Open Awareness Meditation

Connect with your senses and become more aware and mindful through this guided meditation.

Transcript

Open awareness meditation.

This technique begins with focusing on the breath and expands the field of awareness to all elements of both the internal and external environment.

Let's begin.

Find a comfortable position either on a chair or on the ground with your hands very comfortably placed on your lap.

Your head,

Neck,

And spine should all be aligned as straight as possible.

Begin simply by paying attention to your breath breathing in through your nostrils and breathing out allowing for these first few breaths to simply help slow you down.

Throughout this practice and any other meditation practice thoughts will arise.

So during this practice try not to get angry,

Disappointed,

Frustrated when a thought occurs,

But rather view that as an opportunity.

An opportunity to practice a three-step process to bring your attention back to your breath.

Notice,

Shift,

Rewire.

The first step notice is simply noticing when your mind has wandered to a thought.

The second step,

Shift,

Involves bringing your awareness back to your breath specifically to the space underneath your nostrils right above your upper lip.

Doing so gently and then the third step rewire simply involves allowing for that behavior change to really settle and soak in.

Notice,

Shift,

Rewire.

Begin to notice every element of our external environment.

We'll explore every element by way of our five senses.

So on your next breath fully focus on your sense of hearing.

Bringing with this focus the intention to just accept everything,

Every sound you hear.

Noticing very subtle sounds like the sound of your breath.

Focusing also on obvious sounds.

All the while staying focused on the breath.

Shifting now to your sense of vision.

Noticing the very purposeful sense of darkness that's created through your eyelids being shut.

Shifting now away from your sense of sight to your sense of smell and taste together.

We notice these two senses together quite often.

Take a moment to notice what your sense of smell and taste experience in this moment.

And then shifting your attention fully to your sense of touch.

Noticing very obvious sense of touch points like your body against the earth or your sea.

Your feet against the ground.

But also noticing the very subtle sense of touch.

The touch of your breath.

Your goal in open awareness is to experience all five of these senses together.

Practice all five senses together.

Practice open awareness on your external environment.

And shifting now to your internal environment.

We'll begin with a body scan.

Bring your awareness to the top of your head.

And as you inhale,

Begin the body scan simply visually seeing the scan move down.

The top of your body all the way to your toes.

Not concluding things as good or bad.

Sensations as wanted or not wanted.

But really just noticing.

Taking note and observing.

Taking a moment now to notice another aspect of your internal environment.

Your thoughts.

Instead of shifting back to the breath as thoughts arise here,

We'll simply label them.

And then we'll begin to notice that the thoughts that are here will simply label them.

Labeling them in the most factual way possible.

For example,

If a thought related to a conversation you had a few days ago comes up,

Label the thought memory.

If something related to an event that has not yet occurred,

You might label it upcoming event.

Try not to label any of your thoughts with judgment,

But rather definition.

Beginning to practice acceptance of all thoughts.

Now,

Take a moment to combine these two skills of noticing the entire internal environment.

The body scan and the labeling of thoughts.

So as you scan your body,

Accepting any physical sensations occurring,

As well as accepting any thoughts that come up by simply labeling them through definition.

And when you're ready,

We'll spend just a few moments unguided to combine both awareness of our external environment and internal environment.

Requiring you to spread your focus through all your five senses and the body scan while labeling your thoughts as they arise.

Try not to be overwhelmed,

But instead just remembering acceptance is this session's intention.

Providing a very clear path for yourself to accept whatever arises.

Try this practice now.

When you're ready,

Bringing your attention back to your breath,

Begin to notice how you feel now.

Registering this sense of awareness and acceptance into your mind,

Into your memory.

Shifting now to simply express some appreciation and gratitude for yourself.

Your commitment to improving yourself is something worth being appreciative for.

When you've expressed gratitude for the technique,

Begin to take deeper,

More intentional breaths to awaken some muscles that may have relaxed.

Bringing just a little bit of movement into your fingers and toes.

Revisiting your intention one last time of acceptance.

As you gradually and very slowly open your eyes with a renewed sense of open awareness and acceptance for the rest of your day.

Thank you.

Reviews

This was much better at guiding you through open awareness than I expected given the short duration. If you're trying to get into meditating on this topic on a frequent basis, I think this is a great place to start

Wonderful but veeeery short. Will come again to this.

Simple and beautiful