This practice is a guided meditation called anchoring with sound.
Anchoring is a process in meditation to help focus and settle the mind.
By choosing one object for the mind to focus on,
There can be more ease and stillness in your practice.
Often the breath is chosen as an anchoring point,
However,
For many people with anxiety,
The breath may not be a comfortable place to rest the attention.
This practice is going to explore what it would be like to anchor using your ears to listen to the sounds in your environment.
This is also generally a good meditation for mindfulness of sound.
Please enjoy this practice.
Getting ready to begin,
Let's make sure the body is oriented to the space.
First you might find it helpful to move your body in any particular way in order to release any unnecessary tension that is being held right now in your body.
You might want to sway back and forth,
Roll the neck,
Or move the hips in a way that helps find your center of gravity,
Allowing your center line to become a holding place for your awareness,
Creating steadiness,
Alertness,
And ease in this meditation practice.
Letting the eyes travel around the room so that your nervous system knows it is safe to enjoy this practice while you are in this space.
You might find it helpful to allow the eyes to gaze upward toward the ceiling to touch the edges and trace along the edges of things in your environment.
In this scanning,
Seeing if you can begin to soften your energy,
Bringing the eyes back downward toward the floor and finding a settling place for the eyes now.
If you feel comfortable,
Please enjoy closing your eyes,
Allowing yourself to drop into the body in this present moment,
Beginning by noticing what your intention is for this practice today.
Touching in with yourself,
Touching in with your presence as we begin.
Let's begin the practice of anchoring.
Allow sounds to come into the awareness.
See noticing the sounds that you hear.
Feeling the feeling at the ears where the sound comes in.
This is the anchor point now.
So just letting the mind settle with the meeting point of the ears and the sound and the environment.
This is often the case,
The mind will wander off,
Get distracted.
You might feel things such as boredom or antsiness,
Wanting to move.
Whenever you notice the mind wandering off,
Simply bring your attention back now to the awareness of sound.
You might notice the qualities of sound,
Such as loudness,
Softness,
Sounds that are distant or close by.
You might notice a preference arise for a certain sound or aversion for other sounds.
Just noticing and inviting the mind to settle at this point where the ears and the sounds are meeting.
Hearing that there is no need to feel a sense of judgment about your practice.
If you do notice anything that feels rigid or strenuous,
See if you can soften into this practice more.
Just resting at the point where the sounds meet the ears.
Are you still hearing sounds?
Where's the mind now?
As we proceed in this practice,
It can be helpful to join the anchoring of the awareness with a felt sense of being in the body.
You might be aware of this connection through the felt sense of the ears.
You might also bring a felt sense of awareness of the gravity that holds you in your body,
A feeling of solidity.
Moving now to the sounds in the environment through the physical body.
Receive the experience of sound through the ears,
Allowing the mind to anchor,
To rise and rest,
To focus.
What is it like to include the listening to silence as part of this practice?
As we get ready to close this practice,
Pay attention now to the rest of the practice.
Notice any variation in the quality of your mind from before the meditation to now after this meditation.
It isn't UN
