Welcome to mindfulness of thoughts and feelings practice.
Coming into a posture that allows you to feel relaxed,
Alert,
Awake.
Taking a few deep,
Slow breaths.
Allowing the body to settle.
Allowing the mind to settle.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And settling awareness on the breath wherever it feels most vivid in the body.
Just feeling into the physical sensations of the inflow and outflow of breath.
When you notice the mind wandering away from breath in the body,
Just acknowledging this.
And perhaps noting that the mind was lost in thought or daydream or other physical sensations that drew your attention.
Being gentle and curious.
No need to get caught up in the mind wanderings,
Just noting.
When you're ready,
Gently ushering awareness back to the breath in the body.
Doing this again and again as many times as you need to.
When you're ready now,
Releasing awareness from the breath in the body.
And shifting awareness to notice the thinking mind.
What is here in the mind now?
Are thoughts fast or slow?
Are they clear or perhaps more muddy thoughts?
Are there spaces between thoughts?
Just noticing the quality of thinking now.
What thoughts are there?
What thoughts are here in the mind?
No need to analyze what's here,
Letting go of any judgments about your thoughts.
Letting go of any need to control what's here in the mind,
Just letting the mind be as it is.
Observing thoughts coming and going like leaves floating down a stream.
What thoughts are there?
If you're finding yourself caught up in the mind,
Or caught up in a particular thought,
Also noting this,
Perhaps saying caught up in a worry thought or caught up in a planning thought.
Seeing if it's possible to gently unhook from the thought and return to observing thoughts coming and going as they will.
And whenever you're ready now,
Releasing awareness from thoughts and the thinking mind and bringing awareness to noticing a moment in time.
Emotions,
Your mood.
Perhaps exploring the regions of the body where we often carry emotions.
The breath,
The belly,
The chest,
The throat,
Face,
Some other region.
Using the breath to move towards whatever sensations,
Emotions are here.
Opening up to whatever emotions are present in this moment.
And being very kind,
Being very gentle with yourself,
This is how you feel.
If you're noticing yourself judging an emotion or pushing away an emotion,
Resisting feeling.
Just noticing this.
This is a tendency that can arise,
Particularly when emotions are painful.
Seeing if you can use the breath to be here and now with your emotions without pushing away what you may not want to feel,
Without holding on to emotions that may be more pleasurable.
Just observing emotions coming and going,
Rising and falling like the waves of the ocean.
Whenever you're ready now,
Releasing awareness from emotions in the body.
And bringing your awareness back to the breath at the abdomen.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Coming back home.
And the breath can serve as an anchor,
A place of groundedness from which we may observe thoughts and emotions.
And so breathing in and out now.
Resting in the grace of the breath.
Expanding awareness now to notice what the whole body feels like,
Including the region where you may be noticing the breath most prominently.
What does the whole body feel like now?
And then expanding awareness outward to notice the sensations of the body on the chair,
The feet on the floor.
And taking a moment to thank yourself for bringing mindful awareness to your thoughts and emotions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
