Hearing Space Meditation

This meditation can be especially helpful when you are feeling stressed and want to check in and calm your nervous system. The instructions use the sense of hearing rather than breathing sensations to anchor and redirect attention. It is a similar format to the "3-minute breathing space" meditation from Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy with an alternative focus on hearing for those who find attention on breathing more stressful. To increase the power of this meditation, try practicing it at least once a day for a week at a more neutral time to help familiarize yourself with the steps! I hope this alternate format serves you well!

Transcript

This is a three-minute hearing space meditation that you can use to pause and check in when something has thrown you off or overwhelming your mind.

And the first step is just simply beginning with taking a specific intentional posture and upright but relaxed posture.

And just beginning with becoming aware of what's happening in your experience right now.

Just asking yourself,

What's happening in my experience right now?

And just noticing what you become aware of.

Noticing what thoughts are going through your mind in the form of images,

Events,

Words.

Noticing what feelings,

What emotions are here.

Whether they're pleasant or pleasant.

Sadness,

Anger,

Fear.

And what body sensations are you aware of right now?

Just taking a moment to scan through your body,

Head to toes,

And in particular noticing any sensations that have to do with tensing or bracing,

Holding in some way in the body.

And in the second step of this hearing space,

The invitation is to let go of this inquiry we've just been doing and redirecting your attention to simply hearing sounds as they arise from moment to moment.

Just simply noticing any sounds as they arise and they pass away from moment to moment.

Letting your ears simply receive sounds without having to figure out what the sound is.

Just hearing the raw experience sounds from moment to moment.

Noticing what sounds you're aware of right now.

And then in step three,

Beginning to expand your awareness so that you can still hear sounds.

And also including the sense of your body as a whole.

As you sit here,

Stand here,

Lie here,

Whatever position you're in.

Noticing your posture,

The sense of your facial expression.

Maybe noticing any sensations of discomfort or tension,

Bracing.

And maybe it's possible if there is some tension or bracing,

Unpleasant sensations,

Just simply acknowledging it's here.

And if it's possible to slightly even release some of that tension,

Release some of that holding.

And if your eyes have been closed,

Then you could take a moment right now,

Gently,

Slowly,

Taking a few moments just to open your eyes and orient back to the space that you're in.

Taking in the space visually.