Mindfulness Meditations - Meditation On Sensations

This guided meditation practice focuses on the skills of mindfulness, using sensations as the anchor of our attention. Our sensations are always present (sound, smell, taste, sight, and touch), yet so often we fail to "see" things clearly as we are caught up in our immediate and conditioned responses. This meditation allows us to practice welcoming all sensations and experiences without labeling or judging them, as we observe them as fully as possible.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to today's guided meditation practice.

In this practice we're going to be focusing on cultivating some skills at mindfulness and to do so we're going to use our sensations as our anchor.

The skills of mindfulness are really helpful in allowing us to disengage from our conditioned habitual ways of responding and reacting to the world.

The practice of mindfulness allows us to see things a bit more clearly.

We can see things as they are rather than how we are reacting to them.

A case in point is years ago when I was involved in a hospice study where I went to the bedside of hospice patients and led them through a guided meditation.

One day one of the participants asked me if I would meet him at the hospital and lead him through his meditation while he was doing chemo.

He was there for several hours and said I have nothing better to do so why don't I practice the meditation then?

Eager to meet the individual wherever they were I decided oh sure let's try that.

So I took my meditation bell and I arrived at the hospital.

The gentleman was already in his chair already connected to his IV and he was eager to begin.

So I rang my bell he closed his eyes and I began to lead him through the guided meditation.

Instantly I was assaulted with all the sounds in the room outside the room and all the sounds in my own head.

Intercalms were going off,

Machines were beeping,

People were walking down the hall,

People were laughing and talking.

And while the gentleman appeared calm,

Relaxed,

His face showed no signs of distress inside me a war was raging.

Every time I heard another sound,

Another intercalm that went off about every minute or so.

The voice in my head was saying hey I'm trying to lead a guided meditation here.

Oh my God this man is trying to meditate.

Why is all this happening?

Well this was all happening because I was in the hospital and that's what happens.

At the end of the 20 or 30 minutes or so I rang my bell.

The gentleman opened his eyes and he said wow that was an amazing experience.

It really allowed me to be present to this moment without reacting to everything.

I actually could tune out everything else and focus on my breath.

I left that meditation and that session with him realizing that I was not present to what was happening.

I was not able to hear the sounds,

See the lights,

Smell the smells in the room without reacting.

I wanted the world to be different than it was.

And this gentleman who's in the same environment receiving chemotherapy was able to focus attention and be present without layering it with any other judgments,

Thoughts that led to reactivity.

So we're going to practice this by directing our attention to a different sensations and seeing if we can do the very basic skill of mindfulness,

Observe.

When we observe with all our senses we welcome in every sensation.

When we orient to our sensations as a threat,

As a danger,

As something to fix,

Something to change,

Which happens when we subtly assess that we like it or don't like it,

We immediately activate our nervous system.

We begin to mobilize or dissociate and we've made those sensations an enemy.

In this practice today we are going to be welcoming all our sensations and observing them.

Many times we've been conditioned and have learned that our sensations aren't safe.

So in this practice today we're going to invite in our sensations and imagine befriending them,

Holding them dear,

Cradling them to us.

So to begin I invite you to find a comfortable posture,

One that your body can be relaxed yet engaged,

Comfortable enough so that you don't have to spend much time focusing on your body,

Becoming distracted by any subtle aches or pains or need for adjustment.

While I encourage that all of us practice this in an upright position,

If you need to lie down today feel free to do so.

So if you haven't already,

Take a moment to settle into your posture,

Find the support if you need it,

And if there's anything you need to do to make yourself 10% more comfortable,

Do that right now.

And to help settle your body a little bit more,

Invite us to take a deep breath in,

In through the nose,

Hold it at the top for just a second,

And then on an exhale through an open mouth slowly let out a sigh.

And as you do this a few more times on your own,

Allow yourself to land here now.

So in a moment we're going to begin the practice.

In the first place,

I invite you to direct your attention,

The first sensation in which I invite you to focus your attention is on sound.

Keeping your ears wide open,

If you will.

Welcome in and observe any sounds that are present.

You don't need to go hunting for them or searching for them,

Just allow your ears to be open and the sound to arise.

I prefer to start with sound because it really demonstrates this effortless aspect of mindfulness.

You don't need to do anything for sound to appear.

You welcome it,

You observe it.

Now note the tendency to want to name sound,

Plain overhead,

Cat scratching,

Buzz of computer.

In a very gentle way,

Hear the basic qualities of sound.

Is it high pitch?

Is it low pitch?

Is it incessant?

Is it intermittent?

Can you hear it for what it is?

It's wave molecules moving through the air and hitting your ear drum,

Impressing on your tympanic membrane that causes movements of the bones in the middle ear and fluid movement in the inner ear,

All which gets translated up to the brain as a sound that we'll name as plain overhead.

Spend the last few seconds here orienting to sound as the movements of the ear drum.

What is that like?

We welcome in the sound,

We observe it.

And we don't have to do anything with it.

We don't have to mobilize against it,

Orient to it in any way.

See if you can pay attention to the sound that's appearing right now in this moment.

And as you let the attention on sound go,

Direct your attention now to your nose and then the smells that are arising in this moment.

So many other systems of medicine are really well versed in the different qualities of smell – sweet,

Sour,

Burnt.

If your mind immediately names a complex smell cookies,

Flowers,

Mindfulness asks us to observe the actual components of that smell – sweet,

Sour.

Again watch any desire or impulse to lean forward,

To go searching for smell,

To make something happen.

And also notice if the body begins to react in any way,

Tightening up against the smell,

Avoiding the smell.

Where on your nose do you experience this sensation of smell?

And as you let that go,

Turn your attention now to your mouth,

Your tongue,

And what sensations of taste are present in your mouth today.

Is it sweet,

Salty,

Sour,

Bitter,

Astringent?

Is it at the front of the tongue,

The sides of the tongue,

The back of the tongue?

Where on your tongue,

Where in your mind-body are you experiencing these sensations?

If the mind wanders,

If you get lost in memories,

Or start thinking about the future,

About what you might be eating,

Whenever you notice the mind has wandered,

That's when the real work begins.

And simply and gently bring your attention back to the taste that's appearing right now.

Letting your mind be open,

Your attention and awareness be inviting and welcoming.

Observe the experience of taste.

How do you befriend this experience without necessarily pushing it away,

Distracting yourself or focusing on something else?

And now allow your attention to focus upwards towards your eyes.

If your eyes are closed,

You can keep them closed.

If your eyes are open,

Allow your gaze to remain soft.

Can you bring the same open attention that you brought to sound and taste to your sensation of sight?

This experience is just light impressing upon your retina.

What colors,

What shapes,

What textures,

What shades of gray present themselves to your retina moment to moment?

It's the same practice as with sound.

You don't have to name the objects in your field of vision if your eyes are open,

Or even if your eyes are closed.

Observe the basic qualities of light,

Of dark,

Of color,

Of shape.

Notice if your attention becomes constricted.

Notice if you feel as if you're orienting or relating to sight.

In a very prescriptive way,

You feel the urge to do something,

Even just name it.

You can always take a deeper breath,

Let it out,

And begin again.

Observe the sensations that are impressing upon your retina right now.

As you let your attention to sight go,

You can also feel the urge to do something,

Even if your attention is not open.

We're going to turn our attention now to touch,

A very nebulous term.

There's so many different sensations that we call touch.

For this practice right now,

I invite you to bring your attention to the sensation of pressure,

And that can be most noted where your body is making contact with your chair,

Your cushion,

Your mat,

Whatever surface you find yourself resting on.

Now note,

As you observe the sensation of touch,

Did you feel the desire or impulse to move,

To adjust,

Or to shift?

If you feel that impulse,

Even as I mention it,

Can you watch where that impulse lives in your body?

If you do feel the need to move,

Feel free to.

But I invite you to take a moment to observe the impulse itself before doing so,

And then come back to the sensation of contact,

Of that pressure.

It could be your buttocks,

Your thighs,

Even the soles of your feet as they rest on the earth.

Note,

If you begin to tell a story about that sensation,

Start to think about aches and pains.

If you find your mind wandering in such a way,

Just smile and begin again.

I invite you to expand your attention to touch by bringing your awareness now to your skin,

As much as you can,

All the skin of your body.

As you do,

You might notice a myriad of physical sensations.

Pressure – where your clothing touches your skin.

Temperature – where your skin might be exposed to the air,

You might feel coolness,

Or if it's covered with clothing or blankets,

You might feel warmth,

You might feel an itch,

Perhaps you even feel some discomfort.

Allow your attention to rest gently on touch and temperature and any other sensations of the skin.

Now we're going to do a round of just 30 seconds for each of these sensations.

Bring your attention,

When you're ready,

As fully as possible,

To the sensation of sound and hearing.

Now gently direct your attention away from your ears and bring it to your nose,

The sensation of smell.

Imagine just drifting your attention down from your nose to your tongue and welcome and observe the sensations of taste.

Placing the focus on that sensation and bring your attention as fully as possible to sight,

Eyes open or closed.

And now bring your attention to the sensation of touch,

Specifically pressure,

Those contact points where your body is making direct contact with whatever surface you're resting on – bed,

Chair,

Floor or mat.

And then for this final moment,

I invite you to let all of that go and simply turn your awareness to your own inner experience.

How are you in this moment?

And notice how you might answer that question.

What has this practice of mindful attention to our sensations done in your whole mind and body?

I invite you to take another moment and imagine moving through your day with just a bit more mindful attention.

What will it be like when rather than being reactive,

You're able to pause and observe the actual experience,

Starting with the sensations that are present?

And when you know that you are able to bring some of this mindful attention to the rest of your daily life,

Will you find yourself slowly waking up,

Opening your eyes and coming back into the room?

Thank you so much for joining me and may you all go gently,

Knowing your goodness.