Welcome.
This is an 11 minute open awareness practice.
The intention here is to invite some awareness and ease to the body and breath.
And to create some space for an open,
Soft awareness.
So whether you're seated or lying down,
Bringing your awareness to the contact between your body and whatever you're resting on.
And seeing if you can have a sense of being connected,
Of being held and supported.
So in this practice,
We'll be opening to the sensations that are already here for you within the body.
So as we sit or lie here,
Seeing if we can gather our awareness and bring some curiosity to the sensations around the forehead and around the eyes.
And seeing if we can invite some ease and some softness to the forehead,
Around the eyes,
Right out to the outer edges of the eyes themselves.
Bringing the same awareness,
An invitation to soften to the mouth,
The jaw.
Inviting ease to the inside of the mouth and the back of the tongue.
Relaxing and softening the throat and the shoulders.
And if we encounter any tension or tightness in the body,
Wherever that may be.
Seeing if we can soften and open without feeling the need to push anything away.
A sense of softening with what's here.
Inviting some ease.
So with our shoulders,
Maybe a sense of relaxing down,
Noticing the weight of the arms and bringing our awareness to the sensations in the hands.
The palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands.
Inviting some softness.
Inviting some ease into the hands right now.
Bringing our awareness to the chest and the ribs.
Maybe inviting a sense of opening.
And then our awareness down in the belly.
Perhaps noticing the sensations that are around with each in-breath and with each out-breath.
And in particular,
Inviting some softness and ease at the very end of each out-breath.
So as well as the breath down in the belly,
We may notice the sensations of breathing around the ribs and the chest.
Maybe noticing the air within our nostrils as we inhale and as we exhale.
So allowing the breathing to do its own thing.
No need to control our breathing.
No need to direct our breathing.
Just noticing and relaxing with the inflow and with the outflow of each breath.
So this sense of the breath in the body allows us to know we are here.
Opening to the sensations in the body and the sensations that come with each breath.
And if we notice our attention is taken away with the arrival of any thoughts,
Then remembering nothing at all has gone wrong.
Whether these are ideas,
Memories,
Plans,
Or commentary,
Perhaps on the sounds around us,
Or commentary around what we're doing in this practice right now.
So remembering that all these thoughts are very common,
Very everyday,
And nothing has gone wrong.
So the key here is to notice each time we are away on a storyline,
And that it is this very awareness of knowing that we are away on a storyline.
That is the key here.
So resting back in awareness in the body and the breath.
And knowing it's quite natural for our attention to narrow and get fixated inside thoughts.
And when we notice this happening,
Inviting ourselves to soften,
To re-relax in the body,
To invite some ease and softness around the eyes,
The jaw,
The back of the tongue,
The throat,
The hands and the belly.
And seeing how it is now to not feel you have to make anything in particular happen.
Simply resting in an open,
Awake awareness.
Recognizing the arising and passing of experience.
Relaxing back and inviting ease.
Coming back again and again to the ease of the body.
A place to come back to when the mind gets busy and our attention gets narrowed.
Inviting ease and re-relaxing without judgment.
The key is to know you are here.
Noticing the difference between this open awareness and being busy and carried away by thinking.
And as this practice comes to an end,
Taking your time to settle back into the next moment.
And maybe taking this sense of open awareness and ease into the next few moments of your day.
