The Zoom Sessions No 1: Saturday Meditation Drop In on 28th March 2020

This is a field recording of a live drop in meditation session hosted on Saturday, 28th March 2020. Due to the Coronavirus, I decided to host a free Saturday night meditation sessions via Zoom whilst we are all locked down. This recording was made to enable people to return to the session 'as and when' they would like to; or if you missed it you could sit with us another time. Please feel free to use the file or share it with others who you think may enjoy it.

Transcript

So what we do then we do a grounding technique to settle ourselves in first.

So with this technique just allow yourself just to bring your awareness down to sitting in your chair or your cushion and start off by bringing your awareness to your feet on the floor.

So just notice that lovely sensation of that floor there,

That firm floor.

And then flow your awareness then up to the contact with the chair or the cushion so noticing that on the thighs and the backside and the lower back.

And just notice the contact there.

And then take your awareness to the sounds around you so like I said I'm recording from home so you might hear some different sounds.

Here we've got quite strong winds outside but just bring your awareness to the sounds outside of the space you're in.

And then bring your awareness to the sounds you can hear inside of the room.

And then we'll do our two breaths so we've took a lovely breath in through the nose and side of the mouth we'll do that twice.

So take a lovely deep breath in.

And we'll do that again,

Lovely deep breath in.

And just allow yourself just to settle.

Let's bring another awareness to the space that you're in.

And then when you're ready we'll start to do our body scan.

So take your awareness to the sensation of the feet again on the floor.

And then take your awareness out to the toes,

The top of the feet and the ankles.

And just notice the physical sensations there.

And then flow your awareness then up through the lower legs,

Noticing the shins and the calf muscles.

Taking your awareness to your knees,

Your thighs,

Your hips and your backside.

And just notice the sensations there.

And then flow your awareness up through from the hips up onto the belly and the lower back.

Taking your awareness then up onto the chest and the upper back.

Taking your awareness up onto the shoulders and just notice the sensations there.

And then take your awareness then out onto the shoulder joints,

The upper arms,

The elbows,

The forearms,

The wrists.

Taking your awareness to the backs of the hands and the palms of the hands.

Taking your awareness out onto your thumbs,

Your first fingers,

Second fingers,

Third fingers and fourth.

And then when you're ready just flow your awareness all the way up through your arms,

Just noticing the physical sensations present in your arms at this moment.

And then take your awareness across onto your shoulders,

Up to the throat,

The back of the neck.

Taking your awareness to your jaw.

Taking your awareness then up onto your mouth and your lips,

Your teeth,

Your gums,

The insides of the cheeks,

The roof of the mouth,

The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.

And just take a moment to notice the tastes and the physical sensations present there in your mouth at the moment.

And then flow your awareness up to the nose and the nostrils.

Taking a moment to notice the breath as it flows in and out through the nose.

Taking your awareness around onto your ears,

Your eyelids,

Your eyelashes,

Your eyeballs.

Just take a moment to notice the sensations there.

And then flow your awareness then up onto the forehead,

The back of the head,

And finally up onto the crown.

And then when you're ready just flow back through your body as if you're being emptied out through the bottom of your feet.

So just flow all the way back through down to the tips of the fingers,

Tips of the toes.

Just noting what's present in your body as you flow.

Just bring another awareness.

And when you reach the bottom of your feet just allow yourself to flow all the way back through your body as if you're being filled up afresh with some lovely fresh new liquid.

All the way flowing all the way through your body all the way to the crown of the head.

Just noting what's present in your body as you do.

And then when you reach the crown just take a moment to be aware of your presence.

A lovely unique presence of you in your body in the space that you're in.

Just being aware of what it feels like.

And then when you hear the bell I'll start to guide us then in different stages of the observation breath meditation.

So when you're ready bring your awareness back to your nostrils and this is where we'll start our observation.

So just to start off we're going to notice the breath coming in and out of the nose.

Noticing the temperature differences perhaps of the cold air coming in the warm air coming out.

Or even you might notice a difference in the airflow in your nostrils.

So for instance for me I always find it's different in my right nostril.

But we're just watching the breath coming in out of the body to start off with.

I'm not trying to speed it up or slow it down.

We're just going with our breath as it is.

Then in your own time when you're ready start to just follow the breath into the body.

So what I mean by this is you just follow the journey of the breath down the back of the throat into the lungs and into the belly.

We watch all the lovely movements of our breath just moving in our body.

So notice the chest rise,

The ribs move,

The back move,

The belly move as this lovely breath rolls into your body.

And then just allow the breath just then to naturally just roll back out.

Just feeling just the movement again the body as the breath rolls back out.

And again then just watching it as it naturally rolls back in.

So what we're doing watching the lovely rhythm of your breath.

You'll notice as you watch this breath is that as you breathe in there'd be a tiny little pause,

A still point before you start to breathe out.

And then there's another little tiny pause again before you start to breathe in.

So we just watch this rhythm,

Watch your breath moving your body.

All the lovely little movements,

Breath rolls in and rolls out.

If we get distracted at all this is where we come back to,

Just watching this lovely rhythm of the breath.

And as you notice the movement of this breath also take your awareness back to the floor,

The contact of the feet and the floor.

So we're really realizing that lovely firm base underneath us.

So even though we're moving with our breath,

Watching the breath roll in and out,

This solid floor is grounding us and holding us.

So just notice that for a little bit.

And then when you're ready just come back again and just watch and adjust the breath.

Let me just remind ourselves how grounded we are just as we watch our breath.

You Now as you do your practice if you like you can bring in another little variation.

So as you bring in the breath you say to yourself,

Breathing in calm,

Breathing out ease.

Just say these words to ourselves as we watch our breath roll in,

So you're breathing in calm,

Breathing out ease.

And because of all what we're going through at the moment,

As you're breathing out just allow yourself to let go of anything you want to let go of with the breath.

Just as you breathe out,

As you breathe out ease,

You just allow things just to go for this moment.

Just picture in this lovely breath rolling in,

Breathing in calm,

Be there ease.

You you you you Now there's the option just to stay with watching the breath,

But if you like you can also now just take a moment just to notice the sensations in the body again.

So maybe you might notice areas of tension in your body,

Maybe a tightness in the shoulders,

The lower back or in the forehead.

And what we can do is as we breathe out,

As we let go of things,

Just we just allow ourselves to soften with the breath.

So as we breathe in,

Just allow your body to soften as you breathe out.

So watching the movement of the breath,

But we also have awareness of any sensations in the body at this time.

You you And then gently when you're ready,

Just return back to watching the breath.

So we're just watching that lovely movement of the breath rolling in again,

Just rolling out.

Just watching these lovely movements in your body,

Just as the air comes in.

And just as the breath just rolls back out,

We just feel that lovely sensation again.

And then gently when you're ready,

Just return back to watching the breath.

And then gently when you're ready,

Just return back to watching the breath.

And then when you hear the three bells,

That'll be the end of this part of the practice.

But we won't rush out of it,

We'll do our grounding technique.

And then we'll get ready then to do our loving kindness practice.

But until you hear the three bells,

Just continue with watching the breath.

Just watching this lovely movement,

This lovely rhythm of your breath rolling in and rolling out.

I always think it's a bit like a gentle little wave rolling up a shallow beach,

Just rolling in and then just returning back to the body of the water,

Always think our breath a bit like that.

Just watching that little bit of breath rolling in like the little wave and then just returning back to the body of the water.

Okay,

So just return now your awareness back to the sounds you can hear inside the room.

And then take your awareness to the sounds you can hear outside.

And then take your awareness to the cushion that's supporting you or the chair.

Just noticing that contact with your body.

Take your awareness to your feet,

Feel on the floor if you like,

Give your toes a bit of a wriggle.

And this,

Then we'll take our two breaths.

So take a lovely deep breath in through the nose.

And sigh through the mouth.

And then we'll take another deep breath in again.

And then sigh out through the mouth.

So take your awareness then again back to the feet on the floor.

And then take your awareness then to your cushion or the chair that's supporting your body.

And then take a moment again to listen to the sounds around us.

So listen to the sounds outside.

And then the sounds inside.

And we'll do our two lovely breaths.

Breathe in through the nose,

Sigh out through the mouth just to settle ourselves in.

So take a lovely deep breath in.

Take a lovely deep breath again.

And then when you hear the bell,

I'll start to guide us in our loving kindness practice again.

So as I was saying,

Just picture a picture of yourself as you are now at this moment.

So you're just picturing yourself as you start opposite yourself.

And just notice the physical sensations in the body as you look at this image of yourself.

And then we'll send these words of kindness to this image of ourselves.

May I be truly happy.

May I be healthy and well.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful.

And may I be loved.

May I be truly happy.

May I be healthy and well.

May I be safe.

May I be peaceful.

And may I be loved.

So just allow the image of yourself just to dissolve away for a moment and bring your awareness now,

Like you're saying,

To an image of a person who is easy to love or it could be an animal that is important to you.

And just picture them sat opposite you now.

So we're just focusing on them.

And then we say these words of kindness to them.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

And we just say these words one more time.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

Now in your mind just allow the image of that person or that animal just to dissolve away.

And bring into your mind's eye a neutral person.

So this is somebody you see around who you don't know very well.

So this could be somebody you know you've seen the shops perhaps or maybe someone you've even seen today.

But you don't know them.

And then we say these words of kindness to them.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

So just allow the image of that person just to dissolve away for now.

And bring to your mind's eye somebody who is challenging.

Someone who is very difficult from your past or something at this moment unless you're used to the practice.

But just somebody who you find very difficult today.

And then we say these words of kindness to them.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

I'll just say these words one more time to this person.

May you be truly happy.

May you be healthy and well.

May you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be loved.

So in your mind's eye now bring back the image of yourself.

The person who is precious to you.

The neutral person who is placing alongside the challenging person.

And then take a moment just in your mind's eye just to picture all the people around you who you love,

Who are important to you.

Other perhaps people who have been challenging.

And then other human beings.

Just think of what's going on with this virus.

Just think of all the people around the world who are in a similar situation as us.

Or worse.

And just think of all those who are isolated or other women.

So allow your mind just to really picture all these people.

And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.

May all beings be truly happy.

May all beings be healthy and well.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings be peaceful.

And may all beings be loved.

May all beings be truly happy.

May all beings be healthy and well.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings be peaceful.

And may all beings be loved.

And just say this one more time.

May all beings be truly happy.

May all beings be healthy and well.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings be peaceful.

And may all beings be loved.

And may all beings live with ease.

So just allow all those images just now just to dissolve away.

And picture the kindness you've generated.

The goodwill,

The empathy,

The love.

And just allow that to come back in with your breath.

Coming and settling into your heart centre.

The firmness of the heart.

All that generosity,

All that goodness that you've generated to bless others also comes back and blesses you now.

And comes and settles in your heart centre.

And then when you hear the bell,

It will start to guide us then in our examining.

Which will lead us into the end of our practice.

So we begin by lighting a candle.

Come home to yourself.

Come home.

Lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are.

Let your hands find rest.

And let your hands hold the weave from your day.

Come home.

As we remember the day as it was.

Remember a moment of light.

A moment of life.

And let it live again in your mind.

Gently revisiting it.

Be still.

Be grateful.

And as we remember the day as it was.

Remember a moment of frustration.

Or disappointment.

Or fear perhaps.

And gently revisit that.

Again allowing it to live again in your mind.

Be still.

Be accepting.

So now take the moment of light.

And the moment of frustration or fear.

And allow it to settle into the divine love within your heart centre.

So just leaving those moments to the divine love within you.

And just letting them go and just letting them be there.

Be still.

And then in the closing stages of our practice.

Just think about tomorrow.

The things that you might want to achieve,

The things you might want to do.

And again we hand those over to the divine love within us.

And trust for our tomorrow.

And then we end our practice as I gently blow out our candle.

And then we'll take a moment just to watch our breath.

And I'll guide us through our guidance of the grounded technique.

And that will be the end of the practice for this evening.

So just take a moment now just to watch your breath and think of everybody else here sitting with us practicing.

All the people we've connected with tonight as we meditate.

And other people around the world who are practicing without even knowing we are,

We're all sat here practicing.

And then take your awareness to the sounds around you.

The sensation of the chair or the cushion.

Take your awareness to the sensation of that firm floor under your feet.

And then we take our two lovely deep breaths in through the nose.

Do that again.

And then just gently open your eyes when you're ready.

Reviews

Thank you Matt for a lovely, grounding and compassionate practise. I enjoyed the different elements of the practise, from watching the breath, feeling the breath in the body to grounding and loving kindness. Namaste. 🙏