Open Awareness Practice

In this practice, you have the opportunity to expand your attention to explore body sensations, sounds, thoughts, emotions and to open to all of these, to the full range of events inside and outside of you as they move and change. Noticing that they are like events or objects that come and go, passing through our field of awareness. We learn to observe whatever presents itself in the moment, being present with non-judgemental awareness to the totality of our experience, moment by moment.

Transcript

Welcome to the Open Awareness Meditation.

In this meditation,

You have the opportunity to expand your attention to explore body sensations,

Sounds,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

And when you're ready,

To open to all of these to the full range of events inside and outside of you as they move and change.

They are like events or objects that come and go,

Passing through our field of awareness.

Let's begin.

When you're ready and if it feels comfortable for you,

Close your eyes.

Sitting in an upright position,

On a cushion or chair,

With an attitude of confidence and stability.

Not leaning into anything or moving away from anything.

Simply being present with and open to what is happening now.

You're present without having to do anything or be anywhere.

Invite yourself to switch from doing to non-doing.

Start by sensing your base,

Your feet,

Legs,

And buttocks.

Your back is long and straight,

Yet relaxed.

Your neck is balancing effortlessly on top of your spine.

Allow your face,

Jaw,

And shoulders to relax.

Allowing your body to become still.

Your posture is open,

Alert,

And relaxed.

Sense your body and the space around it.

Learning to be aware and attentive to yourself and present and attentive with your surroundings,

The world around you.

And when you're ready,

Bringing your attention now to the sense of the body breathing.

The breath entering and leaving the body.

Bringing curiosity and freshness to this moment.

And noticing where you feel the sensation of breath most vividly now.

And centering your attention there.

You don't need to control your breath.

Trust that your body takes care of that on its own.

Body breathing in and out.

Following the wave of the breath from moment to moment,

From breath to breath.

Sensing its tempo,

Its personality in this moment.

Realizing that no matter how many times the attention leaves the breath,

The breath is a thousand times.

Awareness of that does arise and when you notice,

Smile.

Congratulate yourself because you're back in the moment,

In the here and now.

Everything that comes into your field of awareness is okay.

You notice a thought.

You see it.

You can even label it.

Thinking,

Thinking,

And let it go.

There's no need to chase it away.

Bringing the attention back kindly and decisively to this in and out breath without judgment.

Doing this as often and as necessary as your attention drifts.

This is part of the practice.

It's all about getting complete information and it's about being in your – Reminding yourself that you're not trying to achieve anything.

You accept what there is because this is what it is now,

Regardless of whether it is pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral.

And then you bring the attention back to the breath and anchor to be present in the moment,

Here and now,

Going deeper towards inner stillness and quiet through the breath.

And now,

When you're ready,

Expanding your attention beyond the breath to also include the entire body sitting,

Becoming aware of sensation in the body,

Perhaps sensation of contact with the chair or cushion,

Perhaps the touch of clothes on your body or how your hands feel in the moment.

Being present with any sensations with curiosity,

Care and attention as they arise.

And if you sense nothing,

Sensing nothing without judgment.

No need to do or to achieve anything,

But to be in the here and now and to sense your breath.

Noticing how sensations sometimes stay for just a short while or how other times they linger.

Noticing how they change in intensity,

Shift and pass away as new sensations arise,

Wrapping your whole body with attention.

Noticing how you label sensations,

Perhaps as pleasant.

Noticing how you are judging,

Notice that and choose to let the thoughts and judgments go and to bring your attention back to your body.

Noticing how you are judging,

Notice that and choose to let the thoughts and arguments go.

If sensations arise in the body that are very intense,

Unpleasant,

Making it difficult to focus on the body or the breath,

There are two ways to be with this.

You can choose to change your posture mindfully,

Sense your discomfort,

Sense the impulse to move,

Choose to move,

And move slowly,

Sensing all the changes you experience and feel the effect of it.

Or you may choose to direct attention right into the intensity of the sensation itself,

Going there,

Rather than trying to escape it or resist it,

Exploring it with a gentle curiosity and breathing into that place,

Sensing how it feels to offer it total attention without judging,

Just to explore it,

Researching what do I feel there,

Noticing nuances of sensation,

Perhaps thoughts and judgments,

Resistance,

You want it to stop or go away,

And as much as possible,

Stepping back to observe,

To open space and awareness,

Perhaps to allow and soften,

Noticing that sensations change,

That they become stronger,

Also soften or even disappear.

Okay?

Now,

Allowing your attention to shift from the breath and the body to the ears and the sense of hearing,

Not searching for sound,

Rather receiving sound from outside,

From within the room or from within your body,

Becoming particularly aware of hearing,

Noticing how the awareness receives sounds without effort.

We often experience sound as disruptive when we are meditating.

Now we use them as a subject of meditation and attention.

Noticing sounds near or far,

Hard or muffled,

Sharp or soft.

Noticing how the mind labels sounds,

Oh car,

Person,

Machine,

Bird.

Noticing how the mind has opinions about sounds,

Likes and dislikes certain sounds.

Noticing any desire to move away from some sounds or towards others.

No need to analyze them as much as possible,

Making space in which sounds can be experienced as they are.

Breathing from moment to moment.

Breathing from moment to moment.

Breathing from moment to moment.

Notice the silence between sound.

Sounds rise out of silence,

Stay a while,

Change perhaps,

And then disappear into silence.

Silence is ever-present.

Silence is the canvas on which sounds appear and disappear.

It is a space wherein sounds emerge and disappear.

Silence.

And when you are ready,

Allowing attention to expand this time to thinking.

Seeing thoughts not as a distraction,

But rather bring your awareness to the thinking process itself.

Let it take center stage at the moment,

Allowing breathing,

Physical sensations and sound to be in the background.

Rather than getting involved in the thoughts,

Where they come from,

What they mean,

See a thought as an observable event,

Letting them come and go,

As you sit in stillness,

Observing.

Silence.

Noticing how thoughts arise or linger and then dissolve.

So not getting lost in the content of thoughts.

Observing thoughts,

They may be about anything,

About sleep,

Obligations,

The past,

The future.

If you get caught up in the stream or current of thinking,

Coming back to observing thoughts as separate elements that come and go.

Just moving in an open and spacious mind.

Noticing,

Also,

That emotions arise in the body and mind.

Perhaps,

Irritation or restlessness,

Sadness,

Joy or fear.

Now you're bringing attention there to emotion,

To the mood state.

What is here for you right now?

Noticing where in the body certain emotions seem to live.

Noticing where in the body certain emotions seem to live.

Noticing,

Perhaps,

How we label emotions as pleasant or unpleasant,

Wanted or unwanted.

How there's a tendency to cling to emotion judged as pleasant and to struggle with others judged negatively like sadness or fear.

When the next thought or emotion arises,

Notice it,

Letting go of any thoughts or stories about them.

If at any time emotions or sensations become too uncomfortable,

Remember that you can always return to the breath.

Finding the safe harbor or home base there or somewhere else until you're ready to venture out again.

Starting now,

If you care to,

Into choiceless awareness.

Not choosing to bring your attention to anything in particular.

Simply sitting here in stillness,

Fully aware of whatever is presenting itself to you in each moment.

If sounds arise,

Allowing sound to be the center of attention.

If body sensations arise,

Letting that be the center of attention or thought or emotion.

At any moment the breath may come to the foreground and then perhaps sound might be the most prominent.

Simply dwelling with open awareness,

Attending to whatever arises,

Breath,

Physical sensation,

Sound,

Thoughts or emotions.

Photos.

Observing whatever presents itself to you in the moment.

Being spacious with whatever arises.

Breathing in stillness with whatever comes and goes.

Being present with it all.

Being here now.

Open to the totality of your experience.

Being fully human.

Hey girl,

This isALEE.

Hey girl,

This isALEE.

And as this meditation session comes to a close with the ringing of the bells,

Realizing that by practicing mindfulness,

You are intentionally deepening your ability to be fully present in your daily life.

And if it feels right,

Congratulating yourself for having taken time and energy to nourish and take care of for yourself.

Remembering that practicing in this way helps create access to a wider,

Deeper,

More open way of being in your life,

In which you can see more clearly and make more conscious choices for health,

Wellbeing and freedom.

DEETS 1.

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Reviews

Thank you for sharing this wonderful meditation 🙏

Interesting voice.

Thank you, this was actually VERY helpful for me while walking, mindfulness, staying in the present, focus. Thank you so much! I will definitely use this more.

Loved it. The perfect way to bring ease to my body and mind in this moment. Thank you

Definitely one of the better MBSR open awareness guided meditations. Thank you.

🙏🏻thank you. I felt so present and loved this meditation.

Whenever I need some grounding I come back to this meditation. One of my favourites.

I really appreciated the calm, methodical guidance. I look forward to both revisiting it and also remembering it during my own quiet practice . Thank you very much!🙏🏼

So well done, thoughtful and calm instructions, really good practice. Will come back to this one. Thank you 🙏🏼

This was perfect this morning. I have a 3 month old puppy, a mature dog, and a cat. At the beginning of the session, the dog was laying with me, as is his habit. The cat rambled in, started bullying the puppy. Growls from both. Then, like magic, they began to notice the peace setting in, and by five minutes, they had all settled around me. Nice and cozy. I had warmth and softness for body sensations, soft dog snores and cat purrs for sound, and total contentment for emotions. Definitely saving this for another day, with full expectation of something completely different! Thank you! Blessings of peace your way.

Lovely way to start the day 🙏🏻