This is a sitting meditation that will last for 20 minutes.
So finding a place where you can be undisturbed and sitting yourself on a cushion or a stool on the floor or on a straight back chair.
If possible,
Allowing the spine to be upright and unsupported.
If you're sat on a chair,
Allowing the back to be away from the back of the chair if possible.
Allowing the spine to be upright and tall and the shoulders relaxed,
Softening away from your ears.
The crown of the head gently reaching upwards.
As best you can,
Adopting a posture which embodies a sense of alertness,
Awakeness and being present with each moment as it unfolds.
So taking a moment to get yourself comfortable and bringing your awareness to all the points where your body is making contact with whatever's supporting you.
Your buttocks on chair or cushion,
Legs or feet on the floor.
Feeling into these points of contact.
Any tingling or pressure.
And now moving your awareness to where your breath is moving in your body.
Perhaps noticing the breath moving in your belly.
Feeling the gentle expansion and contraction of the abdomen wall as you breathe in and out.
Perhaps noticing the movement of the breath at the chest.
Rise and fall here perhaps.
Noticing the breath as it passes the back of your throat.
Or at the nostrils where the breath comes in and out.
And now choosing wherever you feel the breath strongest in your body and resting your awareness in this place.
Knowing that sometimes the breath sensations might be very subtle,
Difficult to detect.
Knowing that this is okay.
Not trying to make the sensations happen but just being aware of whatever's here for you even if that is very little or nothing at all.
Working with whatever's here for you.
And at some point your mind may take you away to thinking,
Planning,
Daydreams,
Fantasies,
Whatever.
Knowing that this isn't a mistake.
The task is always simply the same to acknowledge where your mind has wandered to and then gently bringing your awareness back to the sensations of the breath in the body.
Feeling these sensations rather than thinking about them.
Noticing and following the breath as it comes all the way in and as it goes all the way out.
Perhaps noticing the pauses between the breaths.
Allowing the breath to breathe at its own natural rhythm as best you can,
Not trying to change it in any way.
Allowing it to naturally flow in and out of the body.
Watching it,
Feeling it as it flows.
At some point strong sensations from somewhere else in the body may pull away your attention from the breath.
Perhaps in the knees or the back or shoulders.
And if you experience some intensity in the body and you have a choice about what to do,
You could decide to move and adjust your posture.
This helps to ease that intensity.
Or you can try exploring the sensations of intensity with your awareness very gently and kindly.
Noticing exactly where these intense sensations are.
Do they have an edge?
Do they move or change?
You could try using your breath to help explore the sensations.
Imagining that you could breathe into them on the inhale and breathe out of them on the exhale.
As best you can,
Allowing these sensations to be as they are.
Whenever intense sensations stop pulling for your awareness,
You can choose to come back to feeling the breath.
Whichever part of the body you've chosen to rest your awareness in.
Wherever you feel the breath strongest right now.
Using the next patch of silence to do this work on your own.
And again,
Noticing where your mind has wandered to.
Bringing it gently back again and again.
Perhaps checking in with your posture from time to time to see if it is as you intended it to be.
Now,
Expanding your awareness around the breath to take in the body as a whole.
Feeling into the family of sensations which makes up your body right now.
Noticing any and all sensation.
Perhaps feeling where body is meeting floor.
Where your hands are resting in your lap or on your thighs or knees.
Noticing the weight of them.
Noticing any tingling,
Pulsation.
Noticing the space that your body takes up.
And the space around the body.
Noticing the boundary of your body,
The skin.
Perhaps noticing the feeling of the air on your skin or clothes.
Knowing that whenever your mind has wandered and you notice that it is wandered,
This is all part of the meditation.
As soon as you realise the mind has wandered off,
You might congratulate yourself because you've woken up to know it.
Maybe gently noting wherever the mind was,
Thinking,
Planning.
And then again,
Gently escorting the mind back to where you're focused on,
The body as a whole.
Including where you feel the body moving as you breathe within the spectrum of sensation.
Perhaps a sense of the whole body breathing in and out.
Knowing that if intensity arises from the body,
We have the choice to either move,
Adjust or explore it with curiosity and kindness.
Breathing into it as best you can,
Rather than thinking about it.
Letting go of the thoughts gently and coming back right up into the sensation.
Exploring it.
When you're ready,
Expanding awareness back into the whole body,
Breathing.
And now bringing your awareness to sounds.
Opening up your awareness to sense the sounds coming to your ears,
To your body.
Sounds in the distance,
Sounds close,
Perhaps even inside your body.
Opening up your awareness to any and all sounds.
Not hunting out for the sounds,
But allowing them to come to you as if your body were a microphone.
Perhaps noticing any judgement of the sounds,
Whether you like them or don't like them.
As best you can,
Being aware of such judgements and gently letting them go,
Coming back to the direct sense of the sounds themselves.
Their pitch,
Loudness,
Rhythm.
Just noticing when the sounds come into your awareness,
When they leave.
Just as with the breath and the body as a whole,
Whenever you notice your mind's wandered off knowing it's not a mistake,
But returning your awareness gently to sounds again and again.
The direct sense of sounds.
Allowing the sounds to be as they are.
Now,
Returning your awareness to where your body is touching the floor.
Or touching the chair or cushion.
And sensing the movement and rhythm of your breath and your body.
And as we bring this practice to a close,
Remembering that these sensations of our body and breath and the sounds around us are always here as anchors to bring us back to right here,
Right now,
Into the present moment,
Whenever we need them.
