BONG Lengthen your spine and relax your shoulders and arms.
Bring your attention to your physical as opposed to your emotional body.
Maybe you detect your breathing,
Pulse,
Heartbeat,
Digestion,
The touch of your clothes or the air on your skin.
Pay attention to whatever physical sensations are happening right now.
You can focus on part of your body,
Your whole body all at once,
Or let your attention be naturally pulled from sensation to sensation within your body.
If you decide to focus on just one body part,
Such as your chest,
Clearly acknowledge your chest and then intently focus on it for a few seconds.
Then go through the process again,
Clearly acknowledge your chest,
Then focus on it once again.
You can continue this rhythm for as long as you want.
If you decide to focus on your whole body at once,
Clearly acknowledge your whole body,
Then let your attention soak into it for a few seconds.
Then go through the process again,
You can continue this rhythm for as long as you want.
If you decide to let your attention be naturally pulled from sensation to sensation within your body,
Let it land on a sensation,
Say air coming through your nose.
Then let it land on another sensation,
Say breeze against your arm,
And focus on each sensation that your attention lands on for a few seconds.
Now that you're familiar with the basics of noting,
We can talk about labeling.
Whenever you're practicing a noting technique,
You have the option to add labels.
A label is a word that you say out loud or think to yourself.
That word names the kind of sensory experience you're noting.
For example,
Right now you're focusing on physical body sensations.
You can use the word feel to label that.
You can say feel out loud or just think it to yourself in your head.
Let me demonstrate what spoken labels sound like.
Feel,
Feel,
Feel.
That general pace works for me,
But you may find something faster or slower works for you.
So each time you note a new physical body sensation or each time you re-note the same sensation,
Either think the label feel or say it out loud.
Noting has two parts,
Acknowledge and focus.
Your label can occur as you acknowledge,
As you focus,
Or it can span both,
Whatever works for you.
Remember you could label feel at the moment of acknowledging or as you focus or both.
Right now we're learning about labeling,
So be sure to use the label each time you note.
If your attention wanders to other experiences like thoughts or sounds,
Gently return to your physical body.
Intense emotions can sometimes cause you to spin out and get stuck in your head.
Intentionally bringing your awareness down into your body like you're doing now can help bring you back to a balanced,
Grounded state.
The general pace of the labels,
Not too fast,
Not too slow,
Helps you stay continuously concentrated on your body.
The gentle matter-of-fact tone that you use when you speak or think the label helps put you into a deep state of receptivity.
Feel,
Feel,
Feel.
As you note and label your physical body,
Try to notice details such as the location of a sensation.
Good.
You're noting your physical body using spoken or mental labels.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be peaceful.
