Meditation For Awareness & Acceptance Of The Present Moment

This guided mindfulness meditation helps cultivate awareness and acceptance of your present moment experience. Throughout your day, you may notice that you're drifting further away from your awareness, as your mind is on autopilot. This can result in feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, or extreme monkey mind.

This is a great practice to help still the mind, disconnect from negative thoughts, or simply reconnect with the breath and body. This practice will help settle yourself back into calm awareness.

Transcript

To begin,

Just become comfortable wherever you are,

Whether that's lying down or sitting.

And when you're ready,

Either gently close your eyes or gaze downwards at your feet.

And as you settle in,

Begin to bring your awareness to whatever is going on for you right now.

Give the weight of your body up to gravity.

Allow your weight to sink into the points of contact between your body and the floor of the chair or surface beneath you.

If you notice any tension or resistance towards painful or unpleasant sensations,

See if you can gently turn towards them.

Accept them as best you can.

If you begin to tense around the breath,

Then see if you can let go a little bit more with each exhale.

Now allow your awareness to gather around the experience of the breath in the body.

See if you can drop your awareness inside the breath,

Feeling all of the different sensations in the front,

Back and sides of the torso.

Can you feel your awareness within the flow and movement of the breath?

Use the breath to anchor your awareness in the present moment,

Breathing in the body,

Noticing each inhale and exhale again and again.

Notice any thoughts as they arise and pass through the mind.

See if you can let them come and go without identifying with their content.

Observe them as if they were clouds in the sky.

Notice any feelings and emotions as they arise.

See if you can let these come and go and include everything within your awareness with a kind and compassionate perspective.

Each time you notice your mind is wandered,

Gently notice that and guide the mind back to the breath in the body,

Noticing whether you're on an inhale or an exhale.

Now gently expand your awareness to include the whole body.

Feel the weight and shape of the body as it sits or lies here.

If you've got any pain or discomfort,

Simply make sure your awareness stays open and cultivate acceptance or acknowledgement of your entire experience.

As you re-engage with the activities of your day,

See if you can carry this awareness that you've cultivated with you.

Now begin to broaden your awareness even further to become aware of sounds both inside and outside of the room,

Becoming aware of whatever's around you.

Become aware of the points of contact between your body and the surface beneath you.

Begin to move the body by perhaps wiggling the fingers and toes,

Rolling the shoulders or giving the spine a nice upward stretch.

Gently open your eyes when you are ready.

Thank you so much for joining me in this practice today.

You can come back to this practice at any time you need.

Have a wonderful day.