So beginning this practice of developing continuous introspective awareness by just relaxing the body,
Settling into position,
Taking a deep breath,
Letting the out breath go all the way out,
Bringing your awareness into your body,
Noticing any areas of tension or contraction,
Noticing how just by bringing awareness to those places they naturally want to relax,
Stillness in the body supports stillness in the mind,
And then just resting your attention on the breath,
Noticing the actual sensations of the breath and bringing in whatever methods you've been using to help maintain attention,
Counting,
Following,
Connecting or anything else,
And just finding the groove of that practice,
And as much as you can enjoying the breath,
Tuning into the pleasant aspects of breathing.
Now just doing a quick check-in,
So noticing where is your attention,
Has it been divided between the breath and any distractions over the last few seconds,
And if it has just celebrating this moment of awareness,
Dropping the distraction if it was still present,
And engaging your attention back with the breath.
So now we're going to check in again and this time after the check-in we're going to see if we can notice a sense of increased introspective awareness,
So this can be a little bit difficult to notice at first but for at least a few seconds after the check-in you'll be more sensitive to distractions that arise,
More sensitive to the movements of attention,
And if a distraction were to appear you will be more likely to notice it as a distraction.
So check-in now,
Noticing where attention is,
What's the state of the mind right now,
And moving your attention back to the breath,
Dropping any distractions,
Re-engaging with the breath,
And seeing if you can get a sense of this increased awareness.
And this is a quality of awareness,
So it's not something you can pay attention to,
But you may have this sense that if a distraction were to arise you'd be more able to notice it's arising without getting pulled into the content of the distraction,
And this introspective awareness may not last long,
You might find that you can refresh it by checking in again.
So again,
Checking in on the state of the mind,
Where's your attention right now,
Staying soft,
Staying relaxed,
Making any corrections,
Staying relaxed will help you greatly as you develop your introspective awareness.
When you're tense,
When you're stressed,
Efforting too hard,
Awareness tends to collapse more easily.
So again now,
After that check-in,
Bringing your attention back to the breath,
Seeing if you can notice that greater introspective awareness,
This greater sensitivity to the state of the mind,
Greater attunement to the movements of attention.
If you'd like to get a sense of the difference between open introspective awareness and collapsed introspective awareness,
It might also help to,
Just as an experiment for a little while,
Really turn up the intensity of attention.
So trying to find as much detail as you possibly can in the breath sensations,
Every microsecond,
Using all your energy,
Not letting a single detail elude your notice,
And then dropping that,
Checking in again,
Opening out,
Noticing what's the state of the mind,
And a little more softly bringing attention back to the breath,
Seeing if you can notice this more open space of awareness.
Did you notice in that period of time after the check-in,
You were more able to notice the movements of attention?
Very gently beginning to hold the intention to maintain that introspective awareness,
Keeping that sensitivity,
That awareness open,
Even as you're following the breath.
So keeping attention on the breath sensations and holding that space of awareness,
Keeping effort very light,
And as you notice attention,
Begin to get pulled by some distraction,
Just celebrating the awareness that helped you to notice that,
Withdrawing the energy of attention from that distraction,
And moving back into following the breath.
Attention on the breath,
Staying aware of the movements of the mind,
And when you notice awareness beginning to collapse,
Which it will,
And that's certainly not a sign that you've done anything wrong,
Just refreshing it by lightly checking in again,
Keeping effort soft.
You can really only make suggestions to awareness,
You can't control it finely as you can with attention,
Checking in as often as feels helpful.
So relaxation in the body,
And if you can,
Still enjoying breath,
Savoring anything that feels good about the breath,
And as attention gets into the flow of the breath,
There's a broader awareness also,
Which can notice when attention begins to get pulled somewhere else.
So it's okay if this sense of introspective awareness doesn't feel clear,
It takes a little time for that to happen,
And it's also normal if this practice feels a little bit more tiring,
Or a bit more awkward than your usual practice,
But as you keep practicing,
You'll notice that you'll be able to maintain awareness with less and less effort,
And for longer and longer periods of time before it begins to collapse.
So you can keep practicing for as long as feels helpful,
And when you do bring the practice to an end,
Seeing whether you can keep some subtle sense of that introspective awareness alive as you open your eyes and begin to go about your day,
And just noticing what effect that has.
