Listening Mindfully Sensory Meditation

Become more deeply aware of your sense of hearing through this guided sensory meditation practice. Mindfulness helps us become more deeply aware of the present through the use of our senses - helping us deepen our perceptions as well as practice nonjudgment.

Transcript

My name is April and welcome to this mindfulness sensory meditation practice. So today we'll be working with our sense of sound, Of hearing. We'll be focusing on that, Settling our awareness there. So just kind of a background, Mindfulness is that being fully present in the moment with curiosity, With kindness, With compassion, Openness, And with no judgment. So in practicing that, Start with being as comfortable as you can. So if you need to use a chair or a wall to support your back, Or to lay down on the floor or on a couch, Make yourself comfortable so that you feel like you can be there for a while without feeling unsettled or focusing on discomfort. We never want to be uncomfortable in meditation. With that in mind, I want you to still be a little bit alert. So if you are in a position or a place where you feel really sleepy, You might want to move to some place you feel a little bit more awake and alert. In this practice, I want you to be aware and present and to do that you need to be just a little bit more awake than sleepy land. So use this to kind of bring you back to center. So find whatever makes sense for you, Settle yourself in by rocking back and forth, Maybe rolling the shoulders a few times. If you're laying on the floor, You might want to tuck those shoulders underneath. Use some kind of prop underneath the knees to give you a little support for the low back. And always feel free to shift during meditation practice. You don't have to be completely still. If you need to shift your legs or unwind them and wind them a different way, Always be free to do that whenever you need to. So settling in, If it is appropriate for you today, You can close your eyes or even just soften your gaze. Maybe taking three deep breaths here, Inhaling through the nose, Exhaling through the mouth with a little sigh. These three deep breaths help us connect to our parasympathetic nervous system, Our rest and digest and heal part of the nervous system. Stepping us away from that fight or flight. It's hard to be mindful when you're fight or flight. You're noticing your breath, Where your breath is centered, Your belly, Your heart, Your shoulder blades. Keeping in mind that being mindfully present is non-judgmental. You start your practice wherever you're at. That's just where you are. It's not good or bad. Next is feeling your breath settle into maybe a more consistent pattern. Letting the breath smooth itself out. As you become aware of your breath, You automatically find a little bit more of a rhythm to it. I want you to notice with your sense of hearing maybe the sound of your breath. Maybe you're someone who likes to use Ujjayi breath and you can hear that little bit of sibilance at the back of the throat. Maybe you're a little congested and you can hear it in your head or through your nose. Just notice the sound of your breath. As you notice the sound of your breath, You begin to notice more of the sounds in your body. Your heart beating maybe, The gurgling of your belly, The popping and shifting of joints maybe. Maybe you hear nothing at all and that's okay too. Just becoming aware of whatever sounds right around your body. Maybe your awareness a little bit wider to maybe the room around you or the space right around you. Maybe it's a purring cat or a snuffling dog. The sound of the fan overhead or the buzzing of a light. Keeping in mind there are no positive or negative sounds, Even though you may prefer a sound over another. Just let those sounds wash over you without judgment. Now pull your awareness out a little bit further to the space of where you live, Whether that be a house or an apartment or a town home. Maybe you're in a hotel right now. Notice the sounds from outside the room you're in. People talking or maybe a TV off in the distance. Someone cooking. Without getting attached to those sounds in any way, Just noting those sounds, Becoming aware of them. Letting them wash over you. If you find your mind wandering, Just kindly, Compassionately, Lovingly draw your awareness back to the space of where you're living, The sounds around you. Now expanding your hearing a little bit further out, Maybe to the sounds from the street or outside where you're living. Maybe it's the cars passing by on the road or children playing, The wind whistling in the leaves or the birds singing. Remembering there is no good or bad, There just is the sound. Letting these sounds just wash over you softly. And expanding your sense of hearing even further, Maybe the sounds off in the distance, A train, A highway. Not forcing the sound. If there's nothing, There's nothing and that's okay too. Not trying, Just allowing the sound to come to you. Letting your attention rest in your sense of hearing. Focus your awareness and your attention on any sounds on the left side of you, Close or far. Anything you hear out the left ear. Now any sounds you hear only out of the right ear or the right side of your body. What sounds close or far away are on the right side. You find your mind wandering, Don't worry, Just bring your attention back to any sounds on the right side of your body. Bring your awareness to any sounds behind you, Far and near any sounds that you hear from behind you. Now drawing your awareness to any sounds you hear in front of you, Close or far in the space in the front of your body. Maybe there's nothing and that's okay too. Noting that there is no sound, If that's the case for you. Now bring your awareness to any sounds you hear above your head. Maybe that's in the sky or on a wall, Maybe planes overhead or trees or someone in the floor above you. Keeping in mind there is no positive or negative here. Just letting the sound wash over you from above your head down into the body. And now noting any sounds that are below you, The floor beneath, The ground beneath. Maybe there's silence, Just noting that too. Your mind is wandered off, Just softly and gently guiding it back to any sounds below you. Now noticing all the sounds from every direction, Left and right, Above and below, Front and back. Maybe there are sounds that you missed before, The buzzing of a clock or the ticking sound, Small little sounds that you may have missed from before. Noticing all those sounds, Large and small, Loud and soft, White noise or bright noise. Letting all these sounds wash over you without judgment, Just being present with the sounds. Now bringing your awareness back to your body. Maybe now you can hear a few more sounds, Like the beat of your heart, The breath as it moves in and out. Gently begin to wiggle your fingers and your toes. Whenever you feel ready, Opening your eyes, Moving your body however you need to readjust, Shifting around, Becoming aware of your other senses in the space around you. If you find yourself over the next day or so becoming much more aware of sound and noticing sounds you may have tuned out. We do that. We tune things out because we think we want to focus on one thing and we want to disconnect from other things. Sometimes we find sounds that we do not find appealing and we try to white noise them out without hearing them, But they're still there. There's not a good sound or a bad sound. They are just what they are. They're just sound. Reconnecting with that sound and all those sounds without judgment, With curiosity, With the beginner's mind, With a certain sense of joy for what is making that sound. The life, The sound of electronics that make our life easier or more accessible. All of those things have their benefits in positives and negatives. Just being very balanced and non-judgmental in the practice. Thank you so much for joining me. Have a wonderful week. Peace and namaste.