Sitting Meditation Practice

This sitting meditation practice invites listeners to take a seat in the midst of their lives and to intentionally be in relationship with the present moment. The practice explores focusing on the felt sense of specific phenomena including the breath, body sensations, sounds, thoughts, and emotions, and then moves to observing whatever is arising in the field of awareness.

Transcript

This is a recording of a guided sitting meditation practice.

In this practice,

You're taking a seat in the midst of your life and intentionally bringing yourself into a direct and intimate relationship with the present moment,

Observing the arising and passing of experience with an attitude of kindness,

Curiosity,

And friendliness.

In this sitting meditation,

You'll have the opportunity to explore awareness of breath,

Body sensations,

Sounds,

Thoughts,

Emotions,

And as you're ready,

Opening to all of these experiences as they arise,

Change,

And pass in your awareness.

You're intentionally taking time to become more familiar with yourself,

Moment to moment.

It's helpful to practice with a sense of kindness,

Dignity,

And care,

So choosing a posture that's right for you in this moment,

Sitting in a chair or on a cushion,

Or if sitting is too uncomfortable,

Lying down or even standing.

As you settle into your position,

Inviting a sense of wakefulness and ease in the body,

And as best you can,

Knowing our best changes from moment to moment,

Embodying your intention to practice,

Connecting with your willingness to wake up to life and to be more present and alive,

Allowing your intention to be sensed in the body with perhaps the feeling of energy to the torso and spine,

Sensing the solid ground beneath you,

The earth and gravity that supports and receives you,

Feeling into the points where your body meets the chair or cushion or floor,

Resting your shoulders and arms at your sides,

And perhaps releasing the muscles of your face,

Choosing to either close your eyes or bringing a soft gaze downwards,

Inviting the body to become still.

While there will be guidance during this meditation,

There will also be periods of silence to allow space for you to be with your own experience of bringing your attention back to presence when you notice it has wandered.

This is a natural tendency,

And the moment you notice this,

You're already awake and present to here and now,

Inviting your awareness now to follow your breathing,

The natural breath as it enters and leaves the body without needing to control or change it in any way,

Following the natural breath with your kind attention,

Bringing freshness and curiosity to the moment with each breath,

Perhaps sensing the rise and fall of the belly and ribcage,

Or maybe feeling the breath as it enters and leaves the nose,

Tuning in to where you feel the sensation of breathing most vividly and anchoring your attention there,

Inhaling and exhaling,

Following the full cycle of an in-breath with your kind attention and the full cycle of an out-breath to the end,

Knowing that as often as the attention leaves the breath,

Awareness of this can also arise,

And with gentle receptivity of this,

There's an opportunity to choose and to bring the attention back,

Back to this breath and this breath and this breath,

Allowing the breath to be the focus of your attention and allowing any thoughts to come and go like clouds in the sky.

As you're ready,

Expanding your attention beyond the breath to include the entire body as it is in this moment,

Inviting a curious exploration of sensation in the body,

Perhaps noticing the places where the body makes contact with the chair or cushion,

Sensations on the surface of the skin,

Perhaps sensing temperature or how the hands and feet feel in the moment,

Being present with the direct experience of any and all sensations as they arise,

Maybe noticing how some sensations stay for just a brief time while others may linger,

Bringing awareness to how they may change in intensity and pass through as new sensations arise,

Noticing any tendencies to move towards or away from certain sensations,

And as best you can,

Being open to sensations as they arise moment to moment.

If attention wanders into thoughts or story,

Noticing this is a moment of awareness,

Receiving this with openness and care and gently bringing your focus to what is felt in the body.

Sometimes we may notice intense sensations arising.

It's natural to want to do something about this.

Her sitting practice allows us the opportunity to be with these sensations in a different way and exploring what feels appropriate in the moment.

At first,

Acknowledging the unpleasant sensation,

Noticing where it is in the body,

And if it's too intense,

Perhaps carefully moving or shifting as a conscious choice rather than moving automatically,

Being present with sensations of movement and maybe turning your attention to breathing if that's helpful.

Another way might be to turn towards the challenging sensation with a gentle curiosity,

Perhaps as a way of stepping out of habits of turning away from or resisting intense sensations,

Gently exploring its size and shape and how it feels,

Maybe a dull ache,

Burning,

Tightness,

Pressure or tingling,

Warmth or coolness,

And any thoughts and judgments that may be arising,

Perhaps softening around the sensation and noticing over time how it may shift,

Change or linger.

As much as possible,

Observing and opening space and awareness to be with sensation,

Inviting your attention to shift from body sensations to the sense of hearing.

And rather than seeking out sounds,

Simply receiving what you're hearing,

Sounds within the body,

Sounds around you in the environment,

Near and far,

Becoming particularly aware of hearing,

Perhaps noticing how awareness receives sounds without trying,

Listening to sounds and maybe noticing the space between sounds,

The silence,

Noticing any desire to move away from certain sounds and towards others.

As much as possible,

Making space in which sounds can be experienced as they are.

As you're ready,

Inviting your attention to shift from hearing to thinking to thoughts,

Seeing them not as distractions now and bringing your awareness to the thinking process itself,

Allowing thoughts to be in the foreground of awareness with sound,

Body sensations and breath in the background,

Maybe noticing how some thoughts arise and stay briefly while others might linger and then dissolve.

And rather than getting lost in the content of thoughts and moving into story,

Simply observing thoughts as they arise and pass through awareness.

Like clouds in the sky,

Thoughts might be about anything,

The past,

The future,

How you're feeling now.

And if you notice getting carried away in the current of thinking,

Stepping back and observing thoughts as they come and go,

Thoughts moving through an open and spacious mind.

At times,

You may notice thoughts are connected with emotions,

Aware also that emotions arise in the body,

The heart,

The mind,

And now bringing your kind and friendly attention to emotions,

Mood states,

Perhaps feeling restlessness,

Joy,

Sadness,

Or ease.

As you turn towards your emotions,

As much as possible,

Allowing your experience to be as it is,

Gently exploring emotion,

Noticing how what is arising may be desirable or undesirable,

How there may be a tendency to struggle with emotions judged as unpleasant,

Like fear or sadness,

And the desire to hold on to emotions experienced as pleasant,

Like feeling happy or content.

Noticing whatever emotions may be arising for you now,

How they can change,

Shift,

Arise,

And pass.

Simply observing what emotions do and the felt sense of emotion in the body,

Coming to know the nature of emotions as sensory events,

Perhaps tuning into where in the body certain emotions are felt,

Perhaps the belly,

Throat,

Chest.

Knowing that if emotions arise that are too intense,

You can always choose to bring your awareness to breathing,

The breath as a safe place,

Inhaling and exhaling until you're ready to continue,

Gently releasing your focus on emotions now and opening to whatever may be arising in the moment.

So rather than choosing to bring your attention to anything specific,

Simply being here,

Fully aware,

Opening to whatever you're noticing moment to moment.

If you notice a sound,

Allowing that to be the focus of your attention.

If a sensation arises,

Being present with that experience,

Open and aware of whatever is here for you until the next arising,

Which may be another sensation,

Thought,

Breath,

Emotion,

Attending to your direct experience of the moment with receptivity to whatever is arising,

Observing where your attention is now,

Opening to the totality of your experience,

Being fully human,

Fully alive,

The mind is like the big open sky,

Expansive and limitless,

And whatever is arising is like the weather moving through an open and spacious sky.

As you're ready,

Returning the attention to the body and sensations of breathing,

Feeling the breath coming and going,

Fully present with the body and with the breath.

As this meditation session finishes,

Knowing that each time you practice mindfulness,

You're intentionally enriching your ability to be fully present in the moments of your everyday life.

Continuing to practice in this way can help create access to more clarity and openness in your life,

Which can help you to make more conscious choices about your health and well-being.