Experiences In Awareness Meditation

Experience a deeply immersive awareness-based journey that gently guides you back to your unchanging, ever-present Self. This Yoga Nidra practice invites you to witness and explore sensations, emotions, and mental states. Through embodied exploration of opposites and subtle shifts in attention, you’ll begin to rest in the spaciousness of Awareness itself. The session weaves chakra-based focus with breath, helping you soften the grip of identity and return to a grounded sense of being.

Transcript

As you're getting settled,

Notice how you feel.

This is an awareness practice,

Witnessing awareness.

Notice that whatever's happening is arising in the space of awareness.

Awareness is a word with many levels.

It can be just a recognition that I'm noticing,

I'm aware of some of these things.

There's also that knowing that we have this deeper layers of the mind.

And then we have the space of awareness itself,

Which isn't involved in noticing,

It's not involved in what's moving through awareness.

So if a fish is moving through water,

The fish isn't the water,

The fish is moving through water.

This isn't something we think about,

It's something that we realize.

So as we're working through this,

Keep that maybe a little bit in the back of your mind.

Let your body soften and let your body be supported and notice your experience with that.

If that feels possible,

You could always move,

You don't have to stay still.

These awareness practices and the yoga nidra,

It's helpful if your body's still,

But it's not necessary.

What's more important is to honor if you need to move or shift or maybe do a little bit of yoga for the first little while or whatever might be helpful,

Let yourself do that.

Bring your mind to your breath as well and let your belly soften as you're breathing out,

If that feels comfortable.

And if not,

You might focus on the breath in the nostrils.

Or you might focus on that feeling of softening in your body as you breathe out,

Your whole body head to toes tends to soften and release tension when we breathe out.

As we're working with these feelings and the guided practice,

Notice that it's all arising in the space of awareness.

Have kind of a dual focus.

So let's start with noticing the right palm,

Your right hand,

The palm of your right hand,

And then the palm of your left hand,

Your right knee,

Left knee,

The space between your right thumb and your hand,

The space between your left thumb and your hand,

Your right shoulder joint,

Left shoulder joint,

Space behind your right ear,

Space behind your left ear,

The sole of your right foot,

Sole of your left foot.

Just let your awareness move around a little bit in your body.

And then back to the whole body awareness again.

And bring to awareness this feeling of being alive,

Full of energy.

Might not be your situation right now,

But we all have a memory of that.

We were out walking and we could feel it in our body.

Maybe we've just done something challenging,

We feel really alive.

Or maybe we've just had a conversation that was difficult and we said the words and now we feel really confident and powerful.

So let yourself feel into that power,

That powerful aliveness of energy.

Feel it in your whole body from head to toes.

Breathe.

And now let's switch to the opposite of that.

I'm feeling kind of collapsed,

Numb,

Disconnected,

Exhausted.

We all know that feeling too.

You might be feeling that right now,

Or maybe you're probably not at one extreme or the other,

But let yourself remember that feeling.

Notice where you feel that in your body,

Notice what you're feeling.

And then move back to the feeling of aliveness.

Powerful,

Confident,

Alive,

Energy.

I can feel this energy in my body.

Take some deep breaths,

Feel the power of the oxygen,

The blood flowing in your body.

Feel that energy of power in your body.

And now bring your awareness to the center of your body.

Your awareness to your heart,

Your chest,

Your heart center,

Your emotional heart center.

And bring up a memory of feeling loved,

Connected,

Warm,

Open-hearted,

Kind.

Let yourself really savor that for a moment.

There might be a memory that you bring in,

Feeling really held,

Perhaps physically,

Perhaps emotionally.

Feel that in your heart.

And then once you've got a bit of a taste of that,

Then switch over and feel cold-hearted,

Judgmental.

I'm not accepted,

Unloved.

Let that feeling come into your heart.

Again,

You might have thoughts about that.

And if it's too intense,

Lessen the intensity,

Maybe open your eyes.

Don't stay in that.

And then come right back into the feeling of being open-hearted,

Loved,

Warm.

You might put your hand on your heart and notice the feeling of that.

Breathe that in.

We're moving fairly quickly with these because we're not trying to get stuck in any of them.

We're just looking to experience opposite sensations,

Opposite experiences.

What does it feel like in our body and where?

So if you come up into your head,

Notice what it feels like and your experience or memories of experiences of feeling clear,

Intelligent,

Wise.

What does that feel like?

What's your experience,

Your memory of that?

I get it.

I understand easily.

And then switch over to feeling foggy,

Muddled,

Confused.

I can't remember things.

When things are explained,

I don't get it.

And part of this could be that we're in a freeze response too.

Let yourself feel that.

What does it feel like when you're foggy?

What kind of thoughts are in your mind?

You might be really giving yourself a hard time,

For instance.

And then let that go.

Come back into this feeling of clarity,

Intelligence,

Wisdom.

Let yourself feel how intelligent you are.

You've got a brain that works well.

It might not work well all the time,

But it does sometimes.

Working with these opposites,

Move back into awareness.

And notice the space of awareness welcomes all of it without discrimination.

The space of awareness itself doesn't really change if you're experiencing being muddled or being sharp in your mind.

It's the objective witness.

It's the space in which this is arising.

If you think about the room that you're in,

Sometimes the space is lit up by the lights and sometimes it's dark,

But the space is the same.

And then come into noticing as you were doing that,

And as we're coming back into this again,

That the concept of I attaches itself almost everything that we experience.

If you are in your heart center,

Bring your awareness to your heart center now,

And feel into that warmth and open-heartedness and kindness.

And if you were to say,

I am loving,

Notice the thoughts that come in with that and the feelings,

Experience.

I am loving.

And then as you sit with that,

See if you could let the I thought dissolve a little bit and just experience the love itself.

So you might go from I am loving to I am love.

And then maybe to love.

Experience love in your heart center.

And then notice thoughts might come in.

If you were to move your fingers and your toes,

You can notice that there's a different sensory perception there.

We have a sensation of movement.

It might feel comfortable,

Or maybe you're reminded of something.

Oh,

That's right.

My muscles in that part of my body are sore.

What's going on there?

We might get into a worry train.

Just keep coming back.

We're witnessing what's arising in our awareness.

You might open your eyes and look around the room that you're in.

What changes when you have your eyes open?

When you look around?

When you touch your hands together?

When you feel your muscles softening or tensing?

And then if you close your eyes and let your body come back into stillness,

Whatever sensations were there are coming to a rest.

You're not wiggling your toes or toes kind of go out of awareness or go out of our attention field anyway.

So if you were to step back into awareness now and let go of all of the activity that was just going on.

And notice we all prefer certain experiences.

We all prefer a feeling of being wise and clear in our brain over being muddled and confused.

And we all prefer open-hearted connection rather than being judged or shamed.

There's nothing wrong with this.

I mean,

It's just really the way it works for all of us.

But what if you were to just step back as you move through the day and cultivate kind of a neutrality?

What is it that's moving through awareness right now?

And maybe as you're walking outdoors and noticing the air and the sun on your face or some experience that you're having to notice this is what's moving through awareness right now.

And I know it's gonna be here momentarily and then it'll be something else.

And I could attach to the experience or I could let it come and go.

I could be a little bit more neutral.

Let your life be as it is.

Sometimes we enjoy it more than other times.

But who is it that's having the experience of life?

I am unchanging presence,

Awareness,

Being.

All the experiences in my life are flowing through awareness.

And sometimes I'm attaching to them.

Sometimes I'm averse to them.

Sometimes I'm aware of them.

Other times I'm unconscious.

I am unchanging presence,

Awareness,

Being.

And I have a body.

I have experiences.

All of that is moving through awareness.

And let's go into the yoga nidra practice of breathing through the ajna chakra behind the forehead.

Try to stay away from thoughts.

Stay with this presence or your being.

And we're bringing in now the experience of breathing as though we're breathing through the eyebrow center.

You might soften your forehead or your eyebrows,

But really focusing on the energy in the ajna chakra,

The eyebrow center.

And then bring your awareness to the throat center of the shudhi chakra.

Breathe through that visual of the bright white full moon at the throat center,

Aware of the moon of your breath.

Letting everything else be way in the background.

Let your mind be still.

And bring your awareness to your heart chakra,

Anahata chakra,

The heart center.

And imagine that you're breathing in and out through the heart center.

We've gone from the eyebrow center,

The seat of the waking state,

To the throat center,

The seat of the dreaming state,

To the anahata,

The heart center,

The seat of the deep sleep state where the mind is still.

No thoughts.

A little bit of awareness of breath.

And then set an intention.

It might be,

I am awake,

Aware,

And I welcome every experience as it is guiding me home into awareness.

All of the experiences that flow through awareness,

I'm allowing those experiences to be here.

I am awake and aware.

And then let even that come to a rest so that the thoughts are no longer in your mind.

All your attention now is in the energy of the heart center.

If it's helpful,

Keep a bit of an anchor.

You could use your breath.

If you get distracted,

Notice as soon as you can and bring yourself back.

I am awake,

Aware.

My mind is still.

I am awareness.

Keep your awareness focused right in the heart chakra.

If you're aware of thoughts,

Let yourself be aware that you're aware of thoughts and then bring yourself back into the heart chakra.

If you notice that you have thoughts in your mind or something else,

Bring yourself back into awareness.

This is flowing through awareness.

All of your experience right now is in awareness.

And then bring yourself back into the heart chakra.

Rest in the anahata chakra.

Continue to notice what are the experiences that are arising in awareness.

You might be experiencing stillness in the heart chakra.

That is also arising in awareness or some other movement in thought.

And begin to bring some awareness now into your breath again in the heart chakra.

So you're breathing gently in and out through your heart chakra.

Noticing your intention,

Your sankalpa.

I am awake,

Aware.

I'm noticing the experiences that are happening in awareness.

Coming up into the dreaming state in the vishuddhi chakra,

The throat center,

The full moon.

Coming up again into the waking state,

The ajna chakra,

The eyebrow center.

Let your mind be awake and alert.

And as we're coming towards the end of the practice,

Notice what was flowing through awareness during your practice.

Your heart chakra is part of what's flowing in awareness,

What's appearing in awareness.

Body,

Thoughts,

Breath.

Movement of the mind.

And then let your awareness flow now with the breath from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back.

Bring your awareness back to your physical body.

Open your eyes,

Become aware again of the space that you're in.

And if you're deep into either sleep or into yoga nidra,

You're welcome to stay and just continue with that.

Take your time,

Come out of it slowly.

The practice that we did at the beginning of doing opposites in the physical body,

Even just left hand,

Right hand,

Space behind the ears.

It's interesting to just let our mind,

Our attention go to these different places.

What was your experience during the feeling of being powerful and then exhausted and back to powerful?

We're manipulating what's going through awareness when we're doing a practice.

We're bringing things forward so that we can have a certain experience.

What were you noticing you were experiencing?