Hi,
Welcome to this sensory-based meditation practice.
Whether it's your first time or you're revisiting,
You will be able to let something go or allow something new in.
All you have to do is give yourself the time to do so.
Don't worry about finding the perfect place.
This practice can be done on the bus or at home,
On a park bench or in the gym after a workout.
Let's begin in your comfortable position with your eyes open.
Try and notice new things from this position you are in.
Wires on the ceiling,
Light from a window,
People nearby.
Allow your eyes to see without judgement,
Just recognition.
Make a mental list of things you can see,
Asking questions like how long has it been there,
Who put it there,
Where is it going.
I'm going to count down from three and you will close your eyes.
Try and notice as many things as you can before you close them.
Three,
Two,
One.
With your eyes closed,
Shift your focus to what you can hear.
Beyond my voice,
Can you hear the sounds of the music?
Beyond the music,
Are there sounds around you?
Can you hear the wind or people nearby?
This practice isn't about shutting things out,
But rather inviting these sounds in and allowing them to wash over you.
Enjoy listening purely to the sounds that come and go and allow them to wash over you.
Shift the energy of focus from what you can hear down toward your nose.
As you breathe in through your nose,
Softly search for smells that may be around.
Does the room have a scent?
Any smells in the distance that you can reach?
Increase the duration of the inhale through your nose to allow for a deeper search of scent.
However long your inhale through your nose is,
Make your exhale longer than the inhale.
This will tell the brain that it's time for calm.
Let's try together.
We're going to inhale through our nose for four,
And exhale through the nose again for six.
Ready?
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And out.
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
And again.
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
And out.
Great work.
Allow your breath to return to its own rhythm.
Now let's shift the focus from your nose down to your mouth.
What can you taste?
Any food lingering in there?
Is your mouth a bit dry?
Try and run your tongue softly along the back ridges of your teeth.
Now let the tongue soften from the roof of the mouth and allow the jaw to relax.
The next time you have some food,
Try and recall this moment.
See if the presence of taste can occur again.
Now we're going to shift the focus down into our hands and feet.
What can you feel?
Can you feel the back of your hands resting on your lap?
The fabric of your clothes?
Or the arm of a chair?
Can you feel the back of your heels on the floor?
Or the flat of your foot on the ground?
Are your hands dry?
Allow yourself to softly feel where you are with your hands and feet.
As you do this,
Try and separate thought and judgment.
Thoughts may come in about what you're touching or why you're doing it,
But identify if there's any judgment and separate it.
Just enjoy the sensation of touch connecting you to where you are.
Nice.
When I say open,
We're going to softly blink open our eyes.
Until then,
Enjoy connecting to what you can feel,
Taste,
Smell and hear.
Calibrate your eyes back to your environment.
Do you notice anything new?
Do the colors feel more prominent?
Does the breath feel slightly more at peace than it did at the beginning?
Feel free to enjoy this moment of stillness and openness,
And I look forward to meeting you here again next time.
Until then,
Enjoy the senses.
