Sitting Meditation (MBSR) 30 minutes

You are very welcome to this 30 minute sitting meditation practice where you are taking time to slow down and to quieten the mind.

It's a time you've chosen to set aside for self-care and enhancing your wellbeing.

We're moving from the busy doing mode of the day and into a quieter being mode.

Over time we will cultivate an attitude of gentleness and kindness towards ourselves.

We'll also aim to bring an attitude of curiosity and a willingness to be open to what we find,

Noticing the thoughts and feelings that arise without judgement and bringing acceptance to what we find as best we can.

Now I'd like to invite you to set an intention for this practice.

Perhaps just the intention of being present regardless of what arises and to continue to the best of our ability just to notice and accept whatever arises without expectations.

So taking a moment to get a comfortable posture with a straight spine unsupported by the chair,

Your head up straight as if pulled by a string through the crown and gently tucking your chin in so the neck isn't strained.

Fingers down and our feet resting firmly on the floor.

Now bringing awareness to your head and to your brow,

To the jaw,

Jaw muscles,

To our neck and shoulders,

Down the back,

To our pelvic area,

To the thighs and our calves and our feet on the floor.

Moving our attention to the breath and feeling the whole of the in-breath and the whole of the out-breath.

Getting into the physical sensations coming from the breath,

The air at the nostrils,

The expanding of the chest and the expanding of the abdomen.

Sensing into the full cycle of the breath,

The in-breath,

Slight pause and the exhale and the slight pause before the next in-breath.

Bringing an attitude of curiosity to each breath,

A beginner's mind looking at each breath being unique.

Wherever we notice the breath the most,

The most vividly,

This can be our anchor,

A place to return our attention to when the mind is busy or distracted.

Letting our attention rest on this anchor,

Perhaps the air at the nostrils or the expansion of the chest or at the abdomen.

And if for any reason we don't want to use the breath as an anchor,

We can always use sound or sensations and we'll cover these later in the meditation.

Just resting our awareness on the breath for a few cycles of the breath.

And now moving our attention from the breath to the sensations in the body.

Sensing into the whole body from the head to the toes.

Feeling the body and the space it occupies and the skin separating the external from the internal.

The air on the skin of our face or our hands.

Sensing the clothes touching our skin,

Perhaps on our arms or our legs.

Taking a moment to sense into the sensations at our feet.

Perhaps there's a warmth or a coldness.

Perhaps a tingling or other sensations in the toes.

Just noticing the sensations at our feet.

Now perhaps bringing your attention to sensations somewhere else in the body that you notice the sensations are a little bit stronger there.

And if the mind wanders at any stage during the meditation,

Just knowing that this is the natural thing for the mind to do.

And all we do is note where it has gone to.

Perhaps naming it as planning or scheduling or thinking of things that need to be done.

Whatever it is,

Just putting a name on it and then gently but firmly returning our attention to the sensations that we're noting in the body.

Sometimes in the meditation you might come across an irritation and it could be an irritation,

An itch or a bit of discomfort that we decide we need to move or to scratch that itch or whatever.

We have a number of choices in how we can deal with that.

The first is if we do decide that we need to make a movement or alleviate irritation,

To do it as mindfully as possible.

Using mindful movements and then returning to the meditation.

Perhaps we can also decide to bring our attention back to the anchor and leaving the irritation as it is.

Bringing our attention back to the breath or to sound or to the sensation that's our anchor.

As we settle in the anchor,

We may notice that the irritation has disappeared or continued.

We just explore in leaving our attention on the anchor,

If that's possible.

The third way of dealing with such an irritation or sensation is to bring our attention newer to the irritation,

If we feel comfortable in doing that.

With curiosity,

Just exploring the sensation with our attention and seeing what happens.

Perhaps the sensations are amplified or perhaps reduced.

Just bringing an attitude and openness and curiosity to this exploration.

If at any stage this exploration becomes uncomfortable or the mind becomes agitated,

We can always bring our attention back to the anchor and just rest in our breathing or the sounds or the sensations at a particular point.

And now moving our awareness from sensations to sounds.

And just taking a moment to sit here and allow sounds to come to the ears,

Sounds in the room and sounds further away.

Noticing how quickly when we hear a sound,

We attach a label to it or perhaps we judge it.

An irritation,

An annoyance or a pleasant sound.

Noticing our reactions to the sounds that we hear.

As best we can,

Just listening to the sounds and noticing their pitch and their frequency and their volume.

Noticing the silence between the sounds.

Perhaps noticing sounds in the body.

Sounds of digestion or sounds in the mind.

And of our breath coming in and going out.

And if the mind wanders,

Once again just noting where the mind has gone to and then coming back to resting in awareness of the sounds.

And now moving our attention from sounds to thoughts as they arise in the mind.

Thoughts can be compared to clouds in the sky,

The nice blue sky being our mind and thoughts coming and going as clouds,

Light or dark,

Small or large,

On their own or in a big cluster.

As best we can just becoming aware of these thoughts as they come and letting them pass on as best we can.

Sometimes when we focus on thoughts,

No thoughts arrive.

But eventually a thought will come and our job is just to be aware of it and to let it go.

What is letting a thought go?

The opposite of letting it go is feeding into the thought with a narrative and another thought before we know it the mind has wandered off somewhere.

So as best we can we are just allowing thoughts to come and then letting them go.

And if we do get caught up in the flow of the thought and the mind has wandered,

Once again just allowing this to be one of these aha moments of awareness,

Waking up to the fact that we have got caught in that automatic mind wandering,

Bringing our attention back to the anchor and resting in the awareness of the anchor for a few moments.

And then when we are comfortable once again bringing our awareness to the thoughts arising.

Some thoughts come with emotions alongside them and if there is a highly charged thought with emotions just noting where in the body you feel that emotion and as best we can naming it.

If it is an anxious thought there might be some butterflies in the stomach or some tension in the shoulders or the brow.

If it is a joyous thought there might be a lightness in the body,

A smile.

Then letting the thought pass by and just sitting and resting and watching the thoughts come and go.

Now moving our attention from thoughts and just sitting.

Breathing in awareness and allowing whatever arrives to come into our consciousness,

Be it sensations or sounds or thoughts and emotions.

Just resting in awareness for whatever arrives and once again trying not to get caught up in it,

Just seeing it for what it is and letting it go.

And when the mind wanders.

Once again just gently noting where the mind has gone to and perhaps over time we become aware of some of the more common destinations of our own mind without judging it.

Just bringing a light awareness to it and then coming back to rest in awareness.

All the while we try and bring these attitudes of curiosity and beginners mind to perhaps thoughts or sensations or sounds that we have heard many times but resting with this attitude of beginners mind.

Also bringing this attitude of kindness and compassion to whatever arises in the meditation machine.

Now,

As we come to the end of the meditation,

We just recognize with gratitude the time that we have taken here in supporting and developing our own well-being.

As best we can we also consider how we can take some of this attention and awareness into the next moments of our day.