Welcome.
Thank you for joining me today for practice.
It can be really easy to get caught up in whatever's going on throughout the course of the day.
There are always multiple things happening at the same time,
Being pulled in so many different directions,
And we move through a range of emotions throughout the day.
Some strong,
Some less strong,
Some we just try to block out.
And this practice is designed to really help us ground in the present moment,
Pause,
Shift our attention away from whatever it is that's getting to us,
Whatever we're spinning in,
Whether that's just too much or everything is too fast,
Or if we're experiencing a strong emotion or are stuck in an emotional response.
Whatever it is,
It can be so useful to just pause,
Take your mind,
Body out of whatever loop it's been in,
And just focus the attention elsewhere just for a few moments and give yourself a little bit of a reset.
So finding a comfortable position for the body,
Taking a couple of deeper,
More intentional breaths and using those breaths to signal to the body,
To the brain that it's safe to slow down,
That it's time to practice.
In starting this particular practice with the eyes open,
Start by noticing five things that we see.
I'm not being picky here.
Whatever comes to the attention first,
Notice something that you see,
Notice a quality about each one,
Maybe the shape,
Texture,
Color,
Location.
Noticing five things,
Taking in all the visual cues,
And allowing the gaze to slowly start to soften,
Allowing the vision to become a little blurry,
And not looking at anything in particular.
It feels natural maybe gently allowing the eyelids to close.
Having those eyes closed feels uncomfortable.
Instead keeping that blurry,
Unfocused gaze,
Reducing the visual input,
And letting that part of the brain settle down as we start to explore the other senses.
Allowing the attention to shift next to the sense of touch,
Noticing four different things we can touch wherever we are,
Noticing again a quality about each one,
Texture,
Temperature,
Softness or firmness.
Maybe noticing that feeling of something on the skin,
Whatever surface the body is touching.
Using four things,
What is it like to touch each one?
Noticing the attention to the sense of hearing,
Noticing sounds,
Allowing sound in the environment to come to the forefront of the attention.
Allowing the attention to rest on three different sounds.
Noticing if there's any judgment about the type of sounds that come to the attention.
Too loud,
Annoying,
Or if there's something pleasant,
Just noticing.
Shifting the attention now to the sense of smell,
Just seeing first maybe if there's an obvious smell and maybe taking a deeper breath in,
Seeing what's there.
We can maybe discern are there two separate smells,
Two different smells to notice.
Maybe noticing if there's a desire to smell something,
If there's nothing obvious.
Does it feel like there is seeking or striving for that smell?
Noticing any smells,
Any judgments that come with them.
Allowing the attention to shift once more to the sense of taste.
Seeing how the attention comes to the mouth as we say that.
Seeing if there's any obvious taste to notice,
Just one,
Maybe a shadow of coffee or tea.
A faint bit of toothpaste.
If there's nothing obvious,
Is there a sense of seeking,
Wanting there to be a taste there?
Allowing the breath to deepen a bit,
Taking more intentional inhales and exhales as we prepare to shift out of practice,
Allowing the eyes to open if they've been closed and the gaze to focus,
Bringing the visual field back into crispness.
Thank you for taking the time to pause and be present for yourself and to explore the senses together.
See you next time.
