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.
Let yourself settle in by taking a few big breaths in and out.
Allowing your breath to return to its natural and gentle rhythm.
Taking a moment to notice how you're arriving into this moment,
The state of your body and mind right now.
Relaxing any obvious areas of tension in your body.
Allowing yourself a moment to settle and relax,
Just as you are right here,
Right now.
In this session we will practice using sound as an anchor to focus and train the attention to be more steady and concentrated.
So to begin,
I invite you now to bring your attention to the sounds that are around you.
Taking a few moments to let hearing happen.
What sounds can you be aware of?
Near sounds,
Far sounds,
Soft,
Loud.
Noticing them all.
We can only hear sounds in the present moment,
So attending to the sense of hearing sounds anchors our attention directly in the present moment.
What can you hear right now?
No need to strive,
Just let the sounds come to you.
Sounds are arising and passing away all the time of their own accord.
There's no need to reach out to search for them,
Just let the sounds come to you.
Noticing if silence emerges between the sounds.
If you notice that your mind wanders away from attending to sounds,
There's no need to worry that's totally normal.
Just gently and kindly bringing your attention back to hearing the sounds around you arising and falling away.
Let all other experiences and sensations and thoughts and images rise and fall like waves of the ocean around the sounds.
Note that we're not trying to think about the process of hearing,
How the eardrum works,
And we're not analyzing the sounds,
Wondering what is the sound?
Who is it?
When will it stop?
Why is it happening?
That's thinking,
Not sensing.
Sensing is about just noticing the qualities of the direct experience of hearing.
Directly noticing the qualities of sound in a non-judgmental way.
Qualities like loud or soft,
High or low,
Constant or fluctuating,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
Rising,
From within our bodies or from out in the environment,
Arising from near or far,
Noticing the sounds around you now,
The qualities of those sounds.
You're not looking for anything special.
Just noticing the physical experience,
The physical sensations,
The qualities of sound and hearing from moment to moment.
Noticing the sounds around you without judging the sounds.
Where is the mind now?
If it has drifted away from being fully present hearing the sounds around you,
Gently returning your attention and simply starting again.
Bringing a sense of curiosity to how sounds change.
Noticing how sounds arise and disappear.
Just do they arise and disappear slowly or quickly,
Gently or abruptly?
Does the sound stay constant or does it change?
Noticing the sounds around you now and how they change.
Don't worry if you feel like you're not doing this perfectly,
None of us do.
It's okay.
It's practice.
Just feeling the flow of the breath returning your attention each time you notice it wanders.
Where is the attention now?
The moment you become aware of being lost in the distraction,
This is the significant moment in mindfulness meditation.
It's a moment of awareness which gives us the chance to choose how we respond.
It's not a failure at all,
It's the training.
The training of noticing where the mind has wandered and then gently returning your attention to the experience of the here and now.
In this practice,
Noticing the sounds around you with an attitude of kindness.
Starting again each time our mind wanders.
As we approach the end of our practice now,
I invite you to join me in taking a deep breath in,
Filling the lungs and then relaxing a long and gentle out breath as you breathe out.
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.
And 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.
