Hello,
I'm Brendan Kennedy and welcome to today's meditation.
Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
Close your eyes,
Settle in,
And take a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
And let that go through your mouth.
Let's do that one more time.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
And let that go.
During the workday,
You experience a constant flow of both outer and inner stimuli that change your state.
At times,
You may feel overwhelmed,
Like your brain is ping-ponging around in your head because of all the thoughts,
Emotions,
And sensations.
Typical meditations can be difficult to do.
You just can't focus.
So in today's meditation,
We're going to do a noting technique to move our awareness among different states in order to center us in the present moment.
For this exercise,
Noting means to simply recognize a sight,
Sound,
Or feeling occurred,
But do not interpret them.
Instead,
Just note each individual occurrence.
The first basic idea is to continuously track any visual thoughts or mental images that may spontaneously come up.
Or,
You may have a blank mental screen with just the darkness or brightness in front of or behind your eyes with your eyes closed.
For the next two minutes,
Whenever you have a mental image,
Note that as see in.
Whenever you have no mental image,
Note that as see rest.
Or,
Whenever all or part of the image drops away,
Note that as gone.
Try this now for the next two minutes.
The second basic idea is to keep your attention in your head or at your ears so you can detect the presence or absence of mental talk.
If mental talk occurs,
Listen to it with detachment,
Neither suppressing nor holding on to it.
If no mental talk occurs,
Listen to the quiet in your head as a pleasant,
Restful state.
For the next two minutes,
Whenever you have mental talk,
Note that as hear in.
Whenever you have no mental talk,
Note that as hear rest.
Or,
Whenever a burst of talk drops off or drops away,
Note that as gone.
Try this now for the next two minutes.
The third basic idea is to feel emotional body sensations.
At any given instant,
You might be experiencing strong emotion,
Mild emotion,
Or no emotion whatsoever.
When you experience a strong emotion,
It will almost certainly involve clearly detectable body sensations,
In addition to mental talk and maybe mental images.
The label for any emotional body sensation is feel in.
For the next two minutes,
Whenever you experience something emotional,
Note that as feel in.
The sensation may be strong or vague.
Anything is fine.
They all count as feel in.
If you don't feel any emotion,
Or if you have an emotion but it does not involve body sensations,
Note that as feel rest and focus on the fact that your body is emotionally peaceful.
If all or a part of feel in sensation drops away,
Note that moment as gone.
Try this now for the next two minutes.
The fourth practice is to let your attention broadly float between the mental images,
See in,
Mental talk,
Hear in,
And emotional body sensations,
Feel in.
If two or all three of these are active in the same moment,
Just choose one to note.
Doesn't matter which one.
If none of these is active,
Then drop in to do nothing.
If something you're noting drops away or drops off,
Note that moment as gone.
Do this for the next two minutes.
And now let's take a long slow deep breath in and let that go.
Let's do that one more time.
Long slow deep breath in.
You can now start to bring your awareness back into your physical body.
Wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes,
And when it feels comfortable you can slowly open your eyes.
