Sitting Meditation (MBSR) 40 Minutes

This meditation is a 40 minutes guided sitting practice with guidance inspired by MBSR / MBCT materials. It takes you through the modalities of breath, sensation, sound, thoughts and emotions. At almost 40 minutes it is quite long so more suitable for experienced meditators.

Transcript

For this meditation I'm going to have a background timer on so every five minutes the timer gives a little ring.

We'll start just by getting a nice posture sitting on our seats.

So feeling into our feet on the floor,

Feeling into the sit bones on the chair,

And if we can having a nice straight back on supported by the chair,

But if we need the support of the chair that's okay too,

And our head as if being pulled up by a thread through the crown,

And then gently tucking our chin down so there's no strain in the neck.

We start the meditation just sensing into the body,

The feet on the floor,

As best we can,

Really just noticing the sensations where the feet are touching the sock or the floor.

Almost differentiating between thinking about our feet and really the physical sensations.

Sometimes we might even need to just give a little movement of the feet to reassure ourselves that it is a physical sensation and not a cognitive experience that we're having.

Same as we move up along the body to the knees and the thighs sitting on the chair,

Giving a very slight movement of the torso to really just tune into the physical aspects of the sensations.

As we settle into the body,

We bring to mind an intention for this practice,

For this meditation.

It can be as simple as the intention to be present as best we can.

Or maybe there's a deeper intention of practicing a recognition that it's part of a personal plan to maybe take time to look after our own well-being.

And this setting of an intention for the development of our own well-being almost creates this container of why we're here,

Making sense of the time and the effort that we put into this.

For some people,

There can be a deeper intention,

Deeper meaning of why we sit in meditation,

Why we try and untangle the entanglement of our life.

In some small way,

Disentangle just a tiny bit of the complexity of ourselves,

And we bring our attention to the breath.

As best we can,

Just tuning into the inhale and the exhale.

Noticing this whole cycle of our breath,

The inhale,

The pause,

The exhale,

And the pause.

And as we sit with our awareness on the breath,

Perhaps noticing the quality of your breath right now.

Not trying to change it,

Just becoming aware.

Is my breath fast or slow?

Is it shallow or deep?

Is it smooth or rough?

This quality of our breath can be a really nice indicator of how we are.

We spend time in meditation noticing our breath and the quality of the breath.

Not so much for how we are right now,

But as a really useful tool in life.

During our day,

Just tuning in to this breath,

Becoming more familiar with it,

And using it as a thermometer of how we are.

By now,

Our minds will have wandered many times,

And that's okay.

When the mind wanders and we wake up to it,

Just becoming aware of where it went to.

Perhaps putting a label on it.

Planning.

Regret.

My to-do list.

Something I said.

Whatever it is,

Just noticing it,

Labeling it,

But then choosing,

Gently but firmly,

To come back to the breath.

And let go of the breath,

Think.

Move our awareness to sensations in the body.

We might start with sensations in the hands.

Just noticing the tips of our fingers and the tips of our thumbs.

What can we feel here right now?

Perhaps there's a little sensation or not.

Perhaps there's a tingling.

When we rest our attention here on the tips of the fingers and thumbs for a moment,

Noticing does it change?

Do the feelings,

Sensations get stronger or weaker?

Holding awareness there.

As best we can,

Bringing some curiosity and wonder to these sensations at the tips of our fingers and thumbs.

Where do the sensations come from?

Extending the awareness to all of the fingers and thumbs together.

How does that feel?

Then extending to include the palms of the hand and the back of the hands.

So we're resting awareness on the whole of both hands together.

How does that feel?

Perhaps for one short moment,

Noticing when our awareness is totally in our hands.

What's happened to the thinking mind?

That in itself is really almost a cognitive exercise.

So jumping back from that back to the sensations in the hand.

Resting our awareness in the hands.

Noticing the wandering mind,

Bringing it back to this awareness in the hands.

Maybe feeling a pulsing of the blood moving through the hands.

Maybe just feeling the clothing against the hands and letting go of sensation and bringing your awareness to sound.

Noticing sounds in the room,

Sounds nearby.

Noticing sounds further away.

Distant sounds of traffic,

Of dizziness.

Perhaps noticing sounds we dislike or sounds we like.

Noticing sounds of our breath even.

Some people we might notice even sounds in our own head if we have tinnitus or such things.

Notice how that changes or not.

Noticing how quick we are to label sounds.

Perhaps how comfortable we are with knowing and needing to know the sound.

How uncomfortable we are with not knowing.

Sometimes we might notice in different parts of these meditations we can be more distracted or more focused than in other parts.

Does sound help us to be aware and focused?

Or is sound a modality that we find difficult?

Just noticing a reaction to sitting and letting sounds approach the ears.

Of course if we find it uncomfortable we can just rest in our awareness on the breath.

The anchor being somewhere to come back to if things are a little bit challenging.

Then we let go of sound and start to bring our awareness to thoughts.

Noticing the thoughts arising in our mind and as best we can letting them pass by and go.

The analogy is often of the mind being like the clear blue sky and the thoughts being like the clouds passing by.

And just like sounds and sensations the thoughts come and they go.

And like the clouds they can go slow or they can go fast.

But inevitably they are passing by.

As best we can just noticing thoughts as they come and letting them go.

Waiting for the next one to arise.

This letting go is really just not feeding the thought and building it up to a narrative.

Sometimes thoughts can be really enticing or tempting.

It might be something very nice like a holiday.

Or it might be something unpleasurable,

Some anxious thoughts,

Some regret.

It's also quite compelling.

So learning just not to feed into that narrative.

Letting the thought be there.

Noticing it.

Maybe naming it.

Maybe saying that's a fantasy,

That's a plan,

That's a regret.

That's a hurt.

That's anger.

Whatever it is,

When we put the name on it,

Just let it be.

And wait for the next thought to come along.

And perhaps again,

We might need the help of our anchor here.

Thoughts are quite compelling.

We find it hard not to get pulled into that stream of consciousness.

Coming back to the anchor.

Gently bringing our awareness onto the breath.

Feeling into that breath.

Noticing all of its qualities.

And if we're settled,

We can come back and allow ourselves to observe the thoughts again.

And as we sit observing the thoughts,

Very often a thought does arise that we find it hard to resist and we're pulled into that narrative.

And when that happens,

Just notice the emotion that is alongside the thought.

And when we notice that emotion as best we can,

Feeling into where we're sensing it in the body.

If it's a little anxiety,

Where are we feeling it?

Where is the emotion leaving its signature?

Is there a little unsettling in the stomach?

If it's fear,

Is the heartbeat going faster or perhaps the palms becoming warmer?

Or if it's tension,

With planning or stress,

Is there a tightness of the shoulders?

Or if it's joy,

A really nice encounter that we've been drawn off to,

Is there a lightness in our heart?

Or if it's happiness,

Where do we feel that in the body?

So whatever the emotion that has come along with the thought,

As best we can feeling into its signature in the body.

And when we do feel into it,

Resting our attention there for a moment and observing what happens.

What happens when we hold our awareness?

This resting of our awareness on our emotions and noticing their signature on the body is also something that we can take out of the meditation and into life.

When we feel some emotion in conversation or in an exchange with somebody,

Just noticing where we feel it.

And then noticing what it's like to rest our awareness on that physical sensation.

Developing a curiosity of where,

When and where are these emotions arising in life?

And how in tune am I to them?

Letting go of emotions and just bringing our awareness to sitting for a moment in this choiceless awareness,

Allowing whatever arises to arise.

Noticing it,

Its sound,

Noticing it coming and going,

Its sensation,

Feeling it in the body and being aware of its transient passage.

Its thoughts,

As best we can,

Allowing them to come and to go.

As we've been sitting in meditation now for over 30 minutes,

We might find ourselves frustrated or bored or strained in some way.

And if that's the case,

Again,

Just noticing what those feelings are and where you're feeling them.

As best you can,

Putting a name on it.

I'm frustrated.

I'm feeling a tightness.

I'm feeling a tiredness.

This is hard,

But this is easy.

Whatever it is for you,

Just noticing if that arises.

The ability to name it and sit with it for a moment.

Just resting in silence.

Letting go of that choiceless awareness.

Really just concluding this meditation by,

Once again,

Just feeling into the body sitting here.

Coming back,

Just taking a moment to really feel into the body.

Feeling our feet on the floor,

Sit bones on the chair.

In a way,

Just noticing into how we are now after 35 minutes or so of meditation.

How's our mind right now?

How are the thoughts?

How does the body feel?

And how's your emotion right now?

And almost regardless of how we feel,

Giving ourselves some credit and some appreciation for having taken the time and the effort and,

In a way,

The diligence and discipline for spending time with yourself.

Spending 35 minutes or so doing this practice.

And the practice isn't meant to feel good or feel bad,

Feel pleasurable or displeasure.

It's just the ability to,

Developing this ability to be with whatever is here.

So the meditation isn't a good meditation if we're feeling light and enlightened or a bad meditation if we're feeling frustrated or hassled.

We're just developing our own capacity to be with whatever is here now.

So that in itself deserves some recognition and appreciation for yourself taking this time.