Dropping Into Awareness

In this guided mindfulness practice, we use visualization and the felt sense to help with letting go of worries and anticipations, cultivate the state of loving presence, and explore pure and open awareness.

Transcript

I'm just gonna invite you to find a position for your body that feels comfortable and still alert that you have your spine straight but not rigid,

That you can still relax in this uprightness of your spine.

Your feet can be on the ground or cross-legged if you're on a cushion.

You can also lie down if you want.

And I invite you to close your eyes.

And as you close your eyes,

Start connecting with your body in this moment,

All the sensations that you might feel throughout the body.

Noticing the breath flowing in and out of the body just naturally.

Noticing that there is no effort for the breath to happen.

It's just happening.

And just taking your time to feel the breath fully traveling through the body.

Noticing how the breath is always present,

Always effortless,

And always flowing,

Always in movement.

And inviting the breath to fully come into the body to find the space inside the body.

Inviting the breath to be complete,

To be full and lengthy.

And just checking in right at this moment.

What are the things that you're bringing to this moment?

Maybe you're bringing some tiredness in the body,

And maybe you're bringing just joy,

Or maybe you're bringing some tension.

There's no right or wrong.

It's just a checking in to see whatever it is that you're bringing.

Noticing also what your mind is bringing to this present moment.

Maybe planning of the things that you might need to do,

Or thinking about what you did that you also think should have done differently,

Or whatever it is that your mind is bringing to this moment,

Acknowledging and making space for that too.

And I want to invite you to visualize yourself,

This body,

This mind,

In a space.

And it can be whatever space that you feel like visualizing yourself in.

It can be even a blank space,

A white,

Nothing else but yourself.

And when you have this visual of yourself in a space,

I invite you to feel like you're having on your hands two luggages,

One on each side,

And you're carrying them.

And I want you to put inside each luggage all the things that you're bringing from your past on the right,

All the stories,

All the grief,

All that you can think of that you tend to carry from your past.

And feel that luggage on the right hand with all of those stories.

And feel the weight of that luggage pulling you down.

But keep carrying that.

Keep holding on to that.

And on your left hand,

In the luggage that's there,

I invite you to put everything there that you think about your future,

All the worries,

All the fears of how things are going to play out,

All the playing with scenarios,

All the doubts about how things are going to go.

And feel that luggage on your left arm with everything about the future.

And feel the heaviness of that also pulling you down.

And keep holding on to that luggage.

And I invite you to fully feel all these three dimensions at one time,

Your body,

Your mind at this moment,

In the present moment,

Carrying on the right side the best and on the left side the future.

And feeling the weight of all of these on you.

And try to walk,

Try to move around,

Carrying those weights,

Carrying those luggages on your hand.

Visualize yourself walking with those heavy weights pulling you down.

And I suggest to you that whatever thought that comes to you right at this moment when you're doing this exercise that you identify,

Is this from the past?

Is this from the future?

Or is this something happening right now?

And wherever it is,

I want you to place that either on your right hand,

The luggage there,

On your left,

Or on this present moment of your body holding on to those luggages.

And I want you to fully empty yourself of those things and just put them in the visualization of the right hand luggage,

The left hand luggage,

Or the body-mind that you see carrying those.

And I want you to feel the cost-benefit of holding on to the luggage on your right hand to your best.

I want you to feel the weight pulling you down.

And I want you to investigate with yourself,

Is it worthy right now at this moment to hold on to this luggage?

And I want you to fully experiment.

You can drop the right luggage down on the floor,

Release the handle,

And feel,

Feel the sensations of dropping that right hand luggage of your past.

Don't worry,

You can pick it up again if you want.

I just want you to experiment with that.

And try to walk again without carrying that luggage.

Just leave that luggage where you were and give a few steps ahead wherever you're at in your visualization.

How does it feel?

Maybe you might feel an imbalance with that left hand luggage.

And so I invite you to also assess,

Does it serve me to keep carrying on to these worries about my future or about the future of everything?

Does it help,

Does it serve me in this moment?

And again,

Doing the experiment of just dropping that on the floor,

Letting go,

Releasing from your hand,

And just feeling your body,

Feeling everything that is present,

If you're not carrying that luggage either.

And also walking a few steps and just leaving that luggage there.

Again,

You can pick it up when we're done with the exercise.

But just for now,

Try it out and see how it feels.

Notice how the body feels,

How the mind feels in the body when you don't have the luggages with you.

You're just walking freely from the past and the future in pure trust that all is okay,

All is well,

And that the future and the past are still going to be there for whenever you want to pick them up again.

Notice how easy or how difficult it is for the body to walk without those luggages,

How heavy or light you feel.

And as you're visualizing your body-mind in this place that you put yourself in,

Now without the luggages,

Just walking,

Just wandering around,

See what else comes in.

See what else is present right at this moment.

And it can be whatever it is that is present for you.

For me,

For example,

It feels like a little dance,

So I visualize my body dancing and celebrating.

And I can even bring this into the physical body that I sense if I want to.

I can bring in the felt sense of whatever is present right at this moment,

Identifying in my body the felt sense of being present right here and right now.

Noticing where your creativity that is innate when you're present,

Where this creativity takes you without the luggages of past and future.

Always coming back to the felt sense in the body right here and right now.

And maybe taking one step further in this practice,

In this exercise,

And noticing that whatever is coming to you right at this moment,

The visualization of your body-mind and even the felt sense of your body-mind is observed,

Is perceived,

Is being aware.

Right here,

Right now,

This very present moment,

Whatever appears in awareness is an object in awareness,

Even the body-mind.

And notice that you are aware.

You are awareness of everything that is present,

Including the body-mind.

And see if you can let go of carrying the visualization,

The idea of this object,

Body-mind,

As you.

And simply be aware of this object.

Noticing that whatever thought is also an object in awareness.

And see how restful you can become in this place of awareness,

Where everything is an object and everything without exception is included.

All objects in your awareness are simply that.

And picking them up and carrying them is a choice.

And dropping them down when you notice that without awareness,

Without consciousness,

You ended up picking them up again is also a choice.

So at each moment,

You can notice this vast space that is awareness,

This vast field of consciousness where everything happens,

Where all senses are felt.

And each moment,

You can also choose to either drop or pick it up.

The objects that come into awareness,

That come into this field of consciousness.

Remembering that there's no right or wrong.

But there is a state that also can be felt in awareness,

Can be recognized in awareness when you pick it up or when you drop it off.

And I invite you to,

As we close this exercise,

This experiment,

That you again feel the body from inside,

Feel the sensations,

Maybe the soles of your feet connecting with the ground and the feeling that you might have on your skin.

You don't ever need to lose this sense of that this is also an object in awareness.

You can fully embody your body and still notice it's always an object in awareness.

And connecting again with the breath,

Noticing the flow,

The movement of the breath,

How effortless it is to be breathed.

The sound of the bell.

The sound of the bell.

Reviews

Gratidão, Jô!
(Queria que você gravasse em português pra eu poder te apresentar pra umas clientes minhas 😉)
Beijos.