Sitting Meditation - Body

This is a sitting meditation on body sensations and a practice in whole body awareness. See what it's like to experience the entire body, sitting and breathing. This is a guided meditation for the Mindfully Aware Parenting (MAP) Study at Seattle Pacific University. Adapted from Bogels (2020).

Transcript

Welcome to the sitting meditation. So inviting you to sit comfortably and also in a way that is upright. So perhaps on a chair, Perhaps on quite a firm chair with your feet well planted on the floor and your body tall, Sitting in a way that is very grounded and rooted. A sense of the weight of your body going down into the ground, Almost into the earth. And also sitting in a way that is very tall, Dignified, Unrooted and grounded. So noticing as the weight of you goes down onto the ground, Drawn down by gravity. Noticing how you can experience this, This grounded now as an anchor that you can come back to. At any time, You can come back to the sense of feet on the floor, Body sitting or even body standing. A sense that's grounded and rooted, Really present here, Now. And then when you're ready, Simply including the breath. So just noticing how you can move your attention to the breath as it breathes itself into the body. And as you sit here breathing, You may want to just notice. Where can you find your breath? Where can you find the sensations of the breath breathing? Are they quite high up perhaps? Maybe in the chest? These movements of breath, Expanding the chest and then releasing. Are they even higher up perhaps? Just under the nose, As the air comes in to be drawn into the body and then returns and breathes out from the nose or the mouth. Or perhaps they're deeper into the body. So the sensations of breathing might be quite deep in the body, Perhaps in the belly, Perhaps someplace between the belly and the chest. So having had a try, Having had a go at these different places where you might feel the breath, Choose someplace for you that's very anchored, Very easy to find. Someplace where you can almost rest. Just feel the rise and the fall of the breath as it moves in the body. This breath and this breath. Now as we practice in this way, You may well notice that your mind wanders off. It wanders away from the breath. It wanders perhaps away from the body. And whenever you notice this, It's really helpful to just say to yourself, It's not a problem for my mind to wander. That's just simply what minds do. So whenever you notice the mind has wandered and just reassuring yourself, Then gently coming back. Just gently guiding the attention back from wherever it's been. Back into the breath, Breathing, Back into the body, Sitting, And maybe coming back with a sense of curiosity. How does my breath feel right now? Where can I find it? A breath, A bit, Like a pulse in the body. A rhythm, A texture, Simply breathing. So spend a few moments just being with the breath, Being with the wandering of the mind and coming back over and over to this breath, To this body, Sitting. And now when you're ready, Seeing if it's possible for you to expand around the breath, To include a sense of the whole body sitting, Breathing, Just a little bit, Like widening the torch beam of attention from this more focused place in the breath to a wider sense of the whole body, Of the base of the body and the contact with the ground and the seat up to the very tallness, The top of the body, The back and the front, The side to the side, The full capacity, The full space that this body takes up. And then as we do that, Noticing how the breath is moving in the whole of the body, It might be the most obvious in the trunk of the body. You can actually feel the expanding and the releasing of the body as the breath breathes. But you can also find that even in the extremities, Even in the fingertips, Even perhaps in the elbows, Tips of your toes, It's just the slight rocking or movement as the breath breathes in the body. So really getting a sense of whole body breathing as best as you can, Body sitting, Breathing, Body. And remember that if at any point you notice that the mind has wandered, You can just say to yourself, It's not a problem. It's not a problem. All minds wander. It's just what minds do. So gently noticing and coming back, And this time coming back to a sense of the whole body breathing, Breathing body. Just noticing the rhythm of the breath, Noticing the gentle way that the breath just moves the body. And for the last few moments of this practice, Just simply practicing in silence with the sense of whole body breathing, Body sitting, Perhaps the mind wandering and coming back. This moment, This breath, Whole body breathing. You have them. You