Meditate: Choose From 2 X 3 Experiments

Choose it,

Use it.

The extended version.

So,

Having found that space,

Making a commitment to yourself to use any distraction whatsoever as a tool for coming back into this practice.

Making sure your back is straight and whilst you find this posture,

Notice that you're finding this posture.

Open your awareness and allow your experience to occur naturally.

There's no need for any effort here in practicing this.

Now moving on to Set 1.

Let's experiment with three different experiences of the breath.

Guide your awareness to each one of these as they are described.

Number 1.

Explore what it's like right now to take attention to the rise and fall of your belly.

Just how you breathe normally and naturally,

Focusing upon what this feels like.

Noticing maybe specific details and maybe tuning in to any movement there.

Notice as you do this,

How this experience has become your anchor.

Gently being with this experience.

Nothing else to do.

Let's be here now with this practice.

Experiment number 2.

Staying with the breath,

Noticing the length of your inhalation and the length of your exhalation.

Noticing how this length may vary just slightly and requires you to fine tune your awareness in order to experience this.

Whilst you're doing this,

Your mind is not going to want you to be in the present moment.

It wants to be in the past,

Or guessing the future,

Or commenting on the present.

Notice,

Acknowledge any thought and return each time.

The length of each breath,

Fine tuning your awareness to this experience.

Experiment number 3.

Staying with the breath,

Watch the gentle pause at the top and the bottom of each breath.

And again,

This requires some fine tuning of your awareness to really get to the very end of each inhalation and exhalation and tuning in to that pause that happens.

Noticing the subtle pause that happens and whether there's a longer gap at the bottom compared to the top or vice versa.

Notice how this experience becomes your anchor when you are connected to it.

Now,

Simply choose one of these three experiences.

The first was noticing the rise and fall of your belly.

The second was noticing the length of your breath.

And the third was noticing the pause.

It may be that you've found another experience of your breath right now that you were drawn to.

If so,

You can choose this one.

But commit right now to choosing one and using this as your anchor,

A point of connection.

We're now going to have a moment of silence without my voice in order for you to practice this unguided.

Now moving on to the final set,

Set 2.

Experimenting again,

Three different experiments,

This time with experiences of the body.

Guide your awareness to each one as I describe them.

Experiment number one.

Acknowledge how you are positioned and without moving,

Notice how your body is gently held by the pull of gravity.

Now,

As you become aware of this,

Tune in to the most obvious experience of the pull of gravity upon your body in this moment.

Noticing any judgements that your mind makes and returning to how your body is gently held by the pull of gravity.

Experiment number two.

Shift your awareness to how your feet make contact with the floor.

And in bringing your attention here,

What do you notice?

Gently letting go of distractions in order to let your experiences be.

Noticing how the experience of your feet making contact with the floor is in the foreground of your awareness as all other thoughts,

Sensations,

Sounds can come and go in the background.

Moving on,

Our final experiment.

Experiment number three.

Now notice your hands,

Taking awareness to your hands and how they are resting.

As you do this,

Tune in to the feeling within them,

The energy within your hands.

Whether it's through the temperature or any other felt sense experience,

Just feeling whatever it is that you feel in your hands.

When you get carried away by thoughts in your mind,

Just come back.

You may even like to notice the space around your hands and any warmth coming from them.

Now,

Simply choose one of these as a favourite right now.

Which one did you find the easiest to connect to?

The first was noticing how your body was held by gravity.

The second was the experience of how your feet make contact with the floor.

And the third was the sensations in your hands.

As we did before,

We're going to have a moment of silence now to increase your practice of doing this unguided.

Where is your attention right now?

Noticing how the experience that you've chose is in the foreground of your awareness.

As all thoughts,

Urges,

Sounds,

Sensations can come and go in the background.

This is it.

Choosing a point of focus.

Using it as an anchor.

Allowing your experience to be and everything else to come and go in the background.

Now open your entire awareness to your body.

And know that whatever you notice is just as it is.

You may notice your attention hop from one place to the other.

Or it may open to a more expanded concentration where you can notice your entire experience all at the same time.

And so very soon this meditation is coming to an end.

See if you can keep some of your awareness here as you open your eyes and come back to the room.

Noticing with curiosity what you can see.

This meditation has come to an end.