This meditation was recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart in Woonoona,
May 2020.
So settling into your chosen posture as best you can.
Finding a nice balance of relaxed and alertness.
Noticing what's present right now.
What do you notice in the body,
Heart and mind?
And perhaps today it might be possible rather than trying to shut down any difficult experience.
As best you can,
Allowing whatever's present.
Perhaps with that attitude of gentle curiosity.
Just noticing what's present.
Having that permission to roam around our vast,
Fenceless field of heart,
Mind,
Body.
That beautiful curiosity in beginner's mind.
So allowing the awareness to focus in on the breath quite lightly,
Like a petal dropping onto the surface of a pond.
Noticing wherever that breath feels most prominent right now.
Perhaps in the nostrils.
Perhaps the rise and fall of the chest or abdomen.
Perhaps in the throat or perhaps a combination.
No need to conceptualize the breath or analyze it,
Imagine,
Visualize it.
The invitation is to drop into the felt sense of the breath in the body.
Just this breath and this breath.
Now it's be Drotrichina.
No need to control or manipulate the breath.
No need to control or manipulate the breath.
No need to control or manipulate the breath.
Each breath new and fresh and subtly different to the one before and the one after.
No need to control or manipulate the breath.
This breath linking each of our present moments.
Each breath connecting to the outside environment.
The outside environment,
The rest of the world.
The outside environment,
The rest of the world.
The outside environment,
The rest of the world.
And while we have the breath in the foreground of our awareness,
Just completely natural that the mind will get distracted because that's what the mind does.
And as soon as we notice that we're distracted by a thought or a sound or a body sensation perhaps,
Then we've remembered again.
These distractions don't need to be viewed as obstacles or barriers in the meditation.
They're actually a feature of the meditation.
They become the secondary objects of our meditation.
Help in our increasing insight of how our mind works.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
As best we can,
Becoming really intimate with the breath,
The whole of the in breath.
The little space,
The whole of the out breath.
And the next little space.
And then we notice this wonderful practice of bringing the attention from one experience back to our grounding object,
Which in this case is the breath.
And now expanding that awareness to notice the whole body breathing.
Noticing the effect of the breath on the whole body.
Perhaps gentle movement.
Sensations in the nostrils,
Perhaps temperature differences there.
The rise and fall of the chest and abdomen.
Perhaps movement in the sides of the chest.
Continuing to notice the whole body.
Perhaps there might be areas in the body that feel heavy.
Or light.
Areas that feel cool or cold.
Parts of the body that feel still.
The parts where there's subtle movement,
Perhaps flickering in the muscles or a sense of tingling or vibration in the fingers and toes,
Perhaps.
Noticing areas that might feel tight.
Contracted,
Dense.
Other areas that feel more loose,
Diffuse fluid.
Maybe you might notice dampness or dryness.
Perhaps there's somewhere in your body that you have really strong or intense sensations.
Using your wisdom to know how to be with those right now.
Perhaps it feels right to really penetrate to the right to the centre of the sensation.
Perhaps to explore the outside.
Perhaps breathing around or through it.
Perhaps imagining it in that vast,
Fenceless field.
Where it's got plenty of room to be with plenty of space around it.
For you to explore it.
As best you can,
Maintaining that lovely,
Gentle curiosity and friendliness towards all experience in the body.
Tonight,
I see the shadow.
You you And of course the mind will do its thing and as soon as you notice that the minds gone elsewhere noting curiously where it's gone perhaps it feels right to stay there for a short time and gently coming back to the experience of the body and gently coming back to the experience of the body and gently coming back to the experience of the body perhaps if you catch yourself thinking you could notice what's the body sensations associated with that thought or if there's an urge to move what are the sensations associated with the urge to move if there's drowsiness present or restlessness or confusion again what are the body sensations again what are the sensations associated with the urge to move again again again again again so very gently beginning to externalise the awareness by getting in contact with your senses that sense the outside world so perhaps noticing the sense of touch points of contact furniture,
Clothes,
Hair,
Jewellery,
Air temperature any tastes or smells that might be present what you can hear from your computer and from the world around you what you can see behind the closed eyelids and we're just going to be looking at the world around you and see behind the closed eyelids and when you're ready very gently opening the eyes without going seeking sights just allowing the eyes to receive the light you
