Hello,
I'm Rebecca Ryan.
The meditation practice I'll be guiding you through today is a listening practice.
You can do this practice seated,
With your eyes open or closed.
Find somewhere to sit now and also for this meditation you'll need to be able to hear sounds other than my voice.
So maybe take out one of your earbuds or adjust yourself now so you can hear other sounds than my voice.
And then we'll begin.
Sitting with a naturally straight spine.
Your spine is long and strong but it's not rigid or stiff.
Adjust yourself now so you have this sensation of length and support balancing the effort of sitting with the ease of the posture that you've found.
Effort balanced with ease.
And when you've found this comfortable sitting position,
Take a moment to notice your body as you're sitting.
Noticing whether your feet are on the floor.
Noticing what parts of your body touch the chair.
Noticing how you're supported.
Allow the chair to support you now.
There's not much to do.
Sitting,
Balancing effort and ease.
And then taking your awareness to your breath.
Inhaling and as you exhale,
Sigh out through parted lips like,
Ah.
Doing this twice more with your own breath.
Noticing the feeling of release on your exhale.
Perhaps noticing your body soften or your posture settle in as you exhale.
Releasing and settling in for this meditation.
Once you've finished your three exhale sighs,
Just allow your breath to be natural for the rest of the meditation.
Inhaling and exhaling with the rhythm of your normal breathing.
Nothing to change or do.
Sitting and breathing.
Now we're going to take our awareness to our ears.
Noticing your ears,
Your physical ears.
How do they feel today?
Can you feel any warmth or tingling when you take your awareness to your ears?
Maybe you notice your headphones or something else you're leaning against.
Awareness of your ears.
Gentle awareness of your ears.
Nothing to change.
Just noticing how your ears feel today.
And next we're going to take our awareness to our sense of hearing.
Allowing your sense of hearing to go as far as it can into the distance.
Open listening to far away sounds.
Allowing the sounds far away in the distance,
Perhaps outside the room,
Perhaps outside wherever you're sitting,
To come to you.
This is open listening.
The sounds travel to you.
Once you hear a sound,
You can label it or just move on to the next sound.
No need to follow the story that your mind makes about the sound.
Moving freely from one far away sound to the next.
Open listening to far away sounds.
If your mind gets distracted in stories or thought,
Bring it back to the listening awareness of far away sounds.
Noticing a few more of these far away sounds now.
Open listening to far away sounds.
Our next point of awareness with our hearing is to bring it closer,
Perhaps inside the room where you're sitting.
If you're sitting in a car inside the car.
Choose a distance not that far from you to notice those sounds.
If you're sitting inside,
Maybe you can hear a ticking clock.
A hum of a refrigerator.
Perhaps the sound of other people nearby.
Listening to the nearby sounds.
Once again,
You can label the sound and then move on.
Perhaps with this awareness of nearby sounds,
You can still hear a few of those far away sounds.
That's okay.
Focusing,
If you can,
On the nearer sounds.
Open listening to nearby sounds.
And now we're going to take our sense of hearing as close to our bodies as we can.
Noticing the sound of our own breathing.
Not straining to hear,
But focusing these are very subtle sounds.
Listening to the sounds of your body and your breath as you sit in this listening meditation.
The mind wanders.
That's what it does.
Bring it back.
And just for a few moments,
Let's only listen to the sound of our own breathing.
Hearing the inhale and exhale.
And perhaps adding to this,
If it suits you,
The awareness of the breath as it moves into the body and the movement of the body in response to the breath.
The rise and fall of your chest and abdomen.
Breath and body.
The sounds of your own breath.
Just a few moments more.
These really subtle sounds.
Now,
To finish this meditation.
Letting go of the subtle nearby sounds.
Letting go of the sounds in the room.
Letting go of the open outdoor sounds.
And letting go of any sensation of your ears that you're still holding.
And returning to the awareness of your body.
Noticing once again if your feet are on the floor.
And what parts of your body touch your chair or other supports.
Noticing your body.
Perhaps you notice your body feels different to the beginning of the meditation.
Perhaps not.
Just noticing how does your body feel now.
Seated as you are.
And then gently wriggle your fingers and toes.
You can roll your shoulders.
If you chose to close your eyes,
Gently blink them open now.
Taking your lovely big inhale.
And one more sigh.
With eyes open.
And awareness back in the room and back in your body.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
And I finish by saying Namaste.
The light in me sees the light in you.
Namaste.
