Mindfully Focusing On Your Senses

In this session we practice 'Present State Awareness' followed by 10 minutes of silence. Start by focusing attention onto the breath. Then turn your attention to each sense in turn, asking: "what can I feel, see, hear, taste, and smell?" Finish with your attention resting on all your senses simultaneously. If your mind wanders, gently and lovingly bring it back to the sensations arising. This is a mindfulness practice. The goal isn't to have an empty mind or a totally focused mind, but rather to notice where the mind is in each moment.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome, I invite you to take a seat or lay down, You can close down the eyes if you wish, And just begin taking some slow, Deep, Sighing breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, As we settle into the session, Just beginning by drawing your attention to the sensations of the breath of the nose, Noticing the sensations of the breath, The temperature, A little bit cooler on the way in, A little bit warmer on the way out, Noticing which nostril the air is going in, If you're noticing your mind wander, Just gently, Lovingly bringing it back to the sensations of the breath at the nose. So with mindfulness meditation, We choose an anchor, Something to focus the mind on, In this case, The breath, The mind wanders, We notice it, We bring it back, And that's the basic practice, But we can choose anything as an anchor. So today we're going to practice a present state awareness meditation, Also maybe known as a 5-4-3-2-1 grounding meditation, Basically we shift our focus to the different aspects of our senses, Using each sense as an anchor, So taking a moment to turn your attention to what you can hear in this moment, You can hear the sound of my voice, But what else can you hear? Maybe some sounds of other people, Technology, The breath, Really just listening, What can you hear in this moment? Now turning your attention to what you can see, Either behind closed eyes or open, Just observing, Just witnessing, You'll notice as you're looking or listening or feeling the tendency to label, To judge, To categorize, Notice that as well, We see things and we almost instantly prescribe meaning, But we want to witness as if we were sitting on the edge of the road, Looking across, Perhaps at a mailbox, And the analogy is cars are driving by, We see a car, We observe it, And then it goes, Oh look there's a truck, We observe it, And it goes, Now a pedestrian is walking by, We're just witnessing, Just observing, Just allowing it to let go, We're not jumping on board the truck, We're not walking with the pedestrian, We're just witnessing it all passing, And the same is true with our senses, Turning your attention now to what you can feel in your body, Once again just feeling, Feeling the ground or the floor underneath you, The clothes upon your skin, Internal sensations and pressures, The breath, Just noticing what you can feel in this moment, No judgment, Just witnessing, And finally turning your attention to what you can taste and smell, Are there any lingering senses, Smells or tastes, Just witnessing them, Being curious about them, You might cognitively know what the smell is, Or what lingering tastes are there, Or what caused them, But again and again we return back to the physiological sensation arising, Being curious about it, Almost as if we're attempting to witness it for the first time, Okay, Now taking another slow deep sighing breath, I'm going to allow our awareness to drift between the different sensations in the body, Noticing what we can see, Feel, Hear, Taste, Smell in this moment, And if at any time our mind gets lost or trapped in thought, We gently, Lovingly return it back to the sensations that are arising in the body, Let's try this for just one minute, Just noticing the sensations in the body, What you can feel, See, Hear, Taste and smell, If you find yourself lost in thought, If you notice you're distracted, That's okay, Indeed that's the entire point of mindfulness based meditation practices, You notice your mind wandering, You bring it back to the anchor, To the focus point, Might be the breath, But in this case it's the sensations from the body, Let's try one more time, Sitting with the sensations in the body, Noticing if our mind is wandering, Then gently, Lovingly bringing it back, So that was an introduction to present state awareness, You choose either one sensation or all of them as the anchor and you draw your attention to it, What you can see, Hear, Feel, Taste and smell, When your mind wanders, When you notice it wandering, You bring it back, The goal isn't to have a locked in mind or a blank mind, The goal is to notice where the mind is going, You capture it lost in thought, You say hey, We're focusing on the senses, It wanders off into a memory, Okay, We're just listening, You keep doing that, And over time two things happen, You get very good at noticing where your mind is wandering and your mind begins to settle, It's a dual process, So whether or not you're able to stay focused or whether or not your mind is wandering, That's actually a sign of a good meditation, A good meditation is the one that you do, Regardless of the subjective quality or the nature of your mind in that moment, Every time you witness it wandering and bring it back, That's a win, So thank you for joining me and now we will do a 10-minute sit, You can continue to practice present state awareness, Focusing on all or perhaps just of the senses as your meditation anchor or doing whatever practice you like, I'll set a 10-minute timer and we'll begin, Okay, You're more than welcome to maintain the meditation but if you like just gently returning back to the room, Back to the present moment, Back to your day, Opening up the eyes and gently moving the body, Just taking a moment to connect with the act of self-care and self-love, Doing a session of meditation is, We're practicing present state awareness today, Type of mindfulness meditation where we turn our attention to the sensations that are arising, Noticing what we can see, Hear, Feel, Taste and smell, Just reminding you that the act of meditation, Mindful meditation that is, Is noticing where your mind is, It's not about having a blank mind or a hyper-focused mind, It's about noticing where your mind is, You're in, Huh, There you are, You got lost in thought, You got distracted, Back to the focus point, Whatever you chose that to be and the final reminder being that you've had a successful meditation if you've done the meditation, Yeah, How it feels, How distracted you are, Whatever's going on in the mind, As long as you're here for the session, Returning your focus back, That's the success, Either way, Thank you for joining me, I'll see you next time.