Okay,
Here we are.
We'll get started.
So,
Let's get started.
So,
Let's get started.
So,
Let's get started.
So,
I invite you to begin by simply allowing yourself to become aware of whatever is already predominant in your experience.
There's going to be any aspect of your senses,
Sight,
The light dancing behind your eyelids,
Sounds,
The atmosphere around you,
Sounds from the household or outside,
Smells,
Taste,
Touch especially.
This can include any aspect of touch,
Sense of your body inside and out,
Balance,
Parts of your body connecting with external objects,
Feet on the ground.
And once again,
I'm inviting you to let go of the need to direct your attention in any particular way.
Simply becoming aware of whatever is already here.
Your attention,
This spotlight quality of perception might drift from aspect to aspect and that's okay.
Wherever it goes,
Whether it's thoughts or feelings or sensations or any aspect of your sensory experience,
Feel free to just allow it to do that.
Let go of the need to control.
Let go of the compulsion to manipulate your experience.
Simply allow this experience to be exactly as it is.
Let thoughts play out as they will.
Simply let them come,
Let them be,
Let them go.
Notice if you're becoming attached to them,
Indulging in them.
You could say that's like you're tightening your grip around them.
And the invitation is to gently let go of that grasping and allow it to slip away on its own.
Not flinging our hand open metaphorically,
Not pushing it away.
Simply allowing whatever arises in our experience to come and go of its own accord.
Your experiences might be pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
That's okay.
We experience things in these ways automatically.
There's really nothing we can do about that.
But the unpleasantness doesn't need to lead to aggression,
To aversion from the experience.
Nor does the pleasant need to lead to a compulsive craving or chasing.
Simply stay with the experience itself.
Noticing whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
There's nothing to do here.
There's no way to get this wrong.
There's no way to win.
This is not a competition.
Simply giving ourselves space,
Giving our minds space,
Our hearts space to just be.
Letting go of the fixing mind.
You don't need to fix your experience.
You don't need to fix yourself.
You're not broken,
Nor is your experience.
Everything is happening exactly as it's meant to,
Based on what's come before it.
Letting your awareness hold any aspect,
Any content of experience,
Without trying to change it.
If your mind follows a narrative or thoughts,
Images,
That's okay.
Once you become aware of it,
Notice if you're grasping after it.
If you're holding too tight.
And notice if perhaps this is the thing that's giving you suffering.
This dissatisfaction with your current experience.
What would happen if you gently released your grasp?
Perhaps there's an experience that's unpleasant,
Unpalatable,
Even unbearable.
What would happen if you simply let go of the effort of pushing against it?
We cannot get this wrong.
Just allowing ourselves to be.
Letting go as much as we can.
Whatever effort we're unconsciously applying to try and manipulate or change our experience.
And anything can be held in this broad awareness we have.
Even the tendency to push away or pull towards us.
Perhaps we're not able to let go of those tendencies right now.
But we can hold that resistance itself,
That craving itself in awareness.
And that's okay too.
All of these tendencies,
All of these behaviors are part of being human.
They came with the package.
If you're particularly struggling at any point,
Feel free to bring your spotlight of attention into the felt aspect of the body.
Any part,
Perhaps your chest or your belly or your throat.
Simply allow yourself to feel whatever you're already feeling in relationship to your experience.
Just allow yourself to have that bodily experience.
Here we're practicing and developing a kind of tolerance,
Resilience for the challenges of life.
When we sit to meditate,
Very often our imagination continues to play out narratives.
Try and solve problems from the past or future.
Simply become aware of that's happening and bring some kindness to yourself.
That's okay.
This is not another activity to achieve.
This is not another way to be productive.
There is nothing to produce here.
There is nothing to achieve.
Simply coming into a non-adversarial relationship with our lives.
Letting go of the struggle itself.
Allow yourself to have whatever experience you're having.
It's okay.
This is a difficult time for everyone.
And it binds us together if we allow it to.
Allow yourself to have the struggle.
But also feel free to let go of it.
Don't struggle against the struggle.
We might say that we don't suffer because of experience.
But because of how we relate to our experience.
Can we relate to it with kindness?
With acceptance?
With even just tolerance?
Can we learn to be with this intensity that life brings us without seeing it as a problem?
Without seeing our struggle as failure?
Without seeing challenges as defects?
Simply being with our raw experience as it is.
Inventing nothing.
Denying nothing.
Allowing everything.
Practice in silence for a short while.
Allowing ourselves to be with this intensity as it is.
Allowing ourselves to be with this intensity as it is.
And in the final stages of our sit together,
I invite you to take a hand or two to some part of your body that could use some support,
Some tenderness,
Some love.
Like a dear friend's hand.
Just giving you some gentle contact to say,
They're there.
They're there for you.
See if we can give some semblance of that to ourselves.
Simply feeling the warmth of our hand contacting some other part of our body.
Maybe motion or stillness,
You can massage or just let it rest there.
Notice how that changes how you feel.
If it changes how you feel.
In a moment,
I'm going to ring the bell.
And that will signal the end of our meditation.
Please take your time to transition slowly out of it.
No need to rush.
But do whatever you need to do.
The End.
