How do you feel in your body now?
And you might've come in feeling kind of tired or stressed.
To notice,
How do I feel now?
And then coming into,
It's a general overall relaxation for your body.
Notice your forehead and eyebrows.
Eyes,
Mouth and jaw.
Relax your tongue,
Your throat.
And then bring your attention to the sides and back of your neck.
Relax the large muscles of your upper back.
The sides of your neck and shoulders down into your arms and hands.
And notice the front of your body from the face and neck.
Your throat down into the large muscles of the chest.
And down into the belly area,
The stomach,
Navel center,
Lower belly.
The whole of your legs,
Front and back,
Upper,
Lower,
Down to your feet.
And bring your attention or your focus to the space in which all of this is happening.
The space your body is occupying is part of that.
And notice the space all around your body as well.
Words are a little bit inadequate here because a lot of these are not really verbal mental processes.
But we're gonna look at thoughts first and witnessing thoughts.
So if awareness,
However you might word that,
If awareness was kind of behind your head and you were watching what's going on in your head,
But not to get too caught up in the words if that doesn't work for you,
But just to pay attention now,
We're gonna work with what are the thoughts in my brain?
So thoughts generally appear behind our forehead in the area of the brain.
So if awareness was right behind your head,
We're gonna take several minutes just to notice the process of thoughts and witness the thoughts that are coming and going.
And notice there will be times,
Especially at the beginning where nothing is happening.
There might be no thoughts at all.
Or you might have a thought about,
I'm watching for thoughts.
Some thoughts come in as images,
Still images or video clips.
Some come in as sounds.
Some have a lot of urgency.
Others are kind of more in the background.
Continue to watch.
You could keep a bit of attention on your breath and relaxing your forehead.
And just notice that you might have gone off into a train of thought and that's fine.
And then as soon as you notice,
Bring your attention back.
And notice that you might be having reactions to thoughts.
You might be frustrated if there's a lot of thoughts.
You might have a thought,
Oh,
I'm hardly having any thoughts.
Let's stay with this for another minute or so.
Noticing thoughts in your mind.
And then bring your attention as though awareness was situated just behind your heart center.
And we're going to witness what's happening in your heart center.
You might be witnessing emotion.
We're gonna give this several minutes as well.
So sometimes we think about emotion.
You might have thoughts about,
Oh,
This feels like sadness or this feels like.
But as much as you can,
Keep your attention in your heart center.
And so awareness is right behind your heart center and you're really experiencing and noticing your experience in your heart center.
And notice if your mind gets engaged,
Bring your attention back.
Notice the space where your heart center is.
I'm just witnessing and being aware of what's happening in your heart.
And then bring your awareness down into your gut area,
The navel center,
The belly.
Awareness was right behind that area,
Just witnessing and observing.
Let's rest there for a bit.
What is awareness noticing in your gut?
There's no right or wrong way to have this experience or to expect I should notice this specific thing or that.
We're just noticing,
Just watching what's happening in that space around your navel center and in your gut.
And sometimes you might be noticing messages that are coming from your gut,
Coming into your heart as emotion or coming into your head as thoughts or intuition.
And being aware of your head,
Your heart and your gut for a moment.
And then bring your attention back again to the whole of your body and the empty space that your body is occupying.
That space of awareness or just the space itself.
And in that space,
There are sensations.
We're aware that our body is in that space.
Keep your attention focused on this moment in time,
Letting go of other times,
Other places.
And then bring your attention to the empty space between your eyebrows,
Not the eyebrow center,
Which is a bit higher,
Just the space between your eyebrows.
And become aware again of the whole space your body is occupying,
Sensations in that space.
And then bring your attention to the space between your thumbs and your hands.
Just to that empty space between your thumbs and your index fingers or the rest of your hand.
And then become aware of the space between your big toes and the next toes.
And then back again to this whole space your body is occupying and the space around your body as well.
Notice your felt sense of space right now.
Notice that we're witnessing phenomena as arising in this space,
Space of awareness.
And maintaining this awareness of the space and that you are aware of what's happening in the space.
Bring your attention now to the Ajna Chakra,
The eyebrow center behind the forehead,
Just above the physical eyebrows.
And let your awareness focus in that space.
Aware a little bit of your breath.
You can imagine that you're breathing in and out through the space of your eyebrow center.
And you might be aware of sensations like maybe the forehead,
Eyebrows.
You could soften those.
You're aware of what's happening in the space and the space all around the Ajna Chakra as well.
And then bringing your attention to the throat center,
The Shuddhi Chakra.
You could visualize a full white moon.
Aware of your breath,
Breathing in and out through this full white moon.
Aware of the space itself.
And everything else,
You weigh in the background.
Really focusing in on the space,
The throat center,
The full moon,
Breath.
And then bringing your awareness to the heart center on Hatha Chakra.
And let go of visuals.
Just bring your awareness to that location,
That space.
The nearest awareness of breath.
Aware of the heart chakra.
If any distractions are coming in,
Let them move way to the back of your attention.
Bring your awareness into your heart,
To the energy of the heart chakra.
And rest your mind there.
Maintain awareness itself.
Notice if anything is taking your attention away from this awareness of the space,
Of the heart chakra.
And bring yourself back in.
Let yourself go towards the stillness.
And rest completely.
No thoughts.
Just awareness of the space of the heart chakra.
And then bring a little bit of awareness now into your breath.
As though you're breathing in and out through your heart center.
Notice the whole space,
The space your body is occupying and the space all around your body as well.
And begin to let your awareness flow with your breath.
Inhale from your heart center,
Through your throat center,
To your eyebrow center,
To your crown and then back down through to your heart center.
And then from the crown,
Through your eyebrow center,
To your nostrils.
Follow that flow in the Sushumna channel from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back.
Witnessing that flow of energy in that particular part of this space.
As well as the sensations of the breath.
And to come out of the practice,
Bring your hands together and rub them to create some warmth.
And then bring that to cover your eyes.
And then open your eyes,
Look at the palms of your hands.
And then bring your hands down.
