The following is a recorded mindfulness meditation with an emphasis on silence and connecting to silence.
So take a moment to find your comfortable upright seat or some alternate position,
Could be lying down or standing up.
And then once you're there,
Allow your eyes to either close or just gaze softly at the floor in front of you.
Start to tune your attention onto your breath.
Notice it in your chest,
This gentle rising and falling.
Notice rocking up and down.
This pattern of breath is very simple.
It's just an inhale and an exhale over and over.
Notice that simple repetition.
It's possible that as you're noticing this very simple repetition,
Your mind and your body will react against it.
You might notice your mind getting very distractible.
It's popping in and grabbing your attention away from your breath.
Really important plans,
Memories.
That's okay,
That's normal.
Just gently shift your attention back onto the simple rhythm.
Popping in and breathing out.
Filling up and emptying.
In and out.
And you might notice that your body also reacts by getting fidgety,
Tingly.
You might notice some spasms rise up.
Again,
That's normal.
Splatters of paint on a canvas.
Just gently draw your attention back onto this very simple pattern of breathing.
You might notice it best in your nose.
The breath in through your nostrils and the breath out.
Or you might notice it best in your belly,
That kind of ballooning out of the belly.
Gently ballooning out and releasing.
Again,
However your mind gets distracted or adds extra data in,
That's normal.
The practice is just bringing your attention back to this simple breath.
If you've noticed your shoulders clench,
Try to soften your shoulders and the muscles of your face.
See if you can soften them.
No need for any expression.
And then bring your attention to the end of the exhale,
The very bottom of the breath out.
That feeling of emptiness before the inhale fills you back up.
You don't have to try super hard to notice the emptiness.
Just remind yourself that it's there.
There's a point at which you are empty of that breath.
And then start to notice the space around your body,
The openness.
It's open such that you can breathe.
You can take deep breaths.
It's open such that if you needed to move,
You could move.
You're not bound.
There's a freedom,
A flexibility in the openness around you.
And you might notice the sounds moving through the space around you,
Puncturing the spaciousness.
And now we'll bring our attention specifically on to silence.
Silence as this simple,
Empty space.
Noticing it as simple.
There's silence all around you,
And there's silence within you.
There's only one kind of silence.
It's not varied.
You might see if you can tune into the silence within you,
The space between the breaths,
The silence under your skin,
This very simple silence.
And then you might take a moment to notice the quality of emptiness in silence,
The lack of,
The absence of sound.
There's silence all around you,
Even when sound is present.
And we'll permeate the silence and then dissipate back into the vastness of silence.
There's some easefulness in the emptiness.
In silence,
There's nothing to figure out.
There's an ability to just rest,
And naturally your mind will resist this.
Your mind will fill the silence with thoughts and plans,
Memories.
That's normal.
Just tuning your attention back to the emptiness,
The absence of figuring things out,
Nothing to do.
And lastly,
You'll notice the openness of silence,
The vastness of it,
The potential for something new,
Almost like you're zooming out.
See if you can zoom all the way out.
Silence is so vast,
So big,
All the while noticing your breath,
Noticing your breath.
Take a few moments just to notice your breath here,
This gentle rhythm.
If your mind is filling the space back up,
The silence back up,
That's normal.
Even just acknowledging that the silence is there,
That's enough.
And start to bring your attention back to the room,
Back to your position on the chair,
The ground,
The heaviness of your body,
And the uprightness of your spine,
And even take a few deep breaths.
And then as you're ready,
Start to blink open your eyes,
Noticing the room around you,
Both the space and the edges,
The boundaries of the space that you're in,
And then a final moment of noticing your body,
Noticing the impact of silence,
And take a moment to thank yourself for doing it.
This practice is always a big deal,
And I look forward to having you back here soon.
