Let's begin by finding a comfortable posture to practice in.
You may be seated,
Standing,
Laying down,
Or walking.
What does your body want in terms of practice shape?
What would serve best in this moment?
And allowing your intuition to guide you as we arrive here,
As we arrive now,
In this moment?
Feeling the eyes to close,
Or just lowering your gaze.
And your connection to whatever is holding or supporting you right now,
It could be a chair,
A floor,
A couch,
A bed.
Just noticing the points of connection.
And inviting this sense of resting.
And in this state of rest,
Also inviting this sense of dignity and alertness,
Like a bamboo.
And if you're holding on to any stress or tension,
Allowing a softening and melting to occur.
Opening space on your forehead.
Making a little more room between your eyebrows.
Allowing your eyes to rest in their sockets.
Unclenching your jaw.
Softening your tongue.
The sides of your mouth.
The roof of your mouth.
Letting go of that area just below the ears.
Seeing the release of your neck and throat.
Giving your shoulders permission to dissolve downwards.
Along with your arms,
Elbows,
Hands,
And fingers.
Bringing ease to the belly.
Softening the chest.
Softening the heart.
Working with how you're feeling emotionally.
If there was one word to describe your current state,
What would that be?
And notice whether that emotion is pleasant,
Neutral,
Or unpleasant.
Just noticing.
Now align with your intention for practice,
And there might be more than one.
Seeing whatever it is you desire to be known.
Letting go of that area.
And now letting these intentions go.
Resting the process of just having made space is enough.
In this practice,
I'll be guiding you through open monitoring and just noticing what you become aware of.
I'll take you through the different sense gates,
And then we'll open up,
Allowing whatever arises to be there.
This journey is an invitation to be curious,
Like a scientist.
And know that there's not a way to do this right or wrong,
You're just noticing what comes into your awareness.
And whatever you notice,
Allowing it to be there without trying to control or judge or go into story.
We'll start with our sense of hearing.
Using this sense gate and noticing what you might hear.
There might be cars passing,
Voices or movement in the other room,
Birds chirping,
The sound of my voice.
Maybe in between the sounds,
You might notice the sound of silence.
Listening to the sounds like you're listening to your favorite music,
Noticing without getting caught up or carried away.
Now I invite you to open to your sense of sight.
You can do this with your eyes open or closed.
If open,
Just noticing the various objects around you and in your peripheral.
Your eyes are closed,
Just noticing what that experience is like,
Looking at your eyelids,
Maybe seeing some kind of faint light coming through.
You can do this with your eyes open or closed.
And now we'll shift to our sense of smell.
Do you notice any odors or scents around you?
Maybe the lingering smell of something you ate earlier,
The scent from a lotion,
A candle,
Or maybe even from the clothing that you're wearing.
And you might simply notice the absence of scents or smells,
And that's okay too.
Silence is an awareness practice,
So just noticing what you're aware of.
Now I invite you to become aware of your sense of taste.
What do you notice in your mouth?
Maybe there's something lingering from the last thing that you ate,
Maybe the taste of toothpaste or mouthwash.
And maybe there's just an absence of flavor or taste.
And now we'll transition to our sense of touch.
You can think beyond your hands and think of your entire epidermis,
The skin that might be mostly clothed at this time.
You might notice the sensation of that fabric.
You might notice different temperatures,
Coolness in some spots,
Warmth in others.
Maybe there's an itchy sensation or a tingling sensation.
There's quite a large canvas to scan and to be aware of.
With our sense of touch,
We've been on the outside or the border of our body.
I'm going to now invite you to go inward and notice any sensations on the inside.
This could include the expanding and contracting of your belly with your breath.
You might simply notice the density of your muscles,
Tendons,
Bones.
Maybe you might notice the sensation of your heartbeat in your chest.
How incredible to notice all these things happening inside.
I've been guiding you to notice specific senses and now I invite you to open up more broadly and just allow whatever you notice to be known.
It could be a sound,
Another internal body sensation.
Simply allowing these different things to arise and pass into your awareness.
This is why this is called open monitoring.
We're simply opening up and monitoring whatever comes up.
Now it's time for us to bring this practice to a close.
While your awareness has been open,
I invite you to narrow it back into your body,
Seeing what you feel like in this moment.
Keeping your feet on the floor,
Becoming aware of sound,
Taking a deeper breath if you'd like to signal the end of this practice.
