When we notice our body,
There's a lot of information that comes through.
Take a look at ourselves.
We can take a look at ourselves from many angles.
We can ask many questions,
Including,
Who's taking a look and what are we looking at?
Who are we looking at?
But first,
Just noticing the physicality of the body.
So many sensations are reflected back to our awareness.
There can be,
If you notice,
Quite a bit of tension in the body,
Maybe some anxiety,
Movement.
There are places of stillness that you probably don't even notice because they're still.
We can notice the noticing.
We can notice the thinking about all of that,
Whether it's what the tension is,
Why it's happening,
What the anxiety is,
Why it's happening,
What it's about,
Trying to understand.
All this is always happening within us,
And we're usually just it.
We're not usually taking a step back to notice it.
In meditation,
We can practice noticing and shifting our attention to part of our experience on our own command,
As opposed to just following and being pulled towards whatever signals normally come to us through the physical body,
Through the mind.
We notice that there's tensions,
Sensations in the body.
We notice that the mind is moving and thinking and judging.
And then we can notice where we're breathing and direct that breath down into the belly so that when we breathe in,
The belly comes out.
When we breathe out,
We let go and the belly comes back in.
And bringing our attention to the breathing,
Focusing,
Following,
As we take our attention and place it on something like the breath,
We are taking it away from every other possible thing to attend to.
That includes our thinking,
Includes the rest of our bodily sensations.
Just feeling breath,
Listening to the breath,
Even as we have our eyes closed to visualize with each breath in,
Each breath out,
Just gently elongating,
Bringing in a little bit more,
Letting out a little bit more,
Just at your own pace.
When you notice yourself drifting,
Your attention drifting,
Just notice that.
If it's drawn to a thought,
Drawn to an idea,
Just put a little tag on it that says thinking.
Let that thought move along with that tag.
Come back to watching the breath,
Listening to the breath,
Allowing that out-breath to elongate a little bit more than the in-breath,
Just pushing out a little bit more air on that out-breath,
Starting to pull in the belly as you breathe out.
As you continue breathing,
Noticing the depth,
Noticing the presence without thinking.
There's just being within all of the sensations,
Beneath all of the thoughts.
Just simple presence,
Doesn't change from season to season,
From moment to moment.
Always there,
Always the same.
Really filling that breath in from the belly up into the chest,
And feel like you've filled yourself,
Letting yourself hold that breath for a few seconds before you release.
Noticing the qualities,
The sensations,
Also noticing the qualities and sensations of the release into the out-breath,
Breathing out all the way until you feel empty,
Pulling that belly back in.
When you get to the end,
Just holding for a few seconds as well before you allow a new breath to arrive.
As you continue to breathe on the in-breath,
Now bringing in that breath all the way,
Just like you have been,
But now noticing,
Visualizing light coming into the body with the breath,
Permeating all of the aspects of our physical body.
When we hold at the end,
Allowing that light to anchor itself in our bodies,
The out-breath just allows for any areas that aren't filled with this light to be released in preparation for more light to come in with the in-breath.
After the next in-breath and out-breath,
Just letting go completely of breathing,
Allowing the body to breathe on its own,
Noticing the light and just resting,
Watching,
Being present without venturing into any of the thoughts or sensations.
The state of just being,
Just being,
Noticing,
Peaceful,
Present,
Filled with light,
Nothing to do with it.
We can allow ourselves to start to gently opening our eyes,
Still in this present,
Peaceful state,
The captured light,
Soft focus can bring a piece of this with us into the rest of our day,
Connect with others,
Transfer a little of that light.
