Mindfulness of feeling tones.
Let's begin by finding a comfortable posture.
Allow your body to settle into a position that feels both upright and relaxed.
You may gently close your eyes if it feels right,
Or simply soften your gaze.
Take a moment to feel the contact of your body with the chair or cushion,
The ground supporting you.
Now take a nice long inhale through the nose,
And then gently sigh it out through the mouth.
Allow the breath to come back to its own natural pattern.
See if you can keep your attention for just a few moments on the sensations of breathing,
Perhaps in the chest,
The belly,
Or even the nostrils.
Let the breath be natural,
Nothing to change or control.
Now I'd like to invite you to bring your awareness to the stream of your experience moment by moment.
As sensations arise,
Whether in the body,
In the mind,
Or through the senses,
See if you can notice the feeling tone that comes with them.
Every one of our experiences has its own flavor,
Or what we call a feeling tone.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
For example,
You might notice a sensation in the body,
An itch,
A twinge,
A place of warmth or coolness.
See if you can sense is it pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Maybe a sound enters your awareness,
Could be a bird outside,
Or a car passing by.
Again,
Simply notice is it experienced as pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Even our thoughts and emotions carry with them feeling tones.
A memory may come up,
Or maybe a plan for later,
Or an image.
See if you can rest with the tone of it.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Remember,
You don't need to analyze,
Fix,
Or change the experience.
Simply become aware of it.
You also don't need to go searching for experiences.
Simply allow what's here to be known to you,
And then gently label the tone.
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neutral.
If you notice the mind wanting to jump into the story of why something feels the way it does,
That's completely natural.
For this practice,
You might see if it's possible to gently set the story aside and stay with the tone itself,
Like resting with the atmosphere of the experience.
At times,
You may find the tone shifting quickly.
Pleasant to unpleasant,
Or neutral to pleasant.
Just notice the changing nature of experience,
Moment by moment.
And when you lose track or drift into thought,
As we all do,
Simply come back,
Perhaps to the breath,
And then return again to noticing the tone of the next experience that arises.
As we come to the end of this practice,
Take a moment to sense into the whole body sitting here,
Breathing alive.
Perhaps feeling a sense of appreciation for this capacity to bring awareness to the subtle textures of your experience.
You can stay here as long as you'd like.
No rushing.
And when you feel ready,
You can gently open the eyes again,
Allowing the light of the room to come back in.
