Today we'll be practicing a brief meditation for shifting our awareness from the small chattering mind,
This mini me that seems to exist between our eyes,
Into our heart space,
Into the sense of more open and spacious awareness.
So we'll begin just by finding a comfortable seat wherever you may be today.
If you're sitting in a chair or couch it can be helpful to place your feet on the floor firmly beneath you.
If you're sitting in a cross-legged or kneeling position just allowing your knees to make contact with the floor and allowing yourself to feel held by whatever seat you're in today.
Feeling that support of the seat and also noticing how gravity is pulling you gently towards the earth.
So allowing yourself to feel held.
You can either soften the gaze a few feet in front of you or close the eyes if it's more comfortable.
We'll begin just by becoming aware of our breath as the sensation of our chest rising and falling.
So noticing what it's like for an in-breath is the chest expands,
Pauses at the top,
And then comes out as an exhale,
The chest returning back to its original state before beginning the next in-breath.
So just becoming aware of this cycle,
Noticing the breath coming in and out,
Breathing itself as these sensations of the chest rising and falling.
And now noticing where your awareness of the breath is coming from.
Noticing if you're thinking about those sensations of the chest rising and falling or maybe in your mind you're imagining those sensations or directing your awareness from behind your eyes and your brain down to those sensations.
And now we'll practice just intuitively without thinking about it unhooking this awareness from your mind from that small mini me that watches and narrates everything.
Imagining it unhooking and allowing gravity to pull it 18 inches down into your heart space.
So now you can feel this awareness of the heart space of the chest area without having to go back up into thought or without looking down at it from your mind.
Feeling this sense of aliveness,
This presence,
This awareness within the heart space.
And now just beginning to become aware of the breath coming in and out naturally on its own,
Noticing how the body's breathing itself from this place of awareness within the heart space.
It's almost like the heart is breathing on its own.
There's a breath coming in and out of this heart space.
This is a effortless practice.
If you notice the mind going back to thought or trying to create a sense of effort or focus,
Noting it and just unhooking that awareness once again,
Allowing the breath to breathe itself in the heart space,
Noticing how awareness is already present in the body without going to the mind.
You might have to spend the last few moments of our practice unhooking that awareness even from the heart space and allowing it to open into spacious awareness throughout the entire body,
Even the space outside of your body.
You might feel this sense of sky-like awareness,
Sensations moving like clouds,
Thoughts like clouds,
Just resting,
Marinating in this open awareness.
Staying in this place for as long as you'd like or whenever you feel ready,
Just beginning to open the eyes or return your focus to the room and seeing if you can take this sense of embodied awareness,
This open spacious awareness,
Into the rest of your day.
