We are about to begin the meditation on body,
Breath,
Thoughts and sounds.
So find yourself a nice comfortable warm position seated on a chair,
Seated on the floor or lying down if you like.
Take your time to settle into this place.
Take your time to settle your mind,
Settle your body and whenever you are ready feel free to close your eyes or half close them if you prefer.
So firstly while we are sitting in this nice comfortable position allow your focus to come to your breath.
Allow your breath to bring you stillness.
Allow your breath to settle you.
Become aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves your body.
Tuning all your senses inwards towards your breath.
Observing the sensations that are associated with it.
Bringing all your attention to it.
Bringing that curiosity and that feeling of it's your first breath.
Bringing that air of openness and acceptance.
Nothing else matters right now in this point of time except for your breath.
Now we are going to take some time to have a few intentional breaths.
Taking three nice deep breaths.
Breathing in through your nose,
Directing that breath inwards and downwards into your belly,
Deep into your belly region.
Feel it fill up your belly as it rises and then feel it naturally come out through your nose or through your mouth or both.
Whatever feels natural.
Two more times.
Take a nice deep breath in through your nose.
Send it down deep into the body,
Deep into the belly.
And then just let it naturally come out.
Feeling the belly sink.
One more time on your own.
With each of these breaths we let go of the activity of the day and we settled our mind on the feelings that are here and now.
Just settling ourselves into our body right here,
Right now.
So continue taking those nice deep breaths.
Feeling the slight pause in between them.
Feeling the space between the breaths.
And let it anchor you into your body.
Let it anchor you into this present moment.
Whatever else and nothing else is important right now except for the here and now and your breath.
Noticing your body,
If there's any tension in your body.
Direct your attention there and direct your breath there and help to let it go.
Settling into your body.
Settling into yourself.
Just letting your body breathe all by itself as it always does.
Just bringing some attention to it.
Resting our awareness on it.
Perhaps with a little curiosity.
Being aware of every single breath in the body and out the body.
Just continue to do this on your own for a while.
Taking each breath nice and deep into the body.
Anchoring yourself into the present moment.
Keeping that awareness.
If your mind starts to wander,
Just bring it back to your breath.
Now while we're anchored in our breath,
We're just going to allow that natural rhythm to continue.
We're going to let go of our focus,
Of our attention to it.
Just let it be there in the background.
So slowly letting go of the focus on the breath.
We're going to now bring our awareness to sounds,
To the sense of hearing.
To what do we hear around us.
Just noticing what sounds are present where you are now.
We're often surrounded by lots of sounds around us.
Big soundscape of activity.
We don't really notice until we tune into it.
So gently tune into the sounds that are close by right now.
Just listening to all the immediate sounds around you.
Then tuning into the sounds that are just a little bit further away.
Just out of your reach.
Whatever that may be.
And if you can,
Really finely tune your hearing and your awareness to any sounds that might be far out in the distance.
Take your time.
Really focus and direct your ear,
Your inner ear outwards.
Direct your awareness inwards but then use your ear to really hear those sounds.
Maybe even try to hear the sounds that are in your body,
Within your body.
So directing your awareness inwards to your organs,
To your breathing.
Any sounds that might be deep within your body.
Just staying open and aware and noticing all the soundscapes around you and within you.
Noticing as they come to you,
As they might rise and as they might fall.
Seeing the points of sound and how they emerge out of the silence.
Notice the silence between the sounds.
Just like the spaces between my voice.
Silence.
Sound.
Just anchoring yourself into the present moment with the sounds.
Now we're slowly going to let go of the attention to sound or our focus on the sound.
We're going to bring our awareness to your thoughts now.
Just like the sounds come and go,
So do your thoughts.
Just noticing the different thoughts that might appear in your mind.
There's no need to consciously bring them up or start thinking or start searching for them.
Just let them naturally appear,
Present themselves and then they'll also naturally disappear.
Just like the clouds passing across the sky,
Just noticing your thoughts as they enter and leave your mind.
Whether they're words or visual images,
Past memories or judgments.
Just be aware of them and also be aware if there's any emotion attached to them.
Just like before with the breath and with the sounds,
Be aware of the thoughts themselves and then be aware of the spaces that happen between the thoughts.
Take your time.
Observe.
Just like the sounds that come out of the silence,
So too do your thoughts.
They appear from nowhere and they disappear and dissolve.
Just letting all of those things be there in the background.
Your breath,
Your body,
The sounds,
Your thoughts and just let them all be there exactly as they are.
Just noticing them without attaching to them,
Without judging them.
Just let them all come and go.
Your breath,
Your body,
The sounds,
The thoughts as they like.
Just let them appear and then let them naturally disappear.
And just letting your focus go totally now.
Not attaching to any of those.
Just letting yourself be fully aware and fully present and just let them all operate in the background.
Bring your awareness to your body,
To where you are now and just let all those things operate naturally just like the clouds passing through the sky.
Being fully present,
Fully alive,
Fully aware.
We're about to leave the practice.
So slowly when you're ready,
Bring your awareness back to your body,
Back to yourself,
Back to where you are right now.
Slowly bringing some movement to your fingers,
To your toes,
To your body and keeping that connectedness of body,
Breath,
Sounds and thoughts.
