Welcome to a 30 minute turning towards meditation.
Just settling into a comfortable seated position,
Either on a straight back chair or on a soft surface on the floor,
Allowing our spine to be self-supporting,
And if on the floor,
Just allowing the knees to touch the floor,
Experimenting with your position until you feel comfortably and firmly supported,
With an intention of cultivating equanimity by practicing an awareness of the whole of our experience,
Bringing our attention to the neutral,
Pleasant and unpleasant aspects of our moment-to-moment experience,
And embodying the attitudes of curiosity,
Openness,
Acceptance and kindness.
Starting with an awareness of breath and body,
We start by paying attention to what is actually happening in the present moment,
Perhaps just asking ourselves,
How do we feel?
What is our experience right now?
Not the thought of what is going on,
Or remembering past events,
But just opening up to any physical sensations already present.
And when it feels right,
Gently noticing the movement of the breath,
Just feeling the sensations as the breath rolls in and rolls out,
Allowing it to move through its cycle of in-breath and out-breath,
Without controlling it in any way.
Perhaps sensing the rise and fall of the tummy,
Or feeling the air in the nostrils or on the upper lip.
And if you care to,
Placing the hands on the tummy,
And just feeling the movement of the breath,
The rhythm,
And riding the waves of the breath from moment to moment.
And now moving awareness to the level of physical sensations in the body,
How the aliveness of the body is known through the senses,
Becoming aware of the sensations of touch,
Or pressure in the body where it makes contact with the floor,
And just exploring these sensations.
And when the attention wanders,
Which it likely will,
Just noticing and practicing coming back with care and kindness to the awareness of the body,
The breath,
And to the present moment experience.
With awareness comes choice.
Perhaps we might choose to stay with wherever our mind has wandered,
Or perhaps we choose to come back into the present moment,
Onto the physical sensations of the body,
Practicing being with the breath or the feet on the floor as our anchor,
Breathing down into the ground,
And without judging our experience as good or bad.
Exploring the moment-by-moment sensations with gentle curiosity,
Noticing nuances of sensation,
Perhaps thoughts and judgments,
Resistance or bracing,
And as much as possible,
Practicing stepping back to observe,
To open space in awareness.
Using the breath as a vehicle for kindness,
Breathing into the body,
Softening,
And letting go with the out-breath,
Noticing that sensations change,
That they,
Like the breath,
Have a beginning,
A middle,
And an end.
And now,
As best as we can,
We gently turn towards our experience,
Allowing whatever we may currently be finding to simply be there,
With a soft,
Gentle,
Kindly,
And non-judgmental attitude.
Just noticing if we can just lean towards what is there.
Can we practice allowing letting it in?
Practicing bringing our attention down from the head into the body.
What is our actual present moment experience?
And as best we can,
Allowing our experience to unfold breath-by-breath.
If there is nothing there,
Just being curious to the changing movement of our experience,
As we ride the waves of our breath,
Noticing any tendency to move away from or towards any sensations,
Thoughts,
Or emotions,
Or judgments that may arise.
Practicing remembering that this is simply how it is in this moment.
If we feel overwhelmed by any sensations,
Thoughts,
Or emotions,
Knowing that we can shift our awareness to the anchor of the breath,
Staying with the rhythm of the breath,
Rolling in,
And rolling out,
Until we feel okay again.
And then if we wish,
Returning to the present moment experience,
Noticing if we can gently open up to any difficult sensations,
Perhaps taking our awareness there,
Bringing whatever is here in this moment into the light of our awareness,
Breathing into it,
And breathing out of it.
Just being with what is here now.
And exploring onward.
Perhaps unpleasant thoughts or emotions are here.
If we are feeling any emotional pain,
As best as we can,
Practicing softening into it,
Can it also be felt in the body?
Practicing holding it in our kind awareness,
As we might a child who has just hurt themselves,
Gathering them to ourselves,
Holding them,
Soothing them,
Bringing the emotional pain into the light of awareness,
Breathing into it,
And breathing out of it.
Just practicing being with what is here now.
Anchoring and coming back to the breath,
Feeling how the gentle rise and fall has been a constant companion.
Where do you feel the breath most vividly today?
And how is the body?
Perhaps feeling the sensation of gravity,
The sense of being held gently,
Closely,
And without fail,
Dwelling in what the body feels and what it knows,
Practicing not distracting ourselves from the unpleasant aspects of life,
Just simply allowing them to remain in the background of our awareness.
And remembering that at any time,
If thoughts or sensations become too difficult,
It is always possible to return to the breath,
To the body,
Or to sounds,
As a place of safe refuge before venturing again into the meditation.
Just tuning in and listening to the sound of my voice once again.
What is our actual present moment experience?
And now exploring onwards and broadening into the whole of our experience,
Maybe shifting the focus of awareness to the pleasant dimensions of the moment,
Seeking out the pleasant and just gently allowing it into the light of our awareness.
It is already there.
We don't need to invent it.
We just gently practice allowing it in,
Seeking out the good and the simple pleasures of our life.
It might be something like sunlight coming in through the window.
Pleasant.
Calm in the room.
Pleasant.
Warm hands.
Pleasant.
A softness in the tummy.
Pleasant.
Bird song.
Pleasant.
Practicing awareness of the pleasant aspect of our experience,
Enriching it by exploring it with our senses,
Absorbing the pleasant down into the body.
And lingering with those sensations.
And now broadening out our field of awareness to include and hold the neutral,
Unpleasant and pleasant aspects of moment to moment experience.
Zooming out into a much broader quality of attention.
Practicing sitting with the neutral,
The pleasant and the unpleasant experiences.
Allowing them just to be side by side.
At one moment,
The breath may predominate.
Becoming aware of the movements of our breath.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Or body sensations.
Sounds.
Thoughts.
Or emotions.
Simply dwelling with an open awareness.
Attending to whatever arises.
And holding it all with a gentle,
Kind awareness.
Nurturing ourselves by making the choice to spend time specifically paying attention to and dwelling upon the pleasant aspects that we may not have noticed.
Realizing that by practicing mindfulness,
We're intentionally deepening our ability to be fully present to the simple wonders of our life.
Observing whatever presents itself to us in this moment.
Being spacious to whatever arises.
To the best of our abilities,
Noticing how it is all constantly changing.
Rising and falling.
Coming and going.
Sitting in stillness with whatever comes and goes.
Practicing being here now.
Opening to the totality of our experience.
Being fully human.
Exploring the neutral,
Unpleasant,
And pleasant aspects of shared humanity.
Returning the attention to the body as we sit.
Perhaps feeling the breath moving in the body.
Sensing the body sitting here,
Breathing in this moment.
Noticing the thoughts and emotions.
Practicing allowing ourselves to be exactly as we are.
If it feels appropriate,
Perhaps taking a moment.
Remembering our intention of being present in our lives.
Practicing being mindful of the whole of our experience.
Remembering that practicing in this way helps to create a wider,
Deeper,
And more open way of being in our life.
In which we may see more clearly and make more conscious choices for health and wellbeing.
And now grounding ourselves,
Earthing ourselves,
Breathing in and breathing out,
Down into the ground.
Gently turning our awareness to sounds in the room.
To the sounds outside of the room.
And perhaps starting to move and stretch in whichever way your body feels it needs right now.
This meditation is now complete.
