biological, Physical sensation. Breathing. Okay, And then another category is the feeling of circulation. So feeling in your body, You might feel like your pulse, The blood pulsing. You might feel your heart beating. So just taking a few moments and notice if you can feel any sensations related to circulation, Pulse or beat. And then another category of sensations of feel out sensations in your body is digestion. So all the way to saliva in your mouth, Feeling of swallowing, Any sensations in your digestive system. So just notice any sensations that you can related to digestion. And then another category of feel out sensations in your body are the sensations related to gravity, Weight of your body. So you can feel the contact and pressure of your body with the chair, The floor. Just noticing your body, All the sensations related to gravity, Weight. And then the last category we'll explore for now is temperature. So temperature is a category of feel out sensations. You can notice sensations in your body that are where there's coolness or heat, Warmth. So feeling your body, All the places and ways you notice temperature, Heat and coolness. These are feel out also. And before we move on from feel out, Just again, Connecting with the sensations in your body, Feeling what's happening and noticing what are the sensations that you're feeling that are related just to kind of these biological processes of having a body name, Just feel out when you notice one. And then as you're feeling your body and just all the different sensations, The attention and awarenesses here in the body, You can notice if there's any sensations that might feel more connected to an emotional feeling. Sometimes you can become aware of these because they're these sensations that aren't about digestion or respiration or circulation or weight. So you might just find some sensations that you're like, Oh, It's not one of those. You might discover that it's connected to more like the nervous system, A vagal, Emotional mood sensation. It could be anything. It could be happiness, Joy, Anxiety. You might not know exactly what it is. You can just label any of these kinds of sensations as feel in. Emotional sensations, We label as feel in. And then just letting your attention rest with them and let them be. Just let them reveal themselves. Okay. This is feel out and feel in. I'm going to invite us to shift our attention to hear out and hear in. So hearing, Hear out, Just shifting your attention to hearing the sound, Turning your attention and awareness to the space around you and noticing, Just receiving the different changing sounds. If it's helpful, You can name to yourself, Hear out. And then we'll shift our attention to hear in, Hear in. So hear in our auditory or verbal thoughts in your mind. This is when we turn our attention into the inner space where we become aware of thinking. And we're particularly listening for, Paying attention to thoughts that you hear. So thoughts that come in kind of sounds or words. Any thoughts that are auditory or verbal. You might hear your own voice, You might hear the voice of someone else. Might be very quiet, Could be loud. Note to yourself, Hear in when you notice an auditory thought. And then final category is see out, See in. And so to explore this, I invite you just for a few moments to open your eyes, Letting yourself take in color, Light, Form, Texture. See, See out, See out. And then you can close your eyes and start to become aware of or pay attention to any visual thoughts, Scenes, Images, Could be bright or fuzzy or fast or slow, Wispy. And just noting to yourself, See in when you become aware of a visual thought, An image in your mind. And then for the last few minutes of this practice, I invite you to open the field, Open the domain of your awareness, Your attention. And then naming whatever is predominant. So, Name to yourself, Hear out, Hear in, Feel out, See in, Feel in, Hear out. Just like that, Just noting whichever category you become aware, Predominant experience. Let this open attention. And then you can let all of that go, All of the noting. Just noticing what this is like, What the impact is on your inner state. To practice in this way. And then when you're ready, You can open your eyes and stretch and go back outside.