Mindful Listening With Heartfulness

Hello again,

This is J.

G.

Laro-Shet over here at Mindful Life Project.

Today we're going to be practicing mindfulness of sounds,

So mindful listening,

As well as a little bit of heartfulness,

And just practicing finding ways to tune into the present moment.

So mindfulness is paying attention to the here and now without any judgment.

So every time that we focus our attention on one thing at a time,

That's mindfulness.

But even the moments when we get distracted and notice distraction,

That's also mindfulness.

So we use that non-judgment,

Right?

The ability to notice what's happening in the present moment,

And it means that our mind is thinking a lot,

We just notice that,

And wherever we're putting our attention,

We just gently,

With kindness,

Come back to that focused awareness.

So allow yourself to find a nice seated position.

We'll do a little call and response to get in the practice.

So if you'd like,

Just repeat after me.

I've got my feet on the floor.

I've got my spine in a line.

I've got my hands in my lap.

I've got my heart to the sky.

And as I say,

Now close your eyes.

You can just repeat all right at the same tone and volume of my voice.

So now close your eyes.

Now close your eyes.

Now close your eyes.

And let's bring attention to the sound of the bell and just trying to keep our attention there as long as we can.

And just welcoming yourself,

Allowing yourself to find some stillness,

Noticing your contact points where your body's touching either your feet on the floor,

Noticing the weight of your feet or how your body's sitting in the chair and maybe noticing the texture,

The cushion or the hardness,

The softness of the chair.

And just seeing how the whole body feels being here now.

Nowhere to go,

Nothing to do,

Just allowing ourselves to arrive.

So let's arrive through focusing awareness on the sounds around us.

So you might hear sounds inside wherever we're sitting.

Maybe there's a fan on or you hear some electrical sounds,

Some off and on's.

You might even hear cars outside or people's voices.

With mindful listening,

We're allowing sounds to come to us,

Noticing them as they are there and then noticing them fade away and then another sound will grab our attention.

So start making kind of the mental note.

Start sending yourself text messages in your mind each time you hear a sound,

Just without having to decide if it's a good or bad sound.

We're just noticing them as sounds.

So I might hear some movement in just my head instead of thinking,

Oh that's a good sound.

I think that's just a sound,

Movement,

Movement,

Movement.

What are the sounds that are here now?

How can we hear the details of the sounds?

Can we hear the sounds far off in the distance?

The sounds that normally we wouldn't hear,

Maybe the birds if they're outside.

With mindfulness,

We're just allowing ourselves to bring this curious beginner's mind.

What is it like right here right now?

And every here and now is a little different than the last one or the next one.

So we can bring mindful awareness to the differences.

And now letting sounds go into the background and letting them be there and let's bring attention to our heart.

Noticing if there's any emotions in our heart,

Strong ones.

We're going to practice a little heartfulness.

So think of someone that is easy to love,

Someone that you just think of and they warm your heart.

You just feel the love grow.

And then shine that same love that you feel towards that person on yourself.

So we're going to do some heartfulness to self and then some heartfulness to others.

So in your mind you can repeat the following phrases.

You can either do it out loud if you like or just in your mind.

It's up to you.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be filled with peace.

May I be filled with love.

So may I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be filled with peace.

May I be filled with love.

Maybe do it one or two more times on your own.

And then think of one person that you feel like you really want to send your heartfulness to.

Maybe a group of people.

And do the same.

Instead here you can say may you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be filled with peace.

May you be filled with love.

You can do that one or two more times.

And just feel the love grow.

Maybe pretend there's like a tunnel going from your heart to that person's heart or that group of people's hearts.

And then allowing the breath to come back in.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

And then just as we started waiting for the sound of the bell and listening to it all the way through.

As we wiggle our toes,

Wiggle our fingers,

Roll our neck,

Our shoulders,

Fluttering our eyes open.

We come back into the room.

Just notice how you feel right now.

Check in.

And be filled with gratitude to yourself for taking the time to practice mindfulness.

To be here now in a frantic,

Often go go go world.

It's so important to take time to just be.

No need to do all the time.

Just be and allow presence to be here.

And I send you a ton of heartfulness for myself.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.

And may you have a mindful life.