Welcome to this mindfulness of thoughts practice.
So to begin with I invite you to set yourself up in a comfortable position either sitting or lying down and taking a moment to arrive in your body perhaps noticing the points of contact that you're making with the earth.
Noticing the fabric of your clothes,
The air against your skin,
Having a sense of arrival being held by the earth.
Now I invite you to narrow your attention to your breath not changing the rhythm in any way simply observing your breath breathing in and breathing out perhaps noticing the pauses in between.
Perhaps finding a point within the breath that's most vivid for you today that you can anchor yourself with within the practice.
That each time your mind has wandered off which it will it's what minds do you can gently and kindly bring yourself back,
Back to the present moment and this point within the breath that will act as an anchor.
The breath doesn't feel right for you perhaps finding a neutral spot within the body you can bring your attention to maybe the crown of the head or the space between your eyebrows or your left finger.
There's finding somewhere neutral that doesn't have a juicy story that you can bring your attention back to.
Just observing your breath as you breathe in and you breathe out and expanding your awareness from the breath to include all of your body.
Where do you begin and end?
Are there any sensations that are particularly drawing your attention today?
Where are they?
Do they have a shape,
A colour,
A texture?
Do they move being interested and curious in you?
And your direct felt experience of yourself is dropping into our bodies as a way of anchoring into the present moment.
Now I invite you to bring your attention to your experience of sounds,
Sounds as sounds.
Not particularly searching for sounds allowing them to arrive.
The sounds from my space into your space,
Sounds from where you are,
Sounds from outside of your space dropping into your direct experience of them.
Where do you experience sounds in the body?
Noticing how the mind finds a label and a story and a picture perhaps what the sound is and as best you can each time you notice yourself lost in that story bringing yourself back to your direct experience of sounds as sounds.
Perhaps taking a moment to marvel at your ability to process what's coming out of my mouth making some kind of sense to you without you having to make too much effort.
Your moment to marvel and wonder at yourself and then dropping into the felt sensation of that within your body,
Your direct experience of sounds.
Where,
Where are they and what are they?
Do they have a shape,
A colour,
A texture,
A movement?
Sounds as sounds.
And from sounds I now invite you to bring your awareness to your experience of thoughts as thoughts.
So stepping away from the story and observing the thoughts that come into your head pop up like clouds that pass by in the sky or bubbles in a drink,
A drink perhaps like observing a television screen.
Not getting directly involved in the thoughts but simply noticing them arise.
As some thoughts pass by quickly and others stay longer maybe seem heavier or thicker or denser and as best you can dropping into your direct and felt experience of thoughts as thoughts where do you experience them in the body?
Do they have a shape,
Colour,
A texture,
A movement?
Perhaps noticing how some thoughts are like the sounds that they pass by quickly,
They move but some are constant.
Perhaps they throb or pulse or move slightly.
And perhaps taking a moment to acknowledge that your thoughts are simply thoughts but they're not facts and they're not you.
You are not your thoughts.
They're mental events like sounds or physical experiences within the body.
Nothing is permanent.
What is your felt and direct experience of thoughts as thoughts?
And the mind wanders off lost in the stories that you can return your attention to your breath or that anchor,
That neutral anchor within your body.
Now an invitation to narrow your attention back to the breath,
Changing the rhythm of the breath but simply being with it as it is.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Perhaps noticing the pauses,
The felt sensation of your breath.
They're like snowflakes,
No two are the same.
And then expanding your awareness from your breath to include all of your body.
You breathing here and taking a moment to congratulate yourself for having taken the time out of your busy day to do this practice.
And as best you can taking the sense of connection and awareness into whatever you have left to do with your day.
Perhaps taking the time to pause.
Prepare what you need to do next to best take care of yourself.
You
