Begin by connecting with the intention to attend to your inner life knowing that this time that you spend now will reap countless benefits for you and all the lives that you interact with on a daily basis and the greater world at large.
The practice of cultivating present moment awareness is a wonderful way for us to fill our gas tanks and nourish ourselves every day.
See if you can make yourself just five percent more comfortable.
You can either do this meditation laying down,
Seated on a meditation cushion,
Or seated in a chair.
Ensure that your belly isn't constricted in any way and if it feels safe for you,
You can gently close your eyes.
We're going to start off by focusing our attention on the feeling of our in-breath and out-breath.
So touch into your breathing,
Allow yourself to breathe naturally,
And as you breathe bring greater awareness to each breath.
Touching into the beginning,
Middle,
And transition point of each breath from inhale to exhale.
And spend a few moments now just touching into your breathing.
Our breath is always with us.
We can always turn to our breath and utilize it to bring ourselves back to the present moment.
Now if you notice your mind wandering at all,
Just gently bring it back to the sensations of fully breathing in and out,
Touching into your inhale and your exhale and being breathing.
You may find it helpful to bring your attention to the practice of receiving and releasing.
For example,
Breathing in love,
Breathing out stress,
Breathing in peace,
Breathing out challenges,
Breathing in joy,
Releasing anger.
Whatever feels appropriate for you in this moment,
Whatever feels helpful,
You can attend to receiving and releasing through utilizing your breath.
And now taking a few moments to move your awareness to feeling the physical sensations in your body from moment to moment.
You can practice this together with awareness of breathing or you can transition fully to just noticing physical sensations in your body from moment to moment.
As in mindfulness of the breath,
If your mind wanders,
Gently bringing it back to the physical sensations in your body.
Those physical sensations and awareness of your body are your anchor.
They're your point of focus,
Your point of attention right now.
Again,
Bringing your attention to the physical sensations.
And now tune your attention to mindfulness of sounds,
Bringing your awareness to any sounds you may hear,
Listening to them as they arise and pass away.
If no ambient sounds exist,
You can simply listen to the silence and notice what effect doing so has on you.
If your mind wanders,
Gently bringing it back to the focus of your attention,
Sounds,
Sounds of any sounds you may hear,
Sounds off in the distance,
Internal sounds,
Just being aware of these sounds as they arise and pass away.
You may be noticing the sound that has been in the background that you're only now hearing for the first time today.
And now bring awareness to mindfulness of thoughts.
Be aware of your thoughts as they arise in your mind and pass away.
Let them go as they please and try not to judge or attach to them.
You're watching your thoughts and having a sense of distance between yourself and your thoughts.
You're strengthening your witness within,
Your observer.
A helpful way of engaging in mindfulness of thoughts is thinking of them as clouds in the sky and these clouds of thoughts are passing by.
You watch them pass by,
But you don't cling to them or attach to them.
You take in the spacious blue sky.
If you notice yourself attaching to a thought,
Gently let it go.
You're strengthening the witness,
You're strengthening your observer self.
Enjoy.
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And now transitioning to mindfulness of feelings.
Noticing whatever feelings may arise for you.
In particular you may notice where you feel the emotion in your body.
And as you do that,
Try to bring a quality of acceptance and curiosity to your emotions.
Now an emotion is a physiological experience or state of awareness that gives us information about the world and a feeling is your conscious awareness of the emotion itself.
And if you notice your mind wandering,
Connecting back with your intention at the start of this practice to tune inwards and just notice whatever feelings arise in you where you may feel them in your body and offer a sense of curiosity as you explore the emotion.
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If you wander away from your focus of attention and your feelings gently bring yourself back.
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Exploring the emotions that you're tuning into where you feel them bringing a quality of acceptance to what you may be feeling and a sense of curiosity.
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Now take a moment to transition and just notice with interest,
Openness and curiosity the physical and emotional sensations around you.
Just notice what you experience as pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Gently nodding or acknowledging in your mind to your awareness of that.
So again,
Noticing with interest,
Openness and curiosity physical and emotional sensations around you and just noticing what you experience as pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
And gently acknowledging in your mind to your awareness of that.
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Noting with curiosity what we find pleasant,
Unpleasant,
And neutral.
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And now engage in open awareness meditation.
Sometimes called choice-less awareness because I invite you now to become aware of whatever is most predominant in your awareness without choosing.
You may be aware of any of the points of attention which we've engaged in throughout this practice,
Our breath,
Our body,
Sounds,
Feelings,
Sensations.
Just be open and become aware of whatever is most predominant in your awareness without choosing.
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We're now coming to the close of our practice.
Take some time to express appreciation to yourself for prioritizing this practice and taking the time to focus inward and to nourish yourself.
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