Hi,
Thank you for sitting today.
I'm going to be leading through a sensory-based meditation combining an awareness of our physical senses as well as the sensory awareness of our breath.
So,
As you find whatever position you like to be meditating in,
Whether you're laying down,
Standing up,
If you're feeling a little fidgety,
You're welcome to take a moment to,
I always recommend stretching out your side body,
Maybe your neck,
Just some little fidgets here as you find a place of stillness for just a moment.
If you're in a seat,
Whether on the ground or in a physical chair,
You can lift the flesh from your sits bones so that you're feeling grounded,
Rooted through your bottom half,
And lifted,
Not quite alert in the sense of heightened awareness,
But just buoyant on your upper half.
Can relax your face muscles,
Your jaw,
Drop the tongue from the roof of your mouth,
Drop your shoulders,
Relax your ribcage,
And just rest into your seat.
As you do so,
You can gather your awareness around your breath.
No need to change it,
Just noticing where it is right now.
You can take a few deeper breaths,
Drawing slow,
Long inhales through your nose,
Long,
Intentional,
Controlled exhales.
I often like to do that like I'm blowing through a straw,
And then however you're exhaling,
You can shift it a bit to bring a slight constriction to the back of your throat.
This is often the same feeling when you're trying to fog glass with your breath.
Might sound a little bit like.
.
.
And then you can seal your lips,
But hold the constriction and let it settle to a place where your breath will naturally even out the inhales and exhales.
This is your ujjayi breath,
Your life force breath.
Take a moment here to solidify this as a sort of pillar throughout our practice today.
And savor one more breath here.
Soften your awareness now away from your breath and towards your sense of touch,
Your periphery.
Noticing the weight of gravity of your body on the floor,
Whether your feet or your bum.
No need to label it,
Just noticing the sensation.
Noticing different textures of fabrics on your skin,
Perhaps the quality of air,
The temperature,
Any small breezes.
And then with an awareness on your periphery here,
Take a moment to notice how your breath interacts with your sense of touch.
Sometimes this is the rise and fall of your belly against your shirt or other parts of your body.
Perhaps it's a slight rise and fall of the arms and hands resting against your legs.
Simply noticing,
Being here with your breath and body.
And taking a couple more breaths here.
On your inhale,
Soften your awareness to just your breath,
Exhale,
And then inhale,
Draw your awareness up to your mouth.
Notice the physical sensations of your teeth,
Tongue,
Your cheeks,
All the parts of your mouth.
Any lingering tastes,
Textures,
Moisture,
Lack thereof.
Drop that tongue from the roof of your mouth if it's found its way back up.
And if you're focusing now on your breath and this sense of taste,
You might notice the pooling of air as it passes through your nose,
In your mouth,
And then back down in your lungs,
And how that pool depletes just a little bit on its way out.
Just noticing the sensation of this air within your mouth,
Filling and receding over and over again.
And if your mind wanders,
It's perfectly normal.
Just notice,
Notice what you've noticed,
And then gather your attention back around your breath and your sense.
A couple more breaths here.
On your next inhale,
Draw your awareness up to your nose slowly.
Noticing the outline of the cartilage and the flesh.
Noticing any smells,
Perhaps,
From your clothes or the space you're in.
Noticing the temperature of the air,
Often cooler as it enters your body and warmer as it exits.
You might find this by focusing on your upper lip or inside your nostrils.
Just following this air through your nasal cavities,
Just to witness the simplicity.
Notice a few more breaths here.
And then gently,
On an inhale,
Draw your awareness up and back to your ears.
Again,
First noticing the outline,
The sensation of the flesh and the cartilage,
Tracing the outline and the curves of your ears.
And then noticing any sounds around you,
Perhaps working from in close proximity to further.
Noticing the sound of your breath,
And if you can't hear it,
You might offer that constriction in the back of your throat again.
Greater constriction often offers a greater volume of the ebbs and flows of crashing waves of our breath.
While listening to that,
Hearing anything in the space immediately around you,
Perhaps just in the room you're in,
Expanding that to the whole building,
Whether your home or an apartment building.
And then even greater,
Outside of the walls or wherever the space you are in,
Hearing it all,
Receiving it all with our breath as a central pillar,
Our breath as a sort of conductor of this orchestra.
And if your mind has wandered from the sounds,
Simply notice,
Notice where you were and gently gather your awareness back around your breath and all the things you hear.
Not needing to name any of these sounds,
Simply receiving them.
And take another breath or so here,
And follow your next inhale up to your eyes,
Whether your gaze is closed or only open softly,
Noticing the dappling of light through your eyelids,
And taking a moment to see if there's anything with your mind's eye where your sight interacts with your breath,
Or perhaps with limited softened vision,
Noticing all our mind's eye can see when our body's eyes can't,
With your breath as that central pillar,
Softening your awareness to simply receive all of this sensory information at once.
Maybe one at a time,
Maybe all together,
But just as with our sense of sound,
May it all be an orchestra.
Now narrow your focus to just your breath,
Noticing it travel in and out,
Up and down,
Over and over again.
If you'd like,
You can gather your hands together with palms together in front of your heart in Anjali Mudra,
Planting a seed of awareness and gratitude for our breath as anchor in a world rife with sensory overstimulation,
May your breath be the weight,
The anchor that tethers you to the earth,
To your body,
To slowing down,
With no need to go anywhere,
Just like the anchor of a ship.
You can bring the thumbs to where the hair parts your forehead,
Offering this knowledge of great wisdom,
Innate both within you and shared abundantly outside of you,
Here,
And bring your thumbs down to your lips,
May your words be spoken with a clarity that we receive when we anchor into our breath,
And back to your heart,
Unifying mind,
Speech,
And heart together,
And to your practice,
And to the practices of all gurus and teachers that came before us,
I offer a deep bow.
You can lower your hands and slowly blink your eyes open as you're ready.
Again,
Thank you so much for taking time to practice today.
I recorded this on Bell Isle on a rather freezing day.
Perhaps any of the sounds around you might help you place where I am,
Where you can be where you could be,
Where you are here with me.
Deep love.
