Mindfulness Meditation

In this practise we spread the awareness out into the whole body. The benefit of this is that the body will remind us during our daily life to come into the present moment.

Transcript

Mindfulness Meditation Practice 4.

Mindfulness Meditation Sensitizing the body to the breath part 2.

Come into a seated position.

This can be on a chair with your feet flat on the floor.

Or seated on the floor with legs crossed.

Place the hands in a comfortable position.

Maybe one palm resting on the other and relax.

Allow the eyes to gently close.

Gently.

No squeezing shut.

Nothing forced.

Feel your hands for a moment.

Feel the contact they make with the surface they rest upon.

The slight pressure.

Feel the life in them.

The vibration.

Tingling.

The temperature.

Maybe you can feel moisture.

Which hand is the most relaxed?

Feel it.

And allow it to teach the other hand to relax deeper.

Feel the subtle movements the hands make as they slowly unfurl and relax.

Relax.

Relax.

Taking a long slow breath.

Filling the lungs up to the maximum.

And then holding for a few seconds.

And then letting the air out in a deep,

Relaxing sigh.

Relaxing the whole body as you do.

Letting the shoulders drop.

And letting go of any tension that wants to leave.

Welcoming anything that wants to stay.

Take this deep breath two more times.

Watching everything move and change as you do.

Like a tide slowly sweeping back and forth.

Up and down the body.

Now look at your posture.

Bring it into alignment.

Upright but relaxed.

Awake but peaceful.

Bright.

Drop any struggle for what you perceive as perfection.

Let it be.

It is perfect as it is now.

For this meditation session.

It is perfect as it is now.

For this meditation session.

Commit to stillness.

Say to yourself in your mind,

I sit in stillness.

I will not move for the duration of this practice unless absolutely necessary.

If I have to move,

I will do it slowly and mindfully without judging myself for seeking comfort.

In this moment just sitting in stillness.

Nothing to do.

Just being.

Now move your attention to the abdomen and feel whatever is happening.

From the navel to the bottom of the abdomen and to the top of the abdomen.

Including the sides.

So the whole belly.

What can you feel here?

What is showing up?

And feel the surface of the abdomen.

Perhaps skin meeting clothing.

And also feel deep inside into the inner organs.

The muscles around the abdomen.

Letting go of any tension.

Connecting with the movements here in the belly.

Where do you feel the breath first?

And we're not looking for air.

We're looking for the tiny movements the body makes to allow and let breathing happen.

And follow the sensations throughout the abdomen.

Throughout the whole breath.

Then feel the pause as the breath stops.

And then where in the lower abdomen do you feel the out breath?

Where does it return to?

It may be that we can feel it start in the lower abdomen and move up a rising feeling.

This may not be true for you.

Find out your truth.

So we're looking for a point of origin where the breath starts.

And when you find that,

Ride the rest of the breath like a wave as it spreads across the abdomen.

And then we feel the breath slowly pause as it comes to a stop.

And then we follow the pattern it makes on the out breath.

And then we reach a pause again.

And then we meet the next incoming breath and so on.

And looking to see if we can connect with the sensations of rising and falling.

If you can,

You can say to yourself on the breath inside your mind say rising as the breath comes in.

And on the out breath falling.

Rising.

Falling.

And this can help us to anchor into the breath.

Allowing the breath,

Not forcing.

And seeing how far across the abdomen the ripples of breath reach.

And can you feel them stretch over into the sides of your abdomen?

And now move your awareness up into your chest.

Can you feel the breath here?

And again can you locate the first sensations of the in breath?

And just as we did with the abdomen,

Allow your awareness to trace the expansion of the in breath as it unfolds.

Then pause and then the out breath.

The expansion of the in breath and the contraction of the out breath.

And do this with a sense of ease.

A sense of just feeling.

Trying not to interfere.

Not pushing or pulling.

Just feeling the process.

And then feeling the process.

And then feeling the process.

Can you link the wave of one breath to the next without falling off?

Without wandering away into thought.

When we notice we've forgotten the breath and wandered into thinking,

We don't worry because this is part of the process.

We are not failing.

We're practicing.

It's a mental skill which will improve over time and there's no rush.

There's no self judgment.

We just return to the breath as it presents itself now.

In this part of the body.

We can say to ourselves thinking,

Thinking.

When we notice we've wandered off.

And this will help to stop the process of the wandering mind.

And then we place the attention back on the breath and start all over again.

Breathing.

Wandering away into thinking.

Into the past,

Into the future.

Waking up.

Realizing we've been lost.

Saying thinking,

Thinking.

And placing the attention back on the breath.

Over and over.

Now move your awareness into your back.

The lower back.

Mid,

Upper.

The back as a whole,

The whole back.

What can you feel?

Perhaps pain or tension.

If so,

See if the waves of breath move over any of the pain or tension.

Are they passing over and through it?

And each time they do,

See if you can bring a sense of releasing.

Of releasing into that wave of breath.

As if breath is drawing the tension out of the body,

Washing it away with its gentle wave.

And can you feel the breath sensations in the back?

This is more difficult,

Which is not a bad thing.

It's harder to feel the breath sensations in the back,

But because it's harder,

It can help us to increase our focus as we are forced to zone in and concentrate.

Maybe you can feel a gentle expansion of the back,

At the back of the ribs,

As they move out ever so slightly to accommodate the incoming breath.

See if you can feel that.

This can be very calming.

Because it's harder to interfere with the breath as it moves in the back.

It's easy to get involved with pushing and pulling the breath in the front of the body.

But in the back,

We can't do that so easily.

We don't have as much control.

So it can instruct us in letting go and just feeling the breath happen.

And then it becomes a beautiful,

Relaxing breath.

Now move your awareness onto the top of your shoulders.

And make sure they're not squeezed up towards your ears.

Dropping them and dropping any remaining tension you might find.

Relaxing and letting go.

What happens to the shoulders on an in-breath?

Look and find out.

And what happens to them on the out-breath?

These tiny movements can help us to connect the body,

To connect to it like we never have before.

We miss these tiny parts,

These small movements.

When we notice them,

The body becomes fully alive,

Mindful throughout.

Gross and subtle sensations are revealed.

And this helps us throughout our day to find otherwise unknown tensions that we carry and to simply drop them like the dead weight they are.

And then we can live lighter,

More free,

More alive.

And now letting go of the practice,

Dropping all effort.

Just be.

Nothing to do now.

Just be.

The breath will still rise and fall.

The mind will still chatter.

Everything is now welcome.

Not holding on to anything.

Not pushing anything away.

Just watching everything arise,

Change and fade away.

Hearing.

What can you hear?

Allow the hearing to accompany you on the transition from meditation back into your daily life.

Allowing some light in as you open your eyes a little.

Connecting,

If you can,

The state of peacefulness or gratitude.

Soak that in.

We don't rush from our practice back into the day.

Rather,

We try to carry the fruits,

The peace.

That we've cultivated back into our lives,

Back into our day.

And now slowly opening the eyes fully.

And seeing.

Truly seeing.

From this peaceful state.

Seeing as if seeing for the first ever time.

Senses engaged.

And now,

Mindfully,

Engage with the rest of your day.

Reviews

Sometimes I get into a kind of trance when I listen to your meditations and then I am far away and I feel that your reliable, calm manner takes me out of my thoughts, I can no longer follow your words and then I am completely peaceful and balanced and there is a deep silence inside me and the security in your voice gives me the security to follow you and then I can listen to you completely clearly again and enjoy it.

Outstanding. Short super sweet and very grounding. Many thanks! ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉

Beautifully guided introduction to mindful sitting, helpful to follow again from time to time for more experienced meditators as well

Absolutely wonderful. Going deep, observing the breath all across the body. This for sure will become one of my favourites.
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