G'day,
My name is Rachel Grace.
Thanks for joining me for this practice.
I invite you to take a moment now to prepare for this practice by finding a posture that supports you to be both alert and relaxed.
Allowing your eyes to gently close or softening your gaze down to the floor in front of you if that feels right for you.
We'll start the practice with the ring of a gong.
Allow yourself to settle in by taking a few big breaths in and out.
And allowing your breath to return to its natural and gentle rhythm.
Taking a moment to notice how you're arriving into this moment.
What is the state of your body and mind right now?
Relaxing any obvious areas of tension in your body.
Allowing yourself to settle and relax as you are right here,
Right now.
In this session,
We will practice focusing the mind using three embodied anchors of attention.
Breath,
Sound,
And then the hands and feet.
The first step in exploring the breath as an anchor is finding where you can feel it most easily in the body.
So getting curious now about where that is for you.
Do you feel sensations of the breath beneath the nostrils and above the upper lip?
Perhaps a warmth or coolness or tingling there?
Do you feel sensations of the breath at the belly rising and falling?
What about at the chest?
Perhaps a sense of expanding and contracting?
Don't worry if the breath is hard to sense.
That's okay.
Then place one hand on your belly and that will help you to feel the rise and the fall of the breath in the palm of your hand.
Wherever is easiest for you to feel the breath,
I invite you to exclusively focus your attention there now,
Paying close attention to the sensations of each in-breath and every out-breath.
There's no need to control or manipulate the breath in any way.
Simply allowing the breath to breathe in its own natural rhythm.
When your mind wanders away from the breath,
Gently bringing your attention back to the breath.
Letting the rhythm of the breath be as it will.
Sometimes long,
Sometimes short.
Bring an attitude of curiosity to tracking the entire breath now.
The entire breath cycle of inhaling,
Pausing and exhaling.
See if you can stay with each stage of the breath and notice if each stage feels the same or different.
What is it like for you to use the breath as a tool for anchoring and training your attention to be in the present moment?
Just notice.
Now shifting anchors from breathing to hearing,
Paying attention to the sounds.
What sounds are you aware of?
Where you are right now?
Soft and loud sounds.
Near and far sounds.
Noticing all the sounds around you.
Noticing any quiet between the sounds.
Noticing how the sounds change in volume or pitch.
There's no need to strive.
Just let the sounds come to you.
It's natural to like certain sounds more than others.
But see if you can just pay attention to the sounds without reacting or judging them.
Just noticing them as they are.
And where is your attention now?
Be alert to the mind drifting away,
Especially in silent moments.
And when you notice that your mind has wandered,
Just gently returning your attention to the sounds around you.
Noticing what it is like for you to use the hearing of sounds as a tool for anchoring and training your attention to be in the present moment.
Shifting anchors now from hearing to the physical sensations specifically in the feet and hands.
What sensations can you feel in your feet right now?
Perhaps there's sensations of pressure,
Numbness,
Heaviness,
Tingliness or warmth.
Perhaps there's no sensation to be felt at this time,
And if so,
That's okay too.
Just notice that.
There's no right or wrong.
Simply feeling the sensations or the lack of sensations in your feet.
Now shifting your attention to your hands.
What sensations can you feel in your hands right now?
You're not looking for anything special.
You're just paying close attention to the physical sensations in your hands right now.
Noticing what it is like for you to use the sensations in the feet and hands as a tool for anchoring and training your attention to be in the present moment.
You can use any of these three anchor options to focus and train your attention to be more steady,
Concentrated and calm.
Practice with the one that feels easiest to work with and then build your skill with it.
Use it regularly.
As we approach the end of our practice now,
I invite you to take a deep breath in,
Filling your lungs right up.
And then relaxing your body and your mind as you relax on the out breath.
We'll end our practice with three rings of the gong.
Allowing your eyes to open.
Gently bringing your attention back up into the environment around you.
Take a moment now to appreciate yourself for the dedication to your own well-being that you've just demonstrated.
Each time you practice you are changing your brain for the better.
And you're building your capacity to handle life more skillfully.
So well done.
May mindfulness positively impact you,
What you do and all of those around you.
Thank you for practicing with me.
I hope you'll join me again.
