Allowing yourself to come into a posture that supports your practice.
And allowing your eyes to close if that's comfortable for you.
And if it's not,
Just have a soft gaze down at the floor.
.
.
.
Allowing yourself to come into a sense of hereness.
Here,
Now,
Arriving in this moment.
Arriving in the space you're in.
Arriving in the conditions you're in.
Sensing the feel of the room around you.
Here,
Now,
Arriving.
Arriving in your body,
Knowing you have a body.
Sensing the body sitting.
Just being present for a few breaths as we move into a practice together.
Austrian-born psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl said,
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
And in that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
So in this practice,
We're going to explore that space and perhaps even learning to cultivate that space.
Scanning through your body.
Just checking in with your body.
And seeing if you can sense any unpleasant experience in the body.
The first foundation of mindfulness,
The body.
Connecting with the second foundation of mindfulness,
Feeling tone.
Just noticing.
Not looking for something really big.
Just more like attention or discomfort.
Checking in your shoulders maybe and your hips.
Often places where we hold.
Just see if you can sense anything unpleasant that is arising in your body right now.
And just see if you can silently note to yourself,
Oh,
Unpleasant.
Unpleasant.
You might want to ask yourself,
What piece of my experience is it that makes this unpleasant?
Is there burning or tightness or heat or pressure?
Notice what your attitude is towards the sensation.
Can you feel resistance?
Is your attitude tight and harsh?
And notice if your attitude towards the sensation is the same or something different from the actual sensation in the body.
Just being curious.
And just breathe into the sensation and see what happens to it.
Just imagine yourself breathing into it.
Perhaps you might even notice your attitude softening around the sensation.
And just notice what happens,
If anything.
And letting go of the unpleasant sensation and scanning through your body for something that feels neither pleasant or unpleasant.
What would be considered neutral.
Just scanning through your body for neutral sensations.
Perhaps it's just your feet resting on the floor or bed.
Or your hands resting on your thighs.
Rest your attention there.
Just resting your attention on this neutral sensation.
And notice,
What does neutral feel like to you?
Notice what happens to your attention.
Is the sensation easy or difficult to stay with?
We're just exploring.
Noticing.
Does your mind want to move elsewhere?
Or can you just stay with the felt sense of this neutral sensation?
Is the mind looking for something?
Is it spinning off into a story?
If that is happening,
Just kindly but firmly bring your mind back to feeling this neutral sensation.
And letting go of the neutral sensation and sweeping through the body for a pleasant sensation.
Doesn't have to be anything big.
Maybe you just sense a release or an ease in some area of the body.
Or you might even experience a pleasant sensation in your awareness and just being willing to do this.
And just letting yourself be with whatever is arising.
The truth of this moment can be pleasant for us.
But just noticing what happens to the mind.
Is it easy or difficult to stay with the sensation of pleasant?
Does the mind want to build on it?
Is there any clinging or grasping arising?
Just noticing.
Just being with your breath again.
And asking yourself,
Can you notice how what your mind does with the sensation is different from the sensations themselves?
This is the beginning of the exploration into the reactive mind in a felt sense way.
We learn to see that what we're experiencing and how we are holding what we are experiencing are different.
And our habituation in our meeting experience,
Holding experience in particular ways is our reactivity.
Mindfulness practice asks us to just slow down and notice the reactive patterns of the mind.
Asks us to begin to develop a relationship to things that are present in our consciousness without reacting to them.
Learning a more skillful response.
