Hi,
This is Colin from the Bell Center,
And today we're going to run through a little mindful meditation using sound as our point of focus.
So wherever you are listening to this meditation,
Maybe you have it on a speaker and you're in an environment where there's some sounds around,
Or perhaps you're listening on headphones and if that's the case,
Then feel free to use some of the sounds that you'll hear in the background of this recording as we go through the meditation.
But first,
Just a brief note on posture.
It's very important how your body is positioned while you're doing this meditation.
So I would highly recommend not laying down,
As this can make it very difficult to focus.
So making sure that you are preferably in a seated position,
And I won't be able to go too deep into how to find a nice seated position here,
But the important parts are you want to have a very stable base with your legs,
So crossing your legs in some way that's very stable,
And you're going to be able to hold this position for longer if your knees are below your hips.
So trying to get your knees below your hips,
Whatever way you can,
Maybe elevating your hips with a cushion or something,
And then most important thing,
A nice extended spine.
So feeling your spine nice and straight and extended without over-straightening it and causing pain,
And then from here,
Just allowing the rest of the body to relax.
Good.
So now that you've found a nice stable seat,
We're just going to begin with a very simple act of listening.
So once again,
There should be some sounds around you that you can hear,
And in these mindful meditations,
All we're doing is becoming the observer.
So in this case,
In this meditation,
We're going to be the observer of sounds.
We're going to allow our ears to do what they want to do naturally,
To listen,
Process sound,
Notice what's occurring in our environment around us,
Trying not to think too much as we do this,
But of course,
Accepting that thought is a completely natural thing to arise during this process of meditation.
So if we do find ourselves thinking,
If we notice that we're no longer paying attention to the sounds,
Just noticing that,
And then coming back to listening,
To hearing the sounds around you.
Now as you listen to these sounds,
You may notice that it's very natural for your brain to want to analyze and label these sounds.
For most of us,
It'll happen automatically.
That's the sound of a bird.
That's the sound of a car.
And this is totally fine.
This is the way that our brains are wired for a good reason,
But when we're meditating,
It can be really interesting to see if we can let those associations with the sounds,
Those labels kind of drop away.
So for the next couple of minutes,
As you continue to just allow the sounds to play with your eardrums,
See if you can detect those sounds as neutral.
Just let the sound come in,
Briefly become aware of it,
And then let it pass away.
No need to think here.
No need to do anything except be at peace and listen to the sounds.
Checking in with your mind.
Has it started to wander off?
If so,
This is very natural.
Try not to be frustrated.
Try to just notice it.
Bring the attention,
Bring the awareness back to the sounds.
Allowing the sounds to come in and allowing the sounds to come out of the awareness.
It doesn't matter where they're coming from,
Just letting it happen.
And as you're doing these sound meditations,
Another thing that you might notice,
Might be curious to watch is what's happening to your eyes behind closed lids.
Sometimes our eyes like to kind of move around and track the sounds in different places.
This can cause it to be a little bit harder to just listen to the sounds for what they are,
To allow all of the sounds into our awareness at once.
So I want you to try,
See if you can just fix your gaze,
Your eyes forward while the eyes are closed.
Try to keep the eyes relatively still and just listen.
Without needing to move the eyes,
Identify the location of the sound.
Eyes are looking forward.
Sounds are just naturally coming in,
Trying to minimize that reactivity to the sensation,
To the noise.
Just allow hearing to take place.
Very nice.
And then we're slowly going to come back into the room in which you're located.
And for the final minute of our practice,
We're going to practice a little bit of gratitude,
Which is really heavily linked to this idea of mindfulness,
Becoming mindful of different things in our life and how and why we appreciate them.
So today,
If you want to take your hands and place them together somewhere near the heart,
This can just kind of create a physical representation of gratitude,
Which is kind of nice if it feels comfortable.
And we're just going to take a few moments to appreciate ourselves,
Appreciate yourself for taking this 10 minutes to work on your mind,
To build a little bit of awareness and mindfulness that over time can do really beautiful things for you and everyone around you.
