Welcome to your Live Mindfully meditation,
Open Awareness.
This is a body,
Breath and sound practice where we will experiment with open awareness to support you to further deepen your formal meditation practice.
Use my voice as a guide and then use the longer stretches of silence to practice on your own.
I'll invite you now to get into a comfortable position,
Either sitting in a chair or on a cushion on the floor.
We can allow the back to become straight but not rigid and perhaps moving slightly away from any back support you may have.
You might like to tuck the chin slightly to lengthen the back of the neck and you could allow the shoulders to soften down.
Place your hands wherever they feel most comfortable,
Either on your lap or on your knees.
If you feel comfortable with it,
You might like to now softly close down the eyes or simply allow your gaze to rest unfocused on a spot in front of you.
I'll invite you now to let go of any expectations you may have about this exercise and to simply allow yourself to experience it.
Letting go of the idea of time and allowing yourself to rest in the timeless present,
Practicing being fully here,
Fully awake in this moment.
To settle yourself,
You might like to take three long deep breaths.
Let go of the deep breathing now and take a moment to sense into the body sitting here,
Feeling into the support of the chair or the cushion beneath you.
Noticing how the body is feeling in this moment and noticing specifically the spine.
Notice the way it becomes just a little bit taller with each inhalation and that there is a sense of settling down with each exhalation,
Sensing into the relationship between the spine and the breath.
We will spend the next little while attending to the body.
So bring all of your bare attention to the sensations you can feel in your feet,
Perhaps socks or shoes against your skin.
Feelings of warmth or cool in any specific part of the fate.
We're not thinking about the fate.
We're feeling the fate accessing the felt sense in the body.
If you notice any tension in the body during this practice,
Feel free to allow it to soften.
If however it can't soften,
Just allow it to ripple and resonate in the body and notice whether this awareness can inform you of what is going on in the body and in the mind.
So sensing into the feet,
Seeing if you can feel the toes,
The spaces between the toes.
Letting go of the fate now and sensing into the lower legs,
The strength of the calves and the sensitivity of the skin on the shins.
Moving now to the knees,
These complicated joints.
Exploring the knees,
Exploring the body from the inside out.
Feeling the thighs,
The felt sense of the thighs,
Noticing what is there.
Tightness,
Softness,
Coolness,
Warmth.
All the while noticing the activity of the mind and the tendency we all have to become consumed by our thoughts.
And remembering that in meditation we're not wanting to stop or control our thoughts.
We're simply changing the way we relate to our thoughts so we can learn that we're not our thoughts.
Supporting us to choose our response to live mindfully rather than automatically.
Letting go of the legs now and sensing into the pelvis,
Exploring this part of the body.
Letting go of the pelvis and sensing into the belly,
Really experiencing the rise and fall of the belly with the breath.
There's no need to fix or change anything.
Simply observing the sensations in the belly.
What do you notice there?
Is there a holding?
Is there any judgment for you around how this part of the body should be?
Just noticing what comes up as you attend to this part of the body.
And allowing the movement of the belly to be the anchor for your attention for a time.
Letting go of the legs now and sensing into the pelvis.
Letting go of the legs now and sensing into the belly.
Letting go of the pelvis.
Noticing now the subtle movement of the chest with the breath.
The soft and subtle expansion with each inhalation and the softening and sense of letting go with each exhalation.
Exploring this movement from the inside out.
Moving the attention now to the whole of the back.
Starting with the lower back.
Noticing any sense of holding in this part of the body.
The middle of the back.
The upper back.
If possible,
Allowing any holding to soften,
But if this is not possible,
Just allowing yourself to notice what's there.
Sensing in to this part of the body.
Noticing any sense of holding in this part of the body.
Tuning in now to the right arm and hand.
Noticing any sensations in the hand.
Preacher tingling pulsing.
The left arm and hand.
Noticing any sensations in the hand.
Tuning in now to the neck and the throat.
Noticing if there's any holding there.
And letting that go if possible.
Feeling the flow of the breath within the throat.
Allowing this sensation to be the most interesting thing in your world at the moment.
Letting go of the throat and sensing into the whole face.
The chin.
The jaw.
Softening the jaw.
The cheeks.
The nose.
The eyes.
The muscles around and behind the eyes.
The forehead.
Noticing any judgments about this part of the body.
Like,
Don't like,
Good,
Bad,
And letting them go.
Coming back to the felt sense of the body,
To what is here now.
Feeling into the whole face as if you were exploring it from the inside out.
Sensing in now to the top of the head,
To all of the tiny muscles around the scalp.
Letting go of the head now and sensing into the whole body.
The whole body sitting here.
Fully awake.
Fully alive.
Fully present.
Allowing your attention to feel the body.
Now,
Without changing or fixing anything.
Allowing the attention to come to the effortless flow of the breath.
We're not manipulating the breathing in any way.
We're simply being aware of it.
Almost allowing the breath to breathe you.
Letting go of the head.
Letting go of the head.
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Expansive.
Awake.
Letting go of the head.
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Letting go of the head.
So as this formal practice comes to an end,
I'll invite you to sense once again back into the body.
Allowing the attention to rest at the top of the head and then trickle down over the whole body like warm water until your attention is resting once again with the feet on the floor.
In a moment,
You'll hear the sound of the bell to complete the practice.
I'll invite you to keep your eyes closed until you can no longer hear the ringing.
And then you can slowly open your eyes and transition consciously back into your day where you can choose to live mindfully.
The sound of the bell.
You can also hear the sound of the bell.
