So,
Taking a moment to just find a comfortable seat if you're able to.
You could even do this lying down if you thought you could stay awake.
Feeling your feet on the floor,
Your bottom resting in the chair.
Here the spine is long and tall.
But still there's a softness to it so that the spine doesn't become too rigid.
And just begin to notice your breath,
Noticing the sensations of your breath.
So as you just begin to notice the breath rise and fall.
Gathering your awareness here to focus on the breathing just as it is with no need to change it at all.
Ooters soccer frommia and the And then widening the awareness here to include both the body and the breath.
So noticing here the body and the breath together just however it is within this moment.
You might notice certain aspects of the body kind of calling your attention more than others.
For now just noticing the breath and perhaps where you feel the breath most in the body.
And if you notice that your attention continues to be pulled away,
Maybe it moves towards a painful thought or an emotion.
Go ahead and explore that a little bit.
It will be a little bit different from what we've been practicing up until now.
So before we were focusing on bringing the awareness back from a thought or an emotion back to maybe the breath.
However,
Here the intention will be to allow the thought or feeling to remain in the mind.
Or maybe remain at a feeling.
And then perhaps even shifting the attention to the body,
Noticing with awareness any physical sensation that's in the body that comes along with the thought or emotion.
And so if you do identify a sensation that maybe evokes a little discomfort,
Deliberately move the focus of attention to that part of the body where these sensations are the strongest.
Perhaps here you can imagine that you can breathe into this area of the body on the in-breath and breathe out from it on the out-breath just as we do in the body scan.
Remembering that there's no need to change the sensation or to make it go away.
The intention here is to explore it,
To be curious of it,
And to see it clearly.
If there are no difficulties or concerns that kind of come up for you right now and you'd like to explore this new approach,
Then if you choose you might deliberately bring to mind a difficulty,
Maybe something that's going on in your life.
Something that you don't mind staying with for a short while,
So on the scale from 1 to 10,
With 10 being like the most difficult thing ever,
Maybe pick something around a 3.
It doesn't even have to be very important or critical at all.
Just something that you're aware of that's a bit unpleasant.
Maybe something that's unresolved.
It could be a misunderstanding,
An argument.
It could be a situation where you feel somewhat angry or regretful or guilty over something that happened.
And if there is nothing currently,
You can always pull in a memory from the past.
And so once you've focused in on some kind of troubling thought or situation,
Some worry or intense feeling,
Just allow yourself to take a little bit of time to tune in to any kind of physical sensation in the body that accompanies this.
Perhaps there's a tightness somewhere.
Maybe there's a heaviness.
See if you're able to note this.
Approach the sensation,
Investigating what kind of feelings are arising in the body.
Just becoming mindful of those physical sensations and really deliberately focusing your attention on the region in the body where your sensations are the strongest.
And feeling so almost as if you are embracing or welcoming it.
You may even allow yourself to breathe into that part of the body on the in-breath.
And breathe out from that region on the out-breath.
Just simply exploring the sensations.
Maybe even watching their intensity shift up and down from one moment to the next.
And once your attention is settled in on the body's sensations,
Allowing them to be vividly present in your field of awareness,
Even if they're unpleasant.
Perhaps try deepening the attitude of acceptance and openness to whatever sensation you're experiencing by saying to yourself from time to time,
It is here now.
Whatever it is,
It's already here.
Let me open to it.
Softening and opening to the sensation.
Whatever sensation you become aware of.
Intentionally letting go of any tensing or bracing.
Maybe even saying to yourself with every out-breath,
Softening,
Allowing openness.
And then see if it's possible to stay with the awareness.
Exploring these body sensations and your relationship to them.
Just breathing with them.
Accepting them.
Letting them be.
Allowing them to be just as they are.
Remember that by saying it's already here or it's okay.
It's not really in a way of judging the original situation or saying that everything is fine.
But simply by helping your awareness right now to remain open to the sensations that are already present in the body.
Just breathing in and breathing out into the area that you notice that's experiencing discomfort.
And if it moves or changes,
Just follow that,
Being curious of that.
Maybe even saying to yourself,
It's okay not to want these feelings,
But they're already here.
Let me be open to them.
And when you notice that the body sensations are no longer pulling your attention to the same degree,
Just simply return all of your awareness to sitting with the breath in the body.
Using the breath again as your anchor.
And if a powerful body sensation begins to arise again,
You can feel free to try doing this exercise again with any body sensation you notice,
Even if there isn't a particular emotional charge.
Just simply being with the breath in the body.
Simply being with whatever arises in a state of friendliness to whatever is already here.
And then returning your awareness fully back to the breath,
Your body resting here in the chair.
Feet on the floor.
Noticing the parts of your body that touch the surface beneath you.
From here you can tuck your chin down towards your chest and blink your eyes open.
And lift the head up.
Welcome back.
