The Zoom Sessions: Welcoming And Letting Go

This is a field recording of a live meditation session hosted for Rolls Royce on 16th April 2020. This is a guided grounding meditation practice designed to facilitate presence and awareness. We normally meet as a group every Thursday but due to the coronavirus, we now meet via Zoom. This recording was made to enable people to return to the session; as and when they would like to. The audio contains a body scan and a welcoming practice. Please feel free to use the file and share it with others who may benefit. The audio is recorded on a laptop and there is some background noise

Transcript

Hello my name is Matt. The following recording is of a live session done for the Rolls-Royce Meditation Group that regularly meets on a Thursday lunchtime but due to the coronavirus we're unable to actually meet in person so we're meeting online using Zoom. This is a recording of a session that was done on the 16th of April 2020 and we were using it as a grounding practice. Our drop-in sessions use the grounding technique at the start, A body scan and then we would lead into a guided meditation practice. Alright then so we do our usual practice to settle ourselves in then so just take a moment just to just notice what it feels like to be in your chair or in the cushion wherever you're sat. Just allow yourself just to feel that sensation of that chair supporting your body and if your feet are on the floor just really notice that nice firm floor under your feet and if you like as a visual person you can actually just picture like roots going down out through your feet if you like into this ground just feeling yourself really nicely grounded by this firm floor that supports you and then take your awareness to the sounds that are around you where you are so starting off noticing the sounds that are in the room that you're in just noticing those and then take your awareness then back to the sounds outside of the room sort of things you can hear around and about and then when you hear the bell I'll start to guide us in our grounding technique and body scan so just bring your awareness then back to that sensation of being grounded with feet on the floor your head high in the sky just noticing that sensation there and then allow your awareness to flow out to your bottom of your feet your toes just take the awareness to the top of the feet and the ankles allowing your awareness to flow up through your shins and your lower legs up to your knees and your thighs your backside and your hips and just notice the physical sensations that are present there just noticing what's present at this moment and then allow your awareness to flow up through from the hips up onto your belly and your lower back taking the awareness up onto the shoulders and the chest and the upper back and the shoulder joints just taking all your awareness to this upper body and then flow your awareness then down through the upper arms and the elbows the forearms and the wrists the backs of the hands and the palm of the hands just notice that little hollow that forms are in the palm now your awareness then to go out onto your thumbs your first fingers second fingers third fingers and fourth and just notice the physical sensations there and then when you're ready flow all the way back up through the arms again noting what's there taking that awareness across and up onto the throat in the back of the neck the jaw the mouth noticing your lips and your teeth your gums in the insides of the cheeks the roof of the mouth and your tongue and then notice the space underneath your tongue and the tastes and the physical sensations in the mouth and then allow your awareness to go out onto your nose and your nostrils taking the awareness around onto the ears noticing the shape of the ears and then taking the awareness around onto the eyelids the eyelashes and the eyeballs themselves just notice the sensations present there then take your awareness then up onto the forehead the back of the head and then finally the crown and then when you're ready just allow yourself just to be emptied out as if you've been drained out through the bottom of the feet just flowing all the way in one lovely movement all the way down to the tips of the fingers and the tips of the toes just flowing as you go and also if you like you can use this time to be letting go of anything you want to let go of so if there's any sort of emotions or anything at this moment you want to let go just let them go out through as you empty out in the earth just take them away from you just notice in those sensations noticing letting go all the way down to the bottom of the feet and then when you're ready just picture yourself now just being filled afresh all the way up through the body now you have to be filled afresh with this fresh liquid or this fresh light flowing all the way up through your body bringing clean freshness into your body bringing relaxation perhaps into your body but just allowing this just to flow all the way up to the crown of the head just again noticing what's present as you flow then when you reach the top of the head just spend a bit of time now just being aware of your presence it feels like to be in the space that you're in what does it feel like to be in your body just allow yourself just to notice the stillness that's there and then when you hear the bell I'll start to guide us in the welcoming practice so the first thing is just to continue with that awareness that you're doing at this moment so continue to focus on that feeling of being present in your body at this time just allow yourself just to sink into that sensation of stillness just noting that lovely feeling there and then when you're ready start to explore what's present in your body so what we could talk about here is full body awareness so you bring awareness to what you are feeling and where you're feeling it and as we do this we do this without bringing any resistance or judgment to it we just accept and this is what is present at this moment in time we don't try to change it or fix it we just accept it it's a feeling it's an emotion that's present at this time and that's okay and one of the things you can do with this Cynthia Bordeaux does it is that she welcomes it she actually says those words welcome to whatever that emotion is rather than pushing it away and just allow yourself just to stay in this place just welcoming what comes up just noticing what's there until you hear the next bell and then I'll lead us through the letting go stage of the welcoming practice. So we just bring in awareness this full body awareness to what's present at this time not beating ourselves up for how we feel maybe not even having a sense of gratitude for how we feel we just notice the feeling for what it is and just continue to welcome that full body awareness. You you so now with the next stage of the practice I'll say those words of acceptance and letting go over us now as we practice so just quietly a bit like we do with love and kindness just repeat the words to yourself as they say the words I let go of my desire for security affection and control and I embrace this moment as it is I let go of my desire for security affection and control and embrace this moment as it is I let go of my desire for security affection and control and embrace this moment as it is so allow yourself just to settle into that place just say in those words to yourself just letting those words wash over you so as we sit in this awareness of our body full body awareness we just say those words I let go of my desire for security affection and control and embrace this moment as it is you you you you you and then when you're ready just move your awareness then away from the words away from from the body just back to that place of presence again maybe it's just by watching the breath coming and going naturally through into your body maybe it's bringing your awareness to that sense of stillness that's there but just return yourself back to where we started bringing that focus that sinking in feeling where we started the practice you you you you and then there's the option now then to bring ourselves to that sense of bringing intentions for our day maybe you want to set some intentions or affirmations for our day so in the next few moments just think through any qualities that you would like to bring into the remainder of your day or the affirmation stuff positive stuff you want to say over yourself things that you need to hear today so you can say the affirmations in the way that you would go to a really good friend you say these to yourself there's either the option to set intentions or affirmations and just use that time and and when you've done that just bring them in with your breath just picture those things when you thought them through just picture them coming in with your breath and settling in your heart center and just allow yourself to do that in your own time now there's no need to rush you you and then when you've done that just allow yourself just to come back then to feeling your presence or watching your breath whichever helps you to bring in that feeling of settling in and just return to that place now until you hear the the three bells and then I'll lead us through the grounding technique that'll be the end of our practice for the day but until you hear that just allow yourself just to settle in to that place again you you you so bring your awareness then back to the sounds that you can hear around you the sounds you can hear in the room there where you are or the sounds outside just allow your awareness just to settle there and then take your awareness to the physical sensation of the chair or the floor or the cushion that's supported you as you've practiced just allow it to settle there and then take your awareness then down to your feet firm on the floor just noticing that floor there a nice solid floor and we'll finish our practice with our two breaths so we'll take a breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and we'll do that twice so just do that in your own time lovely deep breath in and then just gently open your eyes when you're ready

Reviews

A gentle and supportive combination of practises, thank you Matt. 🙏