Directing Our Awareness Consciously

Where our attention goes is often unconscious, here we practice using our attention deliberately. We use Ujjayi pranayama as a single-pointed focus and feel how it feels to have a strong single focus. Then we open our awareness to everything in this present moment and feel how that feels. It's a great opportunity to decide not to censor and criticise ourselves, to allow things to be just as they are without control. Consciously choose how to use awareness. Photo by Alexander Milo on Unsplash

Transcript

Let's find our comfortable seat. Our bottom squarely in the chair so we've got a solid base, Feet on the floor, A stable base from which our spine can lengthen a little bit. Then exhaling we can soften into that seat a little bit. So we're tall, We're also relaxed, Able to rest and be still for a little while. Back of our neck is long, Chin tucking in a little bit so our neck is in line with our spine. We've parked our body, Hands at rest. Taking our attention inwards with the breath and the body. I'm just seeing how it feels to do that. For myself I find I gradually start to relax as the demands of the outer world are put aside. The breath gets a little deeper and slower. Some of the tension falls away from the body, As if we've pressed pause. Keeping the mind on our breath and our body as best we can, But if our attention wanders, No criticism, We just return knowing that this is part of the process strengthening our focus. Every time we return our concentration, Our focus gets a little stronger. So we'll start our Ujjayi Pranayama. It's all with a nice upright and yet relaxed body. Let's see if we can get that sense of a little tension in our glottis, In our throat, So that we can hear our breath a little. We can listen to the sound as it flows in and out. We can imagine that breath moving in and out of the throat as if that tension were a little whole, If that works for us. The breath is still comfortable, Body's comfortable. Noticing how it feels to be focused on this point. Have we found this focus has created any tension? Maybe become rigid, We can release that if so, See if we can focus and be relaxed. A couple more of our Ujjayi breaths and then releasing the breathing exercise. We might like to turn our palms up to symbolize our awareness, Our openness to whatever comes into our awareness now. We simply sit and be noticing whatever comes up. That might be things in the outer world or the inner world. And I invite you to be particularly aware of any inner censorship, Any inner resistance. No that shouldn't be happening, No, No, No, I shouldn't be thinking that, That noise shouldn't be here. Those thoughts that are our resistance to what is. If our mind wanders can we return without the criticism, It's just what happened. It's okay. If we find ourselves able to be without the resistance, Great. If we find ourselves tussling, Wrestling with the present moment that's okay too. Can that be okay? Our conscious mind, Our ego is always judging, Assessing, Judging, Good or bad but we are able to put it down and merely observe. And as we sit in our observer seat we connect to a different type of consciousness. Faster, More secure and healthier. So noticing how that feels to be in that open awareness and noticing we've made a judgment. Let's go back to our focused state of awareness with our Ujjayi breath. So out of all the universe we focus on our throat and the sound of our breath as we constrict our throat just a little. Focusing as best we can. Just notice if we've become rigid or our breath has become uncomfortable. If at any point it does become uncomfortable you can just release the tension and be with your breath as a natural breath. A few more focused breaths. Releasing that focus, Opening ourselves as if opening a book, Opening our awareness to all comers to the present moment. Physical sensations, Sounds, Thoughts, Memories. Judgments, Censorship of self. We can observe how it feels to have this open awareness. And we can know we can use these states to our advantage. There are times when it's appropriate to have a meditative focus, A sharp focus, Maybe when our mind is very distracted or fearful or when the washing machine mind starts to go we can use a strong focus to bring us back into a healthier state of mind. And that strong focus may be one of many many things and there are times when it's more appropriate for us to allow that open awareness. It may be that that's more difficult particularly if we're anxious because our thoughts are intrusive. But that's all useful learning and we can work with our state of mind. Before we leave this state of awareness let's see how we feel physically, Heart and mind and if it's different from when we began. And then we can take one or two deeper breaths and start to bring movement back to our body as we gradually return to our waking state of consciousness. Moving our fingers and toes, Wrists, Ankles, Arms and legs. Having a little stretch if that's for us. Thank you for practicing with me.