The following exercise by Lula Spurgato is designed to facilitate contact with the present moment,
So that we can live more of our lives in the here and now.
We'll be working on strengthening two skills of focus and flexibility as we move through this meditation.
See if you can bring an attitude of openness and non-judgment with you along the way.
Find a relatively comfortable position,
Either sitting or lying down if preferred,
Where you can be undisturbed for the next ten minutes.
Now,
With your eyes opened,
Look around the environment that you're in and notice what you can see.
First,
Allow your attention to flexibly move from one thing to the next,
Scanning the environment and being openly curious to anything you see.
And then I'll invite you to choose one object to focus on for the next moment.
Imagine that you are looking at this object for the very first time.
So you're going in with what we call beginner's mind,
Being open and receptive to whatever you might discover as you curiously observe this particular object,
Noticing any distinguishing features,
Noticing the colors,
The shape.
And your mind might naturally chime in with all kinds of thoughts,
Including judgments or urges to change or fix whatever you might be seeing.
That's perfectly normal for that to occur.
But as soon as you notice your mind chiming in with such thoughts,
Allow them to come and go and gently bring your attention back to the present moment,
Back to observing what is as it is.
And then I'm going to invite you to notice what you can hear,
Either keeping your eyes opened or closing them,
That's up to you,
Noticing sounds occurring in your environment,
Perhaps stretching your hearing to notice sounds that go beyond the immediate space that you find yourself in.
Once again,
Being open and receptive to whatever you find,
Allowing your attention to move from one sound to the next,
Perhaps doing this intentionally where you're shifting your attention at will from one sound to the next.
And then focus your attention in on one particular sound,
Noticing any distinguishing features,
Noticing any fluctuations,
Noticing if the sound has a rhythm to it,
Notice any changes in tone or pitch.
And then I'll invite you to notice the positioning of your body and any contact your body is making with your surroundings.
In other words,
Anything your body is touching right now.
This can include the contact your feet are making,
Contact your hands are making,
Your back,
Your bottom,
Your head.
Also noticing perhaps the clothing on your skin and the sensation of air on your skin.
Coming back to this attitude of openness and non-judgment and a very gentle passive curiosity.
And then I'll invite you to slow down your breathing for the next three breaths with a long slow exhale as a means of anchoring more fully into the present moment.
So you might breathe out through what we call pursed lips like this.
And then gently bringing back in without forcing the inhale too much.
And then after those three long slow breaths,
Allow your breathing to find its own natural rate and rhythm,
No longer needing to control it.
You can experiment with breathing in and out through your nose or your mouth or some combination of the two.
And I'm going to invite you to bring your attention to the different physical sensations of the breath.
So for instance,
You might notice the air moving in and out of your nostrils or lips.
You might also notice how your shoulders will rise as you breathe in and fall as you breathe out,
Even if it's very subtle.
And you might also notice the expanding and contracting of your rib cage as you breathe in and breathe out.
Once again,
Your mind will naturally wander from time to time,
Including into the past or into the future.
Whenever you notice that your attention has been pulled away from the exercise,
Imagine your mind is on a leash.
And you're giving that leash a gentle tug whenever you notice the mind going astray.
A gentle tug back to the present moment,
And in this case,
Back to the physical sensations of breathing.
And then I'll invite you to notice any feelings that are showing up as we move through this exercise.
A feeling could be an emotion or any other bodily sensation,
Anything that might be pleasant and anything that might be unpleasant.
Just tuning in to what your body is experiencing in the here and now.
And you might gently say to yourself,
There's and then whatever you're feeling.
So you're just noticing and naming whatever you're feeling from one moment to the next.
You might be saying there's calmness or there's anxiety or there's tension.
Whatever you're experiencing,
We're just acknowledging it as it is.
And once again,
Notice if the mind chimes in with any urges to fix or problem solve or perhaps wandering again into the past or future.
And as soon as you notice that occurring,
Give that leash a gentle tug and bring it right back to your body.
Back to your breath and back to what you're feeling.
So spend another moment or so just openly,
Curiously observing any part of your present moment experience,
Whether that be your breathing,
Anything you're feeling or anything you can see,
Hear or touch.
Either allowing your attention to flexibly move from one thing to the next or choosing to focus on one particular anchor into the present moment.
Okay.
And then as we wind down the exercise here,
Bring your attention one last time to your breathing,
Perhaps one or two long,
Slow exhales.
And if your eyes are not already opened,
Go ahead and open them now,
Tuning back into your environment,
Stretching if you'd like to.
And I hope you found this exercise useful.
