Workplace Practice Drop-In Session (Live Recording)
This practice consists of a body scan, breathing exercises, metta loving-kindness meditation, and another observation of the breath to end. This is a live recording of a meditation 'Drop-In' space hosted at Rolls Royce, Bristol. We meet weekly on a Thursday lunchtime for 30 minutes of practice. The session was recorded on a mobile phone and there will be background noise.
Transcript
The next meditation is a live recording from the 25th of July for a drop in space at Rolls-Royce in Bristol.
The 30 minute session will consist of a body scan,
Breathing exercises,
Meta loving kindness meditation and again an observation of breath to end.
Okay then so what we do now then is just allow ourselves to centre.
So we do this now by bringing your awareness to your feet on the ground.
So to start off we just bring your awareness to that place and just take notice of the sensations of your feet firmly on the ground.
And then allow your awareness then to move up to the contact you have between the chair and your body or the floor and just notice the sensations that are there.
And then next just allow your awareness to go to what your ears are hearing,
So the sounds that you might be hearing outside of the room.
And then bring your awareness to the sounds that you can hear inside.
So just allowing your awareness to be what's going on around us.
And then when you feel ready bring your awareness then up to the nostrils and notice the air as it flows in through the nose and out through the nose of the nostrils.
Just being aware of any subtle differences in temperature and sensations.
So just allowing ourselves to be aware of any subtle differences in temperature and sensations.
And then when you hear the bell start to guide us then through the body scan.
Start off by bringing your awareness then back to your toes,
Notice in your big toes and your little toes.
And if you like just wriggle them around a bit as well.
And then just place them firmly back onto the ground.
And then bring your awareness then to the base of the feet and the top and the ankles.
And then allow your awareness then to flow up through your lower legs,
Noticing your calf muscles and your shins.
And allowing that awareness then to flow up to the knees and the thighs and your backside.
And just again taking in the awareness of the sensation of the chair against your body.
And then take your awareness then to the hips and the lower back and the abdomen.
And bring your awareness then to the upper back and the chest and then the shoulders.
And just take a moment to be aware of any sensations that is there that you notice in the body,
That part.
And then start to bring your awareness then to your right shoulder,
Your upper arm on the right side,
Your elbow,
Your forearm,
Your wrist,
The top of the hand,
Palm of the hand.
Notice in the dish as well that it is there naturally in the palm of the hand.
And then bring your awareness then to your thumb,
Your first finger,
Your second finger,
Your third finger and your fourth.
And then allow your awareness then to flow all the way from the tips of the fingers all the way back up through that arm,
Again noticing any sensations.
And then take your awareness then over to the left shoulder,
The left upper arm,
The elbow,
The forearm,
Your wrist,
The top of the hand,
The palm of the left hand and again noticing that natural dish in your palm.
And then take your awareness then to your thumb,
Your first finger,
Your second finger,
Your third finger and your fourth finger.
And then allow your awareness to scan all the way from the tips of your fingers all the way back up through the arm up to the shoulder.
And then take your awareness then to your shoulder muscles,
The back of the neck,
The throat,
The jaw.
Bring your awareness then to the mouth and your lips,
Your teeth,
Your gums,
The insides of the cheeks,
The roof of the mouth,
Your tongue and the space underneath your tongue.
And then take a moment to be aware of any sensations in your mouth or any tastes.
And then bring your awareness then up to the nose,
Taking in the nostrils,
The nasal passages.
And then allow our awareness then to flow to our ears and if possible even noticing the shape and the folds of the skins of your ears.
And then take your awareness then over to the eyes,
The eyelids,
The eyelashes and your eyebrows.
And allow that awareness then to flow up to the forehead,
The back of the head,
Finally up to the crown of the head.
And then just allow your awareness then to spread out all through the body,
Right down to the tips of the toes,
Tips of your fingers.
Just being aware of your whole presence sat in the chair or sat on the floor.
Noticing as you move,
As you breathe.
Notice the sensations in your body.
And just watch that flow of the breath coming in through the nose,
Into the chest and into the abdomen.
Watch that subtle rise of the chest as you breathe in.
And then watching the breath as it leaves your body then.
So just watching that breath come in and go out just like the tide on it,
The shallow beach,
The waves coming in,
Waves coming in.
For the next part of this meditation time we'll do a bit of the loving kindness metta meditation.
So we'll start off in the traditional way of focusing on ourselves first.
So in your mind's eye start to form an image of yourself as you are at this moment.
And place this image in front of you so as if you were sat opposite yourself.
And as you look at yourself this is a time not to bring judgment of ourselves,
This is a time to bring acceptance of ourselves as a human being,
To bring empathy and compassion towards ourselves.
So we're generating a kinder voice to ourselves.
So as much as you're able to,
Allowing yourself to feel those feelings of compassion and empathy and kindness towards yourself like you would a good friend.
And then we'll say these words to ourselves quietly repeating them three times.
May I be happy,
May I be well,
May I be peaceful and may I be loved.
May I be happy,
May I be well,
May I be peaceful and may I be loved.
May I be happy,
May I be well,
May I be well,
May I be peaceful and may I be loved.
So just let that image of yourself dissolve away for now and bring into your mind's eye in a similar way a person who you care about,
Someone who's important to you and it can be an animal,
It can be a pet as much as a human being.
But just let this image form in your mind's eye of this person,
This animal.
And as you do this bring your awareness then to the feelings that you have inside yourself as you look at them.
Being aware of what it is that you love about them.
And then we'll say these words of kindness to them.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
So allow that image of that person to just dissolve away for now and bring into your mind's eye a neutral person.
So this is somebody who you see regularly but you don't necessarily know much about them.
So it could be a colleague you see in an office,
Someone who serves you coffee in a coffee bar,
It's someone you see regularly but you don't know at all.
And we'll just bring these words of kindness towards them as a fellow human being.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
So allow the image of that person to dissolve away for now and then bring to your mind's eye somebody you find challenging.
It doesn't have to be someone who's actually really harmed you at this stage in a significant way but someone you find difficult to be around,
Someone you find difficult to show compassion towards.
And just allow this image of that person to form in front of you as if they are sitting opposite you.
And again as you look at them bring your awareness to the sensations in your body that are going on when you look at them.
And then as much as you're able to allow feelings of compassion and empathy to form towards them as a fellow human being,
Flawed like us,
And we say these words of kindness to them.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
Let me just say these words one last time to them on their own.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you be loved.
So where this person is sat in front of you just bring back the image of yourself,
The person or animal that you love and the neutral person and place them alongside the challenging difficult person.
And then allow your mind to generate images of different people.
It can be loved ones,
Colleagues,
Friends,
People we might have seen on the TV we know who go through a bit of a tough time.
But just allow your mind to generate lots of images now of different human beings.
And then we'll say these words to them.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you live at ease.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you live at ease.
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be peaceful and may you live at ease.
So just now allow that image just to gently dissolve and allow that feelings of kindness and empathy to come back towards yourself.
Just allow them to come back into your heart center.
These feelings that you've generated towards these people.
And just let it settle on you for a moment as you're aware of it.
And then bring your awareness then back to yourself then as you are now sat in your chair.
Sensations of feet on the floor.
And then when you hear the next bell,
We'll just bring a time of observation of breath,
So just start off again and just bring your awareness up to the nostrils and the sensation of the breath coming into the nose and coming out.
Just watching that breath again at the nostrils.
And then allow your awareness then to move out so that you're noticing the whole journey of the breath coming in through the nose and down into the chest.
Breathing.
And then just bring your awareness down to the breath as it leads the body.
Just watching the alternative of the breath that leads the abdomen and the chest through the nasal passages now through your nose.
Just watching the breath as it leads the belly.
Just watching the breath as it leads the belly.
And then just bring your awareness then to the still point in the breath,
This natural pause that occurs in our breath cycle.
So with this,
As you finish your breath,
It leaves the body,
It's a natural pause.
So just watching for that natural pause,
Like trying to make it happen.
And then as the breath comes in,
There's a natural pause before you start to breathe out.
So just watching that still point.
And sometimes it's useful to bring your focus in your mind onto your heart center,
The middle of your chest as you do this.
So it's like you're dropping from your head down to your heart center.
Just watch that naturally occurring pause for now.
Okay.
And then finally just bring your awareness then back to the whole cycle of the breath.
The breath coming in through the nose,
The pause,
The breath leaving the body,
The little pause,
And the breath coming back in.
So just watch for that natural cycle of your breath at your own pace.
Okay.
Okay.
And when you hear the bell,
That will be the end of the meditation session.
And when you hear the bell,
Spend some time just to ground yourself again.
So just bring your awareness to the sensations of the floor and the chair and the sounds.
And open your eyes when you feel ready.
Okay.
