We could change your mind.
We can act.
Shall I give you my emotions?
You will accidents!
This meditation practice incorporates mindfulness and somatic healing practices that help to settle,
Connect,
And show up wherever you are,
However you are.
You're welcome to practice sitting,
Standing,
Lying,
Or walking.
Any posture is absolutely welcome,
So tune in to see what posture is really supportive for you right now.
And let the body settle into this posture,
Seeing if it's possible to use a little less effort to hold yourself,
Letting the ground hold you,
The earth hold you,
As if the outer shell of the body is softening,
While the inner core of the body and the inner mind can get a little brighter,
A little more interested in this moment.
This meditation doesn't require that you keep still either,
Just that if you do need to move,
Do it slowly so that it becomes part of your meditation,
As opposed to a break or a dispersion.
And to let your body take a few full breaths if it feels good,
Expanding on the inhalation,
Releasing,
Contracting on the exhalation as much as is possible.
We're gonna move through all our senses in this practice of letting in the pleasant,
Taking in the good.
And we'll start with hearing.
So see if it's possible to let your attention rest in your ears,
Rest in the hearing sense.
There may be a lot of sounds in your environment,
The hum of a fridge,
Traffic,
Neighbors,
Housemates,
Even the crinkle of fabric on a chair or your own breathing.
And of course,
This voice,
My voice.
Let yourself scan your environment lightly until you find a sound that feels okay to notice,
Maybe even a little pleasant or soothing.
Neutral is fine too,
Just not unpleasant.
Can you let yourself stay with the sound as much as possible?
The mind will probably create an image to connect with the sound or add memories and fantasies or plans.
That's fine.
That's what the mind does.
But can you let all those interpretations and additions just shift to the background and keep bringing the actual sound itself to the foreground?
And notice what is it like to just listen?
And at times,
Attention will wander.
That's fine.
The moment you notice,
You're already back in the present moment and we bring mindfulness,
A present moment awareness to whatever we're listening to.
Now we'll shift to the sense of sight.
And if you're not able to see,
You're welcome to skip this section.
Whatever degree is possible,
Try looking around your environment.
Up and down,
Side to side.
Let your eyes rest or land on whatever they want to land on.
That might be a number of things.
So let yourself find one thing that's mildly pleasant,
Maybe a little soothing or agreeable or neutral,
Something that's okay enough.
And you want to choose something that you don't have many associations to like a photo.
What tends to work well is perhaps a corner of the sky,
A leaf,
The light reflecting off a cup,
Texture,
A color.
And let your eyes,
Your gaze rest on that object.
Is it possible to enjoy just looking at something that's kind of nice?
And again,
The mind's bound to add stories or thoughts like maybe you need to do something with the object or you wish you had more or remembering where it came from.
And is it possible to let those additions,
Those interpretations,
Rest to the side,
Shift to the background and keep the object itself,
The color,
The texture,
Seeing this object,
Keep that at the forefront.
What's it like to just notice something that's nice to see and just see it?
Okay.
And next,
We'll shift to the sense of touch.
For some people,
You can just tune in and notice the pressure of whatever you're sitting or standing or lying or walking on or the texture of clothing against your skin.
Others may want to feel around your environment and this is where you really don't need to be still,
But you are invited to move slowly and see is there a texture,
Something you could touch that's not far away that's mildly pleasant,
Somewhat soothing,
Okay enough.
Maybe a smooth leg of a table or chair,
Soft blanket,
Cool cup,
Something very simple and again,
We don't want to get into large associations.
But of course,
As thoughts arise and interpretations of the touch come,
You just let them go to the background and draw greater awareness to the experience of the touch itself.
What's it like to just let yourself feel something for the sake of experiencing it in this very moment,
Fully present?
Okay.
Some of you may want to stay with sight,
Sound or touch and others may want to continue with scent or taste.
And not everyone has anything strong to smell or taste in this moment.
But what's it like to tune in to whatever smell there might be or perhaps a lingering taste of drink or food that you last ate?
Or perhaps if you have some food nearby you can gently,
Smoothly take a bite and be totally present for the experience or the taste of the chewing or the scent.
Maybe you have flowers nearby or dirt.
It doesn't have to be anything in particular,
But again,
Something that's somewhat pleasant or neutral,
But not unpleasant to pay attention to.
So,
Often our attention gets hooked into what's unpleasant and what's not going well.
Our attention's trying to keep us safe,
And sometimes that's really important,
But often our attention goes overboard and skips all this neutral,
Nice,
Okay stuff.
We want to grow our capacity to actually take in so many wonders,
So many okay things,
So many pleasant moments that usually just get missed.
So whatever sense you are exploring,
What's it like to just stay with,
To let in this scent or taste or sight or sound or touch,
And you'll notice all the interpretations layering on,
And you just let them shift the background and return to this moment's experience just as it is.
Okay?
.
So as we prepare to close this practice,
You're welcome to do the full practice anytime you want,
Or you can do a short form of simply stopping and noticing one thing at one of the senses,
One sight,
One scent,
Etc.
And take three breaths,
Or a minute to just notice it.
Something that's a little pleasant or maybe very pleasant.
Let it in,
And then move on with your day.
It's a very flexible practice.
It's also very important because meditation can bring up a lot of experiences.
Some of them are pleasant and some of them are unpleasant.
Some are neutral.
Before we can really have the strength to face the difficulties that lie inside of us,
Our systems need to know how to be in touch with what's okay.
How to find that,
Not just noticing what's not going well,
Or where there's pain and hardship.
If this practice is challenging,
Feel free to stay with it and keep it as your main practice.
You might want to touch back into it every week or two.
So please play with this and find what works for you.
We'll close again with a hearing sound meditation.
See what it's like to listen to the sound of a bell.
