Hi friends,
Welcome to your meditation.
My name is Amber and I'm so excited to share today's meditation with you.
Today we're focusing on mindful listening.
Let's get started.
All right,
Come on in.
And since today's practice is all about listening,
Let's go ahead and close our eyes right away.
Take a few moments here to get settled in to a comfortable position,
Slowing down the breath,
Fully arriving where you are.
If you've meditated with me before,
You've probably heard me talk about a meditation technique called anchoring.
An anchor is a point of focus that you can return to throughout your meditation,
A sort of resting place for your attention.
Frequently in yoga and meditation,
We use the breath,
But today we're going to focus on another one of my favorite anchors,
Which is sound.
So as you listen mindfully today,
Try not to label or react to any of the sounds that you might hear,
But instead try to simply listen to the quality and the texture of the sound itself.
For example,
If you hear a lawnmower,
Instead of thinking,
Oh,
My neighbor is always mowing his lawn at weird times and he's disturbing my peace and quiet,
As best as you can,
Just listen to the sound itself.
Is it loud?
Is it quiet?
Is it low or high pitched?
Is it close to you or is it far away?
So as we get settled here,
Just start to listen,
Observing what you can hear around you.
See if you can forget that you know what that sound is called or where it came from.
Forget about labeling if you like the sound or you don't like it.
And you might find that your attention has drifted away and you've gotten distracted.
I invite you to return to the practice of mindful listening,
Just focusing on observing the sounds that you can hear.
Oftentimes in day-to-day life,
We listen selectively to the sounds around us and we tune out everything else.
We listen to the words that someone is saying to us or a song,
But very rarely do we sit with the intention to non-judgmentally listen to all the sounds around us.
The sound of kids talking or a space heater humming next to you or the birds chirping outside.
Or maybe it's quiet where you are and we can listen to that too.
Perhaps you can hear your own inhales and exhales.
When you listen mindfully like this,
You can gain a new perspective on sounds that you're used to hearing and you might take for granted.
As we come to the end of today's meditation,
Release the attention from the anchor now.
Let go of any effort and just be here for a few moments.
Let whatever happens happen and come back to the body now.
Gently wiggling the fingers and the toes and open the eyes whenever you feel ready.
Thank you so much for meditating with me today.
If you enjoyed today's meditation,
I would so appreciate it if you'd leave me some feedback below.
Take good care and I look forward to seeing you again next time.
