I'd like to invite you,
As always,
To stop and turn inwards.
Feel your body physically settle into this space,
Your back active but relaxed,
Your chin slightly tucked in and your feet grounding into the floor.
Feel your body turning away from the world of doing and towards your being that's always there.
Setting an intention right now to be here.
I am exactly where I'm supposed to be.
This is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.
This is it.
This moment is all that's real.
We'll start,
As always,
With that connection to our fingertips,
Allowing your nervous system to respond to your attention,
Noticing.
Seeing if you can ignite that gentle humming or vibration in your fingertips through your attention.
Perhaps it comes and goes.
Or is stronger on one side more than the other.
Just notice what you feel.
If your mind is already kicked in with thoughts,
Just gently give yourself permission to let them go and return to the practice.
No self-judgment,
Control.
Just letting go.
Now see if you can feel that same sensation in your toes.
Allow it to spread across your hands.
Up your arms,
Across your feet,
Your legs.
Seeing if you can build that awareness of your whole body,
Across your chest.
Perhaps feeling an openness developing across your body.
Stay with it.
Notice anywhere that's holding tension.
Without trying to change it,
Just stay with it.
Now gently take your attention to your breath.
See where in the body you feel it.
Perhaps it's where the breath enters your mouth or your muscles.
Or maybe today you notice it in your chest as it rises and falls.
Or is it in your belly?
Just see what emerges and allow your attention to settle there.
Perhaps it's somewhere different each time you meditate.
Perhaps you can choose to focus somewhere different.
Just notice that the breath comes and goes on its own.
Rising,
Falling.
You don't need to make it happen.
Body's breathing for you.
Just keep labelling and noting.
Rising,
Falling.
Rising,
Falling.
Your role is just to observe,
To witness.
To see what's happening.
To see that that process of breathing happens on its own.
Seeing that distance and separation between you and your doing.
If your mind gets distracted by thoughts,
Judgements,
Feelings,
Just let them go.
Return to the breath.
Know that you are right here where you're supposed to be.
Rising,
Falling.
Rising,
Falling.
This is our base camp.
You can always return here and use it to anchor your practice.
And as you move into an open awareness practice,
Know this place is always here for you.
Rising,
Falling.
Rising,
Falling.
Breath and the body,
Always present.
After a while,
A physical sensation will begin to emerge up through your awareness.
Don't go searching for it,
But allow whatever is there to come to you,
Into your awareness.
Be open to it.
Whenever sensation comes up,
Just label the experience,
Sensation.
Sensation.
Maybe it's sensation where your body meets the chair.
Maybe in the back of the neck or lower down in the body.
Maybe it's an itch or skin sensitivity.
Whenever it comes up,
Just label sensation.
Don't worry about trying to know all of them together or worrying about which sensation to choose from.
Just go with the most intense and most obvious in that moment.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Maybe you need to label it once or maybe it persists and you need to label it repeatedly.
That's okay.
Just let it be there.
Not trying to change it.
No effort.
Just noticing,
Seeing and labeling.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Eventually,
The sensation will fall away.
When another emerges,
Just label it again.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Then see if you can open your awareness further and allow sounds to come to you.
Again,
You're not looking for the sound.
Let the sounds reach you and when they do,
Just label them.
Hearing.
Hearing.
Hearing.
Don't try to identify what the sound is or describe it.
Just label it.
Hearing.
Hearing.
Maybe sensation.
Sensation.
Hearing.
Hearing.
And now,
Adding our thoughts.
Not attaching to them.
Just noticing when you begin to have a thought and label it.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
And sometimes,
In some days,
There are more thoughts and it can feel like an endless round of thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
But know that that's okay.
That's just sometimes the way it is.
Just notice and let it go.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Sensation.
Sensation.
Hearing.
And when you're ready,
Gently wriggle your fingers and your toes.
Open your eyes but leave your gaze soft.
Allowed yourselves to take some time to land back in the space and see how you feel having spent some time in your awareness allowing things to flow through.
