Mindfully Focusing On Your Senses

In this session we practice 'Present State Awareness'.

Focus your attention on the sensations of the breath at the nose. If you notice your mind wandering or lost in thought, gently and lovingly return it back to the breath.

Then shift your point of focus: What can you hear? What can you see? What can you feel? These are the sensations arising in this moment.

You can choose anything as an anchor of focus. Explore these in your day to bring more mindfulness into your life.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session, I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable, You can close down the eyes if you wish, Just for the first little bit, Slowing down the breath, In through the nose, Low into the belly and slow, Taking a moment to scan the body and the mind space, Just releasing any surface level tensions, Thoughts, Mental hang ups that might be arising, Really settling into the session, Taking one more slow deep breath, And just allowing your breath to return to its normal rate, And placing our attention upon it, Focusing our attention on the sensations of the breath, Entering and leaving the nose, Really feeling the sensations deeply, Trying to capture the entirety of the breath in awareness, Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment, To practice mindfulness we select and anchor a point of focus, For example the breath, When our mind wanders and we recognise that it's wandering away from that anchor, We lovingly bring it back, Mind wanders, We bring it back, That's the practice, The goal is not to empty the mind, The goal is to become aware non-judgmentally of where the mind is, Is it on the breath, Or is it lost in thought, That is the practice, So we focus upon a meditation object, Like the breath, Training our ability to focus, But more importantly our awareness, Where is your mind in this moment, Now traditionally the breath is used as a point of focus, But you can actually use mindfulness, The practice of mindfulness on any object, So today we're going to explore something known as present state awareness, Or a 5-4-3-2-1 meditation, All we do is cycle through our senses, Turning your attention now, Focusing upon what you can hear in this moment, The sound of my voice, Perhaps sounds of nature, Traffic, Technology, Internal sounds, Really listening deeply, These are the sounds arising in this moment, Behind closed eyes or open, Turning your attention to what you can see in this moment, Movements, The light, The colour, Shapes, What can you see in this moment, These are the sights of this moment, And now turning your attention to what you can feel, The floor or the seat beneath you, The clothes upon your skin, The temperature of the room, The feeling of your body in space, Internal sensations, Like heartbeat, Breathing, Digestion, Muscle tensions, Just feeling it all, These are the sensations of this moment, Just letting all of the attention go, And simply sitting and witnessing it all, The sounds, The sights, The sensations, The breaths, The thoughts, The memories, All of it, Noticing how something comes into your awareness, Your mind wanders to it, Then the sensation passes, Your mind wanders to something else, Just witnessing it all, Now returning your focus of attention back to the breath, Really feeling the sensations of the breath at the nose deeply, And for the next minute, If you notice your mind wandering, Lost in thought or other sensations, Gently, Lovingly, Return your mind, Return your focus back to the breath, So in this session we practiced mindfulness meditation, By focusing on the breath and then on the sensations in turn, This is a present state awareness meditation, Can I hear, See and feel in this moment, I just want to remind you of two things, Whether or not your mind is focused, Whether or not it's stable and calm or erratic and bouncy, Both of those meditations are worth the same, A pleasant feeling meditation or an unpleasant feeling meditation are both meditations, The best meditation you have is the one that you do, The goal of mindfulness is not to empty the mind, It is to become aware of what the mind is focusing on and gently, Lovingly bring it back to the point of focus or the anchor, Some days this will feel very easy, Your mind is like a calm clear lake, Stable, Focused and it will feel amazing, Other days you'll realise that your mind is quite chaotic, Feeling like a windswept ocean, Waves crashing and it will be very hard to find a point of stillness or focus, But nonetheless we become aware of what's arising in our mind and then bring it back, That's the goal, The idea is that over time and with practice we get better at that skill of awareness, Better at the skill of returning to the point of focus and those skills manifest off the meditation mat into our daily lives, So as we're interacting with people, Doing our job or just existing, We become aware of where our mind is at any one time and then we have a choice, A mindful moment to be able to become aware and then bring it back to whatever it is we're doing, Emotions, Sensations, Feelings are quite egotistical, They want to perpetuate themselves, As we become aware we're stuck in a thought or in a feeling or a sensation we have a choice, Oh there's my mind, Let's bring it back to what we were doing, So thank you for joining me and I'll see you in the next session