Mindful Play: Pause And Notice

This short meditation is designed as a mindful pause while playing a video game but can be used amidst any activity you cherish to re-center yourself and bring your senses alive. By pausing and noticing what arises in our body and our mind, we can bring a more vivid awareness to the stories, people, and experiences we encounter.

Transcript

Taking a minute to pause here,

We're going to cultivate a little bit of curiosity by noticing what's happening inside our bodies and our minds and rest there before going back into our play session.

So,

Wherever you're sitting,

You can let your device or your controller rest nearby on your lap and see if you can sit up just a little bit straighter,

Find a nice balanced posture and take a couple of deep breaths in,

In through your nose and then out through your mouth.

And do that two more times on your own.

And on the last time,

You can gently close your eyes and just feel the sensations of where your body's coming into contact with the chair beneath you,

Maybe your feet on the floor,

And see if right away you can come into a full body awareness and just slowly begin to notice whatever sensations in your body are there to notice.

You might feel some tingling,

Some warmth,

Some pressure.

And what I'm going to get you to do just for two minutes is as these sensations come up,

Or even as a thought comes up,

Just note gently,

Ah,

That's feeling in my body,

Or ah,

That's a thought.

And then come back to rest here in your body and gently follow your breath as it goes in and out.

Just might notice that's pressure where I sit,

Or that's tingling on my hand,

Or that's a thought passing through.

And everything is welcome.

Just note it gently and then come back and follow your breath as it goes in and out.

All thinking and feeling,

All welcome.

Noticing the full range of different sensations that are passing through.

And just do one more cycle of breath and just notice the body breathing in and the body breathing out.

And you can just let out a little sigh.

And you can now open your eyes and then see if you might feel that full body awareness again from tip to toe.

And as you go back into the game,

See if you can keep hold of a bit of that awareness of the body as you're playing the game.

Maybe even 50% of your attention can stay in your body and the rest you can take over into the game.

And just slowly step back in and enjoy noticing what you now see in the environment that you're playing in.

Enjoy!