Welcome to this practice of mindfulness of feelings,
Or Vedana.
In the spirit of the radical embrace,
I invite you to take a few moments before we start this practice but just welcome any parts of yourself showing up right now.
And just notice them and allow them to be here as they are.
Maybe even inviting them to join us in this practice.
There's nothing that need be left out here.
So we'll begin by establishing a posture that works for your body.
Make sure that you have at least three points of contact in touch with the ground.
Where the weight of the body is fully supported,
Without straining any other parts,
Particularly your limbs,
Back,
Or neck.
So we'll begin this practice by simply becoming aware of the breath.
Air coming and going in the body.
And spending a bit of time allowing awareness in the breath to really merge with each other and mingle.
Noticing any absorption,
Concentration,
Focus.
That comes from this.
And once you feel steady enough.
The invitation is to begin to broaden your awareness,
To include the whole body breathing.
Broadening to include all of what can be felt directly in all five senses,
Sound,
Sight,
Smell.
Taste and physical sensations in the body.
Simply noticing what is coming and going in awareness through these sense gates.
So here you might imagine it's as if you're sitting on a beach looking out at a vast ocean and all the sensations that can be felt in the body are like waves forming.
And dissolving back into the ocean.
You're resting back and just taking all that in.
And as you notice sensations,
Also notice whether you experience them as pleasant,
Unpleasant.
Or neutral.
Resist any urge to have to.
Pin anything down here.
We're just keeping a broad open awareness and noticing.
The vedana or feeling tone.
Of the various sensations flashing in and out of awareness.
One thing you might start noticing here is a subtle movement of energy in your being in response to a sensation or a set of sensations.
For example,
You might feel as if there's a part of you that's chasing after pleasant sensations or tensing up around unpleasant ones or going numb around neutral sensations.
So if you notice this,
The invitation is to just stay with the sensations,
Staying curious about any ways in which the body and mind might be responding to them.
You might use the breath here to support you to bring awareness to what's happening.
Here you might also notice thoughts,
Emotions,
Images,
Memories,
Impulses,
Or urges associated with a sensation.
So for example,
If you're noticing that there's pain somewhere,
There might be a sensation.
Of pain associated with an urge to move.
If that happens,
Just get interested in what might be going on.
Allowing the sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Images,
And so on to simply arise and pass away without interference.
See what happens next you do that.
I'll leave a bit of space here for you to keep exploring.
And if at any time you get lost or confused,
You can always come back to the ground as a resource.
Come back to the spaciousness spreading in all directions.
You might even open the eyes and have a little look around.
When you feel ready,
Coming back to the breath for a little while.
And once the heart,
Mind,
And body feel steady,
Opening again to all six senses,
Allowing what's here to come and go,
Noticing the feeling tone.
And how you are with that.
All with a warm.
Open curiosity.
As we come to the end of this practice,
There's an invitation to just drop any effort that you're making.
Rest back in the posture,
Broaden the awareness.
You may want to open the eyes with a soft focus.
Rest the hands,
Palms up in the lap.
Maybe take a few deeper breaths.
Sitting in a completely open,
Deeply receptive posture now.
All six senses,
Sound,
Sight,
Smell,
Taste,
Touch,
And the heart-mind completely open.
Simply allowing everything to come and go in this broad open awareness.
And then gently when you're ready,
Bringing the practice to a close.
Taking any benefits with you into the rest of your day.
