The Zoom Sessions No 17: Saturday Meditation Drop In 18th July 2020

Due to the Coronavirus, I decided to host a free Saturday night meditation sessions via Zoom whilst we are all locked down. This recording was made to enable group members to return to the session 'as and when' they would like to.

This is a live field recording of our drop-in meditation session hosted on Saturday 18th July 2020; so there is some background noise.

The full session contains a Body Scan, a Mindfulness Awareness Practice and an Examen; a review of our day as it was.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Matt Albury.

The following session is a live recording of a Zoom meditation session that took place on the 18th of July 2020.

Our meditation group couldn't meet in person so we met via Zoom during the pandemic lockdown.

This is the 17th session.

The following session contains a body scan,

An awareness mindfulness practice where we noticed various things such as our breath,

Our thoughts,

Bodily sensations.

This will lead into a quiet meditation where we will just sit in that sense of anada,

That sense of bliss.

And then the session will end with an examine of the day which is a meditation to help us review how our day has been.

So we do our usual grounding technique then just to help set us in.

So to start off with just bring your awareness to the bottom of your feet and if your feet are nice and firm on the floor just notice the physicalness of that floor there.

If you're sitting cross legs or on a bed just notice the bottom of the feet,

The sensation of the bottom of the feet.

And then take your awareness up to what you're sitting on.

So noticing the physical contact with your body,

That sense of being supported.

And then take your awareness to all the sounds you can hear around you.

So starting off with the sounds outside of the room where you are.

So we're just accepting whatever's there,

Not pushing it away or letting it frustrate us.

And then take your awareness then to the sounds inside of the room where you are.

So just noticing what's there.

Just allowing that just to be.

And then we'll take two lovely breaths.

So breathing in through our nose and sitting out through the mouth.

Let's take a lovely deep breath in.

And we'll do that again,

Lovely deep breath in.

Just allow yourself just to settle for a moment.

And then before you start the body scan just think of an intention,

What you want this practice to be for you now.

So for this next 40 minutes or so just allow yourself just to think what you want this practice to be,

To set an intention for yourself.

Maybe it's a time of relaxation,

Time of healing,

Time of just settling after a busy day.

And then when you hear the bell we'll start our body scan.

So allow your awareness then to flow back to the bottom of the feet.

And then flow your awareness then up onto your toes,

The tops of the feet and the ankles.

Flowing your awareness then up through the lower legs,

The knees,

The thighs,

The hips and the backside.

Just notice the sensations there.

Just notice the feet and the legs.

And then flow your awareness then up through from your hips up onto your belly and your lower back.

Taking the awareness up onto the upper chest and the upper back.

Just noticing the sensations there.

And then flow your awareness then up onto the shoulders,

The shoulder joints.

Taking your awareness then down through the upper arms and the elbows,

The forearms and the wrists.

The tops of the hands and the palms.

Just noticing that little hollow in your palm.

And then take your awareness then out onto your thumbs,

Your first fingers,

Your second fingers,

Your third fingers and your fourth.

And then gently flow your awareness all the way from the tips of the fingers all the way up to the shoulder joints.

Just noticing the physical sensations present there in your body.

And then flow your awareness across up onto your throat and the back of the neck.

Taking your awareness around onto the jaw,

The mouth,

The lips and the teeth,

The gums,

The insides of the cheeks,

The roof of the mouth,

The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.

And then just take a moment just to notice the tastes and the physical sensations present in the mouth at the moment.

And then just take your awareness then up onto the nose and the nostrils.

Flowing your awareness around onto the ears.

Taking your awareness around onto the eyelids,

The eyelashes and the eyeballs.

Just notice the physical sensations there.

And then take your awareness then up onto the forehead,

The back of the head and then up onto the crown.

And just take a moment just to notice what it feels like to be in your body,

In the space that you're in.

Just notice in your presence.

And then when you're ready just drop all the way back through the body as if you're being emptied out.

Just allow yourself to flow from the top of the head all the way back through the body,

All the way down to the bottom of the feet.

And just let go of anything you want to let go of.

Anything that's not serving you,

Anything that's bothering you.

Just picture it leaving your body as you practice.

Just watching it flow.

And then when you're ready in your own time scan all the way back up through your body.

Just watching as you go all the sensations in the body until you reach the crown of your head.

Just take your time just to do that now,

Not to rush.

And when you reach the crown of the head just again just allow yourself to be settled in your posture.

Just feeling that sensation being in your body,

Noting that stillness that's in your body for a bit and then I'll start to guide us in our practice.

So okay as we start our mindfulness practice then just allow your awareness then to come and home in to centre in to the nostrils.

So you're watching the sensation of the breath coming in and out of your nose at the nostrils.

And when I do this I notice the air temperature differences obviously being warmer coming out than going in.

And also noticing any difference in the flow in the nostrils.

Just allow yourself just to settle here for that moment just really enjoying this.

Just allowing yourself just to notice the breath coming in and out of your nose for a moment before we expand the awareness of the breath.

And then when you're ready just allow your awareness then to flow with the whole breath.

So watching the very start of the breath in the nostrils coming up through your nose,

Down the back of the throat,

Into your chest and into your belly.

Just notice the whole movement of the breath,

Ribs moving,

Chest moving,

Upper back moving.

And then just notice the little pause that's there in your breath cycle before you start to breathe back out again.

So you're just watching that breath pause and then just watch the breath roll back out again and all the subtle movements.

So just allow yourself just to watch this breath rolling in and breath rolling back out.

Just allow yourself just to settle.

Thank you.

Then when you're ready start to allow your awareness then to move away from the breath for a moment.

Just watch the body doing its thing.

So we just allow ourselves just to notice any physical sensations that are in the body and we do that with a sense of acceptance.

So even if there's a place where we feel it's a bit tense at this stage we're just noting it.

We're just noticing the sensations in the body using that as our anchor instead of our breath.

Goodj contained.

And if you like there's the option just to actually notice when you look at the physical sensations noticing where your body is softened perhaps,

Noticing the softness in your hands,

Maybe softness in the belly.

But we just allow ourselves just to notice what's there.

And also if you've got areas of tension if you like this is an opportunity to sort of picture the breath going into those areas of tension and then just allowing them to soften a bit as well.

So we've got that option of noting what's there and if you like then you could just try to allow things just to soften.

You So and then when you're ready now just allow yourself just to bring your awareness then just for a moment away from your body to watching the mind.

So at this stage what we're doing is watching the mind doing its thing,

Watching the transient nature of our thoughts,

Our thoughts calm and go.

Sometimes they're mundane thoughts,

Sometimes they're crazy thoughts.

We just allow those thoughts to just calm and go,

Calm and go.

Just noting that's what they are,

They're just thoughts.

And the beauty of mindfulness practices helps us see how they're just so transient and impermanent.

Just calm and go.

So so Then now for the remainder of the practice we're just going to drop into that place of anada,

That place of bliss.

So there's options there just to allow yourself just to settle so you could picture yourself perhaps like a bit of a glass of water just like being allowed to settle not being forced to do anything just allow it just natural settle in its own time,

Its own pace.

Or if you like if you find actually watching the breath is what brings you that sense of peace then allow your awareness to go back to there.

But the key is what we're doing is allowing our awareness to go to that settling experience.

So this is where we'll continue now and you'll hear the bell chime every five minutes.

So you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you.

So and just allow your awareness now just to return back to the breath.

Just coming back to where we started so watching the lovely rhythm of our breath for a moment.

And then our guide is then our examiner of the day.

So we begin by lighting a candle.

Come home to yourself.

Come home.

Come home.

Lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are.

Come home.

Let your hands find rest and allow your hands to hold the weave from your day.

Come home.

As we remember the day as it was,

Remember a moment in your day that brought life or light into your day.

Allow it to live again in your mind's eye and in particular taking notice of what it was about that incident that gave you that sense of life.

Be still.

Be grateful.

And as we remember the day as it was,

Remember a moment in the day that might have been frustrating disappointing or even might have caused despair.

And allow this situation to live again in your mind's eye with compassion and gentleness.

Just taking note about what it was about that incident that was difficult.

But again the key is that we do this with compassion and gentleness towards ourselves.

Be still.

Be accepting.

Now gently gather the moment of life and light and the moment of frustration or disappointment.

Allow them to settle into your heart center.

Allowing the divine love to take those moments from you.

Just allowing them to settle to that deep divine spirit within you,

That deep love within you.

Just allowing them to go.

Be still.

And then take a moment to think of tomorrow.

Think of the things that you would like to do or the things you feel you need to do.

Or maybe set intentions for tomorrow.

How you want to be tomorrow.

What sort of qualities you'd like to see in your day.

So take a moment just to think these through.

And then we trust for our tomorrow.

As I gently blow out the candle just return your awareness back to your mind.

Just take a moment to think of the things that you would like to see in your day.

And then just be still.

As I gently blow out the candle just return your awareness back to your breath.

So we start our practice,

So we end our practice where we started.

So just bring in your awareness back to the breath cycle.

Noticing the sensations at the nose.

So just bringing the awareness back to that lovely sensation of stillness.

So regardless of how our mind is our body is still.

So so so peace peace peace shanti shanti shanti peace peace peace Allow your awareness then to return to the sounds around you.

So just noticing the sounds you can hear where you are.

Hearing sounds outside of the room and sounds inside.

Just for a moment.

And then take your awareness to your body.

Noticing the sensations in your body after you've practiced.

Some areas might have softened,

Some areas might have tensed.

We just bring our awareness to our body.

And take your awareness then down to the sensation of the chair or the cushion or the bed that supported you.

Just noticing the physical sensations there.

And then take your awareness and like we're saying to do the bottom of the feet.

Just noticing the firm floor under your feet.

If your feet are on the floor we're just taking your awareness to the sensations in the bottom of the feet.

And then we'll take our two breaths in and out through the mouth.

So taking a breath in through the nose.

Do that again.

Lovely deep breath in.

And then just allow yourself to gently move when you're ready and open your eyes.

Giving you that for over 25 minutes in stillness there.