Becoming Aware

13:53

13:53

Becoming Aware

Rated

4.2

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Experienced

Plays

1.2k

From Injury to Repair using meditation in becoming aware of the whole body and relaxing into focused relief. Breathe & release any pain.

Awareness Meditation Relaxation Pain Relief Perception Movement Grounding Mindful Eating Yoga Body Awareness Breathing Slow Movements Visualizations

Meet your Teacher

Hollywood, MD, USA

Meet your Teacher

Hollywood, MD, USA

Transcript

Becoming Aware There are lots of ways to increase your awareness, Which is incredibly important. When meditating, It is necessary to remain in your own experience, Which is called direct perception or gnosis. You do not want to float up out of your body, But stay grounded in your physical form. You will learn to expand your awareness from your inner self outward to a greater and greater experience of the totality of all that is. All of that flows from the direct experience of what is unfolding from within you. The development of my awareness began when I injured myself during a dance class. Elaine Summers said to me, You are moving with much, Too much tension in your body. I can teach you to relax and to move from the inside out, But you will have to stop dancing for a while. I thought my career was on a roll, But I knew she was right and I was injured, So I decided to stop. She taught me a whole series of exercises that helped me to focus deeply inside the body in order to open up the spaces between joints by relaxing the muscles around those joints. I discovered myself that if I focused on a place in my body where I wanted to relieve the tension that was there, I could also hum into that spot to facilitate the relaxation. So let's try it. Begin by just taking a nice deep breath, Humming on the exhalation, And just paying attention to the vibration that you feel inside. We'll begin by taking a breath in. Hum. So where in your body did you feel that vibration? Let's try it once more and just see. Hum. So again, Take the time to notice your body and the sound and the vibration. So this time, Let's take it to a place where perhaps you carry a lot of tension. Since most people carry a great deal of tension in the backs of their necks and shoulders, Let's try there and then we'll do your own special spot. So just imagine perhaps a picture in your mind of the structure of your neck and your shoulders, The bones and the muscles, Or just be aware of the physical sensation of the tension, And then take a nice deep breath in and hum, Sending the vibration through your attention to that place there. Hum. Hum. So you might become aware that your shoulders dropped as they were relaxing more, Or you might feel an increase in temperature of warmth in your neck or your shoulders as you're paying attention to those places. Let's try again and this time choose a spot in your own body, Perhaps where you have some pain or you carry tension. And again, Just focus your attention on that spot. You can see the bones and muscles if you can do that, Imagine that or see it in your mind's eye. Or just focus on the tension and the pain and hum. Hum. Hum. Hum. Hum. Hum. Hum. So perhaps you became more aware of that part of your body. You felt a vibration there, Or you felt your body open up and relax. Don't be discouraged if you didn't the first time or two. This takes practice. So take the time with yourself and breathe and hum and focus your awareness on your body. Another way that I taught myself at that time to pay attention to what I was doing was to move my body. Say for instance I moved my hand from my heart and I opened it out to the side of my body. So I would go through that movement and then I would stop and I would go back in my mind's eye and move my arm there again. And see how did I do that? How did I get from here to there? And so I might do that again every time I moved a part of my body slowly I would stop. And then in my mind's eye repeat the movement, The details of it, The way in which my bones moved, My fingers moved, Or my whatever body part and the muscles and whatever else I was aware of at that moment as I was moving that part of my body slowly. And so you can learn in this way as you keep checking yourself. How did I do that? What was happening in my body at that time? You begin to increase your body awareness. Again this is something that requires some practice. So take the time to practice. You can carry this awareness into your exercise program by paying attention to the details of how and where you were moving. Move slowly so that you can be very aware of what you're doing. Again stop. Review what you just did. Do you remember? Can you see it in your mind's eye? Can you feel it in your body? How you got from here to there? So take your time. The exercises in yoga are particularly good for this kind of body awareness building. It's also I would say a much much safer way to practice your exercises because you will be a lot less likely to injure yourself because you're paying attention. There are also lots of mindfulness meditations out there that offer a variety of ways to begin the awareness process. For instance when you walk go slowly so that you can pay attention to the details of how you move your body to achieve a forward movement. You can do the same thing when you're eating. Be aware of how you bring the food to your mouth, How you place it inside of your mouth, What does it taste like, What is the texture as you begin to chew and then swallow and can you feel the food moving down from your mouth down into your stomach. You can do this with a variety of daily activities. Go slowly and enjoy the process of opening up your awareness which will greatly facilitate your meditation. Have fun with it.