Mindfulness of sounds and thoughts.
Settle yourself into a chair with both feet firmly on the ground and your arms resting comfortably in your lap.
Spend a few moments letting go of any tension that you may be holding.
Allow your body to settle into a relaxed,
Upright,
Self-supporting position.
Confident and open,
Embodying your intention to practice mindfulness.
And starting off this exercise by focusing on the present moment sensations of breathing.
Tuning into the sensations as the breath comes in and the breath goes out.
Remembering there's no need to change your breathing in any way because how you're breathing right now is just fine.
Your body knows exactly how to breathe.
Focusing your full attention on the sensations of the breath coming in and the breath going out.
And if your mind wanders,
It's just what minds do.
Kindly and gently escort your attention back to where you'd like it to be.
Focusing on the present moment sensations of breathing.
Feeling the breath coming in and the breath going out.
Now shifting the focus of your attention to the sounds that surround you.
And now shifting the spotlight of your attention to the sounds that surround you.
They could be sounds within the room,
Sounds outside the room,
Sounds outside the building that you're sitting in.
And just see if it's possible to treat the sounds simply as sounds without attaching any additional meaning to them.
Or judging them,
Good or bad,
Or getting caught up in any emotions or thoughts that they generate.
And just observing the sounds as they take centre stage.
And then drift off into the wings and out of your conscious awareness.
So just allowing thoughts to come,
Go,
Remain constant.
Focusing your full attention on sounds.
Spending a few moments on observing the impact of the sounds on your body.
How do you respond to the sounds around you?
Do any particular sounds induce tension or sensations or tingling in your body?
They may,
They may not,
But just looking to see what you can notice.
Remembering there's no need to go searching for sounds or listening out for particular sounds.
Instead,
As best as you possibly can,
Just simply remain open.
So that you can be receptive to the awareness of sounds from all directions as they arise.
Close sounds,
Sounds further away.
Just opening yourself up to the sounds in the whole space that surrounds you.
Do any sounds dominate the stage?
Do they crowd out more subtle sounds?
Perhaps there are even spaces between sounds.
And if you do find that your mind has wandered,
Just congratulate yourself on having noticed that your mind has wandered.
And then kindly and gently bring it back to focusing on the sounds that surround you.
Seeing if it's possible to be aware of the sounds simply as sounds,
Perhaps like raw sensations.
Do you have a tendency perhaps to label sounds as soon as you receive them?
If you are labeling the sounds,
Just simply notice that you're labeling them.
You may find that you're thinking about the sounds.
If you are,
Just see if it's possible to reconnect with direct awareness to their sensory quality.
Perhaps their pitch,
Loudness,
Their duration,
Rather than their meanings or the implications or stories about them.
Allowing sounds to arise and pass away from moment to moment.
And now shifting the focus of your awareness away from sounds and back to your breath.
Feeling the breath coming in and the breath going out.
Now shifting the focus of your attention to your thoughts.
Just allowing your thoughts to take centre stage,
Seeing them as best you can of simply mental processes that come and go.
You may notice that thoughts,
Just like sounds,
May arrive randomly.
There's no need to control them,
Fix them or try to change them.
If you notice that the thoughts generate any feelings or sensations,
Tune into them for a moment,
Observe their impact and then see if it's possible to let them go.
Perhaps like passengers passing you by on a busy crowded bus or the credits scrolling at the end of a film.
If your thoughts become too scattered,
Simply return your focus back to your breath.
Inviting thoughts to take centre stage and come into your conscious awareness.
Just observing them as mental processes as they come and go without the need to engage with them further or react to them in any way.
You may notice perhaps a lack of thoughts and if this is the case,
That's fine.
Just register a lack of thoughts at this moment in time.
No rights,
No wrongs,
Just how things are in this moment.
You may notice thoughts arising in the mind,
Lingering in space,
A bit like clouds moving across the sky of the mind and eventually may detect the moment when they dissolve.
There's no need to spend any time trying to make the thoughts come or go.
Just sit with thoughts as they naturally arise or a lack of thoughts.
But just allowing them to come and go,
Observing them without getting involved in them.
And if your mind has wandered,
That's fine,
It's just what minds do.
Just bring your attention back to focusing once more on thoughts.
Entering,
Taking centre stage and then drifting off.
And remember that if any time you feel that your mind has become too unfocused or scattered or keeps on repeatingly getting drawn to a story about what you're thinking,
Just focus on the breath and the sense of the body as a whole and use this focus as an anchor to stabilise your awareness back to the present moment.
Now refocus your attention back to your breath.
Focusing on the present moment sensations of breathing,
Tuning into the sensations as the breath comes in and as the breath goes out.
And finally shift the focus of your attention back to your body.
Noticing how your feet feel in contact with the ground.
How your legs feel.
How your buttocks feel.
How your whole torso feels.
How your shoulders feel.
How your arms and hands feel.
How your neck feels.
And how your head feels.
And just ending this exercise by gaining a sense of how your whole body feels as you sit in this chair,
In this room,
At this moment in time.
Open your eyes,
Ready for the rest of the day ahead.
