Sitting Meditation With The 5 Anchors (MBSR)

This sitting meditation practice is part of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The guided meditation goes through different methods to focus the attention on the present moment including awareness of the body, breath, sounds, thoughts, and finally to open awareness of the present moment.

Transcript

This is called the five elements sit.

This is a 40 minute long meditation practice that is part of mindfulness based stress reduction.

This practice could be helpful for anyone who would like to spend some time experimenting with different ways to focus during a seated meditation.

Start with finding a seat that is upright and alert,

Refined,

Not overly relaxed and also not overly stiff.

You could be sitting in a chair or sitting on the floor and let the back be nice and long with the spine upright.

If you're already coming into this feeling a little bit stiff,

Roll your shoulders back a few times and then roll them forward a few times.

And from here let's just really start to tune into the body.

Noticing the physical body in space in this moment.

Where is the body making contact with the floor or with the seat?

Observe those contact points.

Maybe the hips,

The feet,

Maybe the back.

We can notice this without judgment.

Maybe also observing things like one side of the body might be making more contact than the other.

We also might notice things like contact between clothing and the skin.

And overall,

How does the body feel right now?

What do we notice about that?

Again,

In a non-judgmental way,

How could that be described?

Does the body feel heavy and tired?

Does it feel agitated?

Does it feel kind of jumpy and antsy like wanting to move?

Or is there pain?

Or is there like kind of an absence of all of that almost a numbness?

So whatever all that is,

Whatever it is that you're observing,

Let's just allow that to be present.

Not trying to change it,

Just observing that that's the experience of the body in this moment.

And what's the experience of the body in this moment now?

Is it the same as a few breaths ago?

Or is it different now?

Did it shift?

And sometimes observing just the overall experience of the body can be a lot.

So if that's the case,

Tune into a particular part of the body,

Maybe a part of the body where there's not a lot of discomfort in this moment.

So that could be one of the toes.

It could be an earlobe,

The back of the head.

And just tune in and notice what you observe there,

The sensations,

Lack of sensation,

Contact with clothing or the ground.

And when the mind wanders,

Just bring it back to this observation of the body.

Tuning in to what's going on with the body right now.

Starting to shift the awareness from the experience of the body to the experience of the breath,

Which of course is also an experience of the body.

Here we can observe what's going on with the breath.

Where in the body can the breath be observed?

It's like a wave coming and going in and out.

So can you observe the inhale and the exhale?

And where in the body is the breath experienced?

Maybe we observe it in the belly,

Expanding and contracting with each breath.

Maybe in the chest,

Rising and falling,

The shoulders too.

Maybe the nose as the breath comes in and out of the nostrils.

Tuning in,

Let's observe where that experience is felt.

Where is the mind right now?

Maybe it wandered off.

That's normal.

That happens.

If so,

Gently bring it back to the breath.

The breath being the anchor to this present moment.

And sometimes we do that over and over and over again,

Getting pulled away.

And then we come back.

We get pulled away and then we come back.

And that's thought to actually build the muscle of mindfulness.

So if it's building the muscle mindfulness,

Maybe we don't have to be discouraged by that.

Let me just come back.

My body is breathing right now.

This is the body breathing.

There's also a few ways that we can work with the breath in a seated meditation.

One way is to count with the breath.

So that could be breathing in and then breathing out.

Number one,

Breathing in and breathing out.

Number two,

In and out.

Three and continuing all the way up to ten.

Just counting a number on the breath out.

And if at any time you lose your place,

Just come back to number one again.

Now with the feel for that one,

We can also use gatha practice,

Which is reciting poetry or words with the breath.

So I'll introduce that and you can get a feel for that.

And then we can each choose the way that we want to continue to observe the breath.

So this is poetry from Tich Nhat Hanh.

So when you inhale,

You can think the words,

I have arrived.

And exhale,

I am home.

Inhale,

In the here,

Exhale and in the now.

I have arrived.

I am home.

In the here,

And in the now.

I have arrived.

I am home.

In the here,

In the now.

I have arrived.

I am home.

In the here,

In the now.

And we can even break it down further just to the key words.

Arrive,

Home,

Here,

Now.

It's definitely possible to use other words too,

Even as simple as inhale and exhale.

So take a little bit of time to choose and be intentional with it.

Let's each choose a certain breath practice.

It could be observing where in the body we experience the breath.

It could be counting,

Or it could be the gatha practice.

So go ahead and pick one and take a little bit of time practicing it.

So if the focus gets fractured in some way,

Just come back.

Come back to that anchor of the breath awareness practice.

It really is a simple idea to focus in on the breath and yet there's a lot there.

There's a pattern to the breathing and yet each breath is slightly different.

So we just might notice as we continue with the practice how each moment unfolds a little bit differently than the one before.

If we can be there to observe,

If we can show up to see it,

Perhaps that's what we notice.

The changes,

Even the subtle ones.

And yet here we are with the body breathing in and out.

Of course the breathing will continue even as we shift our focus to another anchor,

Which is that of sound.

You can hear the sound of my voice right now and perhaps there are other sounds that you're aware of as well.

The sounds in your environment,

Maybe sounds in the room,

A clock ticking,

Sounds outside like a car,

Birds.

Sometimes we can also notice internal sounds like a stomach gurgling or sometimes we can hear the blood pumping or the heart beating from within.

So I invite all of us just take a little bit of time to notice these sounds and take them in.

With some sounds like the breath,

There's a pattern.

Some just pop up here and there.

And if we're present to notice,

We can see that each moment could present a new sound.

And then of course we might also notice quiet,

The absence of sound.

Noticing what that experience is like.

What is it like to not hear sound?

Does it make you look for it and anticipate?

If the mind is pulled away,

That's okay.

Just very gently,

Without judgment,

Just recognizing it's pretty darn normal.

I can come back to observing sounds.

What is it like when we take in a sound?

Oftentimes the mind is really quick to label what the sound is.

A dog barking,

A car going by,

A clock ticking.

And once we label it,

Then maybe we're done with it.

We're no longer observing.

What if we took in the sounds,

Whatever those might be,

Like it's the first time you've ever heard it and like you don't really know what it is and what you can attribute it to.

What if it's just taking in those sound waves into the ear as it's hitting the eardrum?

Really applying beginner's mind to observing our sounds around us.

And if your space is quiet,

Maybe you can hear in my space that there's construction going on just down the road and it's a bit loud.

Throughout these practices of the different anchors,

The body,

The breath and sound,

Probably we've all noticed the presence of thoughts.

So let's now shift to the anchor of observing thoughts and allowing the thoughts to be present.

Now the challenge with this is that we're not going to think about the thoughts,

Which is maybe what most of us are really used to doing,

Investigating and really engaging with the thoughts and the content of the thoughts.

Instead we're watching this thing that the brain does,

Which is to generate thoughts just like the heart beats and moves blood around the body.

The brain generates thoughts.

So we're watching that process like a person standing on a riverbank looking at the river and leaves are going by in the river and maybe each thought is a leaf going by.

So there's some space between the self and that leaf thought.

We can see it coming and going,

And then maybe there's another leaf going by,

And then maybe another.

And just notice that,

These thoughts coming and going.

Instead of getting lost in the content,

Like you jump in the river and grab onto the leaf,

Perhaps it could be labeled,

That's a thought.

And that's a thought.

And how would we describe the thoughts in this moment?

Just like we did with the body a little while ago,

Is the body heavy?

Is the body feeling light?

Is it feeling agitated?

What are the thoughts like?

Are they quick?

Are they slow?

Are they repetitive?

And we're not trying to change it,

We're letting it be what it is.

I'm giving ourselves some space.

There are the thoughts going by and here I am.

I'm watching the thoughts,

I am NOT the thoughts.

I'm watching them,

They're part of me.

They're part of the present experience,

But they are not THE experience.

And what are the thoughts like now?

Are they different than just a little bit ago?

Different thoughts?

And is there any change in maybe the speed,

The repetitiveness,

The type of thought?

We might have thoughts about the past,

Thoughts about the future.

We might also have,

You know,

Kind of a lull,

Almost like an absence of thought.

So maybe when we check in,

We notice the changing nature of thought.

Kind of a reassuring thing,

Because then when the thoughts feel so strong and powerful,

We can remember that those change too.

Those are leaves that go down the river too.

And what a different way to interact with our thoughts.

Most of us have been living in a kind of world where we're very encouraged to investigate our thoughts and really engage with them.

So this is a very new way to interact with them.

So we can have compassion for ourselves if this is the first time trying such a thing.

And now after doing several different types of anchoring practices,

We're actually gonna let go of any anchors and come into a space of present moment awareness.

So this is like bringing a blanket out on the lawn and allowing leaves to just fall on the blanket.

So observing what's happening in that present moment,

Awareness of the present moment,

And that might be sensations in the body,

Thoughts in the mind,

Breath,

Sounds.

We just allow it,

Whatever it is.

Notice if there's any attachment to the previous anchors and if there's some urges to go back to one that maybe you preferred.

And that can be an interesting thing to observe is that urge to go to something else and instead encourage all of us to stay with this open awareness.

Again,

That blanket out on the lawn,

Just catching whatever falls in this moment and in this moment.

Recognizing how from moment to moment things might shift,

New things might be observed.

And if you get pulled away from the present moment,

Just come back.

To the awareness of right now.

Letting go of all the anchors can be a bit like a boat floating in the water without an anchor holding it in place.

And that doesn't have to be a scary thing.

It means there can be this flexibility with what comes up.

Moving around with the water.

And as we move towards closing,

Think of how we could take any of these practices into the day.

And also recognize that as we continue to practice with different anchor points or with different or with the open awareness,

That the experiences of it from day to day really might change,

Really might shift.

So right now,

It might feel like there's a favorite.

Tomorrow,

The experience might be different as part of what we notice is that shifting of the present moment experience.

This impermanence.

And as I ring the bell,

Just allow the sound to come through you and start to start to move the body just a little bit,

Maybe shifting the shoulders and the neck.

If the eyes have been closed,

You can open them to start to allow light to come back in and just take a really big stretch with the arms up overhead.

And let the breath come out as you bring the arms down to the sides.

And how wonderful to practice with you today.

I wish you well.