Hi,
This is Madeline.
The Wheel of Awareness is a meditation tool researched and developed
by Dr.
Dan Siegel that allows us to combine many different ways that we might already
meditate into one sitting.
This gives us a meditation experience that might be described
as a continuum of awareness.
The thing we're choosing to be aware of is ever-changing
throughout the meditation,
But our awareness itself is constant.
I find this meditation
to be helpful when I don't have something specific that I'm working on in my life situation
and I would like to deepen my practice and awareness.
So when you're ready,
You can get
into a comfortable position for a meditation.
It's helpful if your spine can be upright
and strong,
Or as I like to imagine,
An active spine.
If you need to lie down,
You're welcome
to do so.
You may just be fighting the sensation of sleepiness somewhat.
Begin by letting your
shoulders drop down and away from your ears,
Relaxing your shoulders,
Resting your hands
in your lap,
And gently close your eyes or leave them open with a low gaze in front of
you.
And just doing a gentle scan of the body,
Noticing if there's any immediate spots
showing up with some tension or tightness.
Just bring awareness to that.
See if you might
be able to relax that spot.
So we're looking to have a relaxed body with a strong,
Upright
spine.
And now we're becoming aware of the rhythm of our breathing.
There's no need to
change the breathing in any way.
Simply notice the breathing exactly as it is.
You may notice
the breathing in one particular spot.
This cool air comes in the nose,
The chest rising
and falling,
The belly expanding and contracting.
In whatever way you're able to notice the
breath,
Just gently notice the natural rhythm of breathing.
And now we're going to visualize
this meditation tool called the Wheel of Awareness.
Bring to mind the image of a wheel.
This wheel
has a center,
Known as the hub,
And four sections of the wheel,
Or quadrants,
Surrounding
this hub.
On the outer edge of the circle,
Or the outer edge of the wheel,
You can imagine
a rim or an edge that encompasses everything,
The four quadrants and the hub.
For each part
of this practice,
We're going to zoom in on one portion of the wheel and become aware
of its contents with my guidance.
The first quadrant of the wheel is connecting to the
five senses.
So I'd like to invite you to turn your attention to this quadrant,
Which
houses our five senses.
And zoom in on this area of your wheel by engaging your sense
of hearing.
What can you hear?
In the room,
Outside of the room,
Just letting hearing
completely fill your awareness.
And now shifting to some of the other five senses where we
might notice our sense of touch.
What can you feel on the outside of your body?
Maybe
the cool air on your skin or your clothing as it makes contact with the outer edges of
your body.
And now bringing your attention to your sense of smell.
Are there any smells
predominant where you are?
Or the sense of taste,
Maybe a lingering taste of something
you ate or drank,
Or a mint or some gum.
Is there any sense of taste you can become aware
of?
And then finally bringing our attention to seeing.
So are you able to see any images
with your eyes closed?
Maybe light coming in through your eyelids or any images.
And
you can even gently open your eyes with a low gaze just for a moment,
Letting seeing
fill your awareness.
So we're seeing and we're knowing that we're seeing.
Good.
And
now we're going to close our eyes again if they were open and move to the second quadrant,
Which is connecting to bodily sensations or embodiment.
So bring this wheel back into
the mind's eye and take a slow,
Deep breath here.
And just inviting our attention to move
to this quadrant,
Which Dr.
Siegel calls our sixth sense,
Which is our inner sensations
of our body,
Interoception.
Taking a few moments to scan through the body from head
to toe,
Becoming aware of any and all physical sensations that you might notice.
This includes
the pressure of the body in the chair,
The feet touching the hard ground,
The chair touching
your back,
Any other sensations coming from the inside of the body,
Tingling,
Heat,
Tension
or tightness,
Numbness.
In the stomach,
Is there fullness or hunger?
Is there warmth?
Taking your time to move through each part of the body,
Just noticing,
Being curious.
What data is coming in from all parts of the body?
Noticing our hands.
Are they warm?
Are
they cold?
Are you able to notice any pulsing in the hands from the circulatory system?
Just being curious and observing the body and any feedback that we get from the millions
of internal sensors we have in our body.
And now let's take another nice,
Deeper breath
here and I'll invite you to turn your attention to the next quadrant of the wheel,
Which houses
the activities of the mind itself,
Including emotions,
Thoughts,
Memories,
Hopes,
Beliefs,
Dreams,
Attitudes and intentions.
And first,
Simply become aware of everything that's entering
your mind at this moment.
Welcoming this mental activity into your awareness,
Including
mind wandering,
Welcoming the wandering mind and just observing what comes up.
What thoughts
and feelings are showing up right now?
We're actually allowing thoughts,
Feelings,
Images
to arise,
Simply noticing them.
Next,
We'll begin to examine how these internal experiences
rise and pass.
Do they come up suddenly or gradually?
Do the thoughts,
Ideas,
Do they
stay constant?
Do they fade in and out?
Are there gaps between the mental activities or
do these exist as one long stream of consciousness?
Just being aware of thoughts as they come
and go in this field of awareness.
Let's take another nice,
Deeper breath here and we're
gonna just take a pause and bring our attention to the center of this wheel,
The hub,
Before
moving on to the last quadrant.
The hub is where our awareness stems from.
The hub is
like the you that has noticed everything so far in this practice.
It's the part of you
that's actually observing,
Listening,
Looking,
Focusing,
Sensing.
So just take a moment here,
Cultivating this awareness of awareness.
Just appreciating this ability to hold an awareness
as things come and go through the awareness.
And then finally,
We'll take one more slow,
Deep breath
and we'll turn our attention to the last quadrant of the wheel,
Which houses our sense of connection
to the outside world.
First,
Just noticing the sense of connection to people that might
be physically closest to you in the room or in the house you're in or the building.
Maybe
you're in a park.
Just noticing any people that may be physically close to you.
And then
expanding our sense of connection to people further away.
Thinking about all the people
in our family,
People we work with,
People in your neighborhood,
People at your local
grocery store.
We all have a shared desire to be happy,
Healthy,
And safe.
So we'll just
tap into that sense of connection to our loved ones,
Wherever they may be right now.
Just
sensing your connection to them,
How much you care about them,
How much you care about
their well-being.
You might visualize their face,
Their eyes,
Maybe they're smiling.
Noticing
that feel of care and kindness for our close family and our loved ones that includes our
friends,
Our mentors,
Our benefactors,
People who have done kind things for us.
Sensing
them now,
How much you care about them.
And then imagining that we can just widen this sense of
connection step by step to include all those who live in our town,
Our city,
Our country.
Expanding
it out to the continent we're on,
And the whole world,
To all living beings on earth.
You might
even send some well wishes or more of an unconditional friendliness,
A kindness,
Well
wishing for all living beings.
And wrapping up our awareness of being in that fourth and final
quadrant,
That connecting to others.
And just tuning in for the last few minutes to ground
ourselves again.
Simply bringing our attention back to the breath,
Similar to the way we did at
the beginning of the practice.
Noticing that we do have the ability to move our attention around.
And right now we're holding an inner attention,
Focusing on that sensation of the breath moving in
and out of the body.
Not controlling it in any way.
Just kind of grounding back into this moment for
the last few minutes of the meditation.
And in a moment,
I'm going to ring a bell to bring the
meditation to a close.
And when you're ready,
You might begin to wiggle your fingers,
Drop your head
from one side to the other side.
Gently roll your neck if that feels good for you.
And then slowly open
the eyes,
Taking in your surroundings.
I hope you enjoyed this wheel of awareness practice.
And if
you'd like to learn more about this practice,
You can find Dr.
Daniel Siegel on the internet and check
out his many books and website for more information.
Thank you and have a wonderful day.
