001. Breath, Presence, Embodiment & Nature (Full Version)

36:00

36:00

001. Breath, Presence, Embodiment & Nature (Full Version)

by Jonathan Evatt

Rated

4

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

60

Grounding. Deepening. Presence. Awakening within the body. A 36 minute meditation. Most people find it very easy to follow. Short (< 20 min) meditations are great when time is limited. Longer and deeper meditations are even better! The focus is on awakening awareness within your body, your breath, the spacious sense of I AM-ness, and consciously working with your attention. My voice is backed with native birdsong, water, and forest sounds recorded around my home in New Zealand. Recorded during a live guided group meditation (Session 1, Recorded 2023-05-15)

Grounding Presence Awakening Meditation Awareness Body Attention Nature Body Scan Breathing Heart Body Mind Spirit Nature Sounds Ujjayi Breathing Heart Centered Body Mind Spirit Connection Diaphragmatic Breathing

Meet your Teacher

Coromandel, New Zealand

Meet your Teacher

Coromandel, New Zealand

Transcript

Hello, This is Jonathan Evatt. I'm very happy to be guiding you through this meditation which will take approximately 36 minutes. I suggest you make sure you're comfortable and sufficiently warm and do what you can to reduce distractions or possible interruptions. I invite you to put your phone into flight mode if it's nearby and if possible to also turn off any Wi-Fi that may be on. In this meditation there are various nature sounds which I have recorded around where I live in the mountains and forest and the intention of including them here is that nature is a great source of what I call information, Living intelligent information. So may your body, Your mind and your soul be informed by that living intelligence during this meditation. So let's begin. Just noticing the body breathing as it is without any modifications or changes, Although it can be tricky to not change it because often just becoming aware of something within the body it shifts in some way. If that happens then noticing that as well. We're going to just scan the body, It's moving from here and there. If you bring your attention, The palm of your left hand, Whole palm of the left hand, The fingertips of the left hand, The left shoulder. Just noticing each of these locations in space as they are behind the wing bones on the back, Back of the heart, The right shoulder, The palm of the right hand, The fingertips in your right hand. Just seeing how concentrated the awareness can hone in on the small area of the fingertips, Toes of your left foot, The left knee behind the left knee, The left hip, The space, The thin plane of contact between the ball of the left femur and the left hip socket, Relaxing your face, Your eyes, Your forehead, Your jaw. Being aware of a point just a couple of finger widths below your navel, Slightly in from the front of the body. Find that point somewhere in the space of the body, Just maybe three finger widths in from the front of the body and a couple of finger widths down from the navel. And bring your awareness to the right hip socket behind the right knee and the right foot, Arch of the foot. And awareness of both feet simultaneously, Noticing you can expand your awareness or be aware of two points in space at the same time, Just the feet, Both the feet. It's as though everything else is fading into the background or the volume is turning down as just the feet come fully into your awareness. If you notice there's any tension arising in the face, The eyes, The eye sockets, Just dropping that energy down to the heart that it's from the space of the heart that you're being aware of the feet. Often we try to be aware with the head, That'll tend to manifest as sort of a concentration around the eyes of tension, As if one is almost squinting to see something. Just let that be the indication that one can drop into the chest, Into the heart, Aware of both of your feet. And then adding into that the left hand, The whole hand from the wrist down, And the right hand, Two hands, Two feet, Nothing else. I am aware, Being aware of the space in your heart, Your chest, The front of the chest, Slightly in from the front of the chest. So now there's five points of attention, Just gently aware, Tenderly aware, Left foot, Right foot, Left hand, Right hand, And the heart. Notice floating into the space, Flowing into the space is the breath. And if it's not already doing so, Engaging the lower, The pelvic diaphragm, Below the belly, Just above the crotch, The abdomen, Just engaging that with the inhalations and exhalations, And also the thoracic diaphragm, The main one under your ribs. And if you're familiar with the Jaya breath or psychic breath, The oceanic breath, As I like to call it, Slight contraction in the back of the throat that creates a slight internal raspiness to the inhaling and exhaling. You can do that and just also be aware of that sound. So now you have two feet, Two hands, Heart space in which all of this is arising, Passing away, And the sound of the internalized sound of the breath, Relaxing the face, The eyes, The temples, The jaw, Resting the tip of the tongue, Either just in the space of the mouth or gently touching the top of the mouth, Just in from the heart palate, The soles of your feet, Arms of your hands, The space of the heart, Arising and passing away of the breath. There's nowhere to go, Nothing to do, No one to become, Nothing to wait for. I am here. I am now. I am present. I'm a little deeper than that, A little more refined, Subtle. I am presence. Just sensing the difference of being present, Present to the palms of the hands, The soles of the feet, The space of the heart, The arising and passing away of the breath, Being present to the sound of the voice, Sensing the difference of that and felt sense of I am presence. You might find your awareness can go even deeper now to a slightly more refined and subtle sense of simply I am, The I amness, Sense of I am, I am, Felt sense of I am. Within this field of I am presence, Constant reminder, Receiving, Giving, Through the arising and passing of inhalations and exhalations, Constant reminder of something so fundamental as reciprocity, Life force flowing in, Flowing out, Something so central, Fundamental to our existence, Our being. And even in this still spacious awareness of I amness, I am presence, The reciprocity of the breath, The living space of the entire earth, Its arising and passing, Its inhalations and exhalations. My invitation in this space would be to remain aware of this reciprocity, This giving and receiving throughout moments, Throughout your day, Noticing when I am receiving, I am giving, Also when I might be withholding, Almost as though there's in times an absence of reciprocity, Just breathing into that if it should arise to your attention at any point, Being aware of the feet, Hands, Back of the head, Back of the chest, Face, Heart, Whole body from the top of the head all the way down to the sole of the feet, And the space in the lower belly, Slightly below the navel, Slightly more than that, In from the front of the body. And when you feel ready to meet the world from that space, Gently open your eyes. You may find it helpful to close your eyes again, Touching back in with that spacious sense, Sense that point in the lower abdomen and also the heart, And opening again and just noticing that transition, Just feeling your hands and feet, Letting them wiggle, Noticing the change in the light entering your eyes. And if you want to spend some more time just on your own, Gently closing and feeling that inner space, That sense of I am, Presence, Presence, Feeling of I am-ness as a expanse within the heart, And then opening your eyes and noticing the presence and meeting the appearance, The experience, The sensory input of the world around you from that place of presence. And you can just play with that back and forth like thank you and wish you a beautiful rest of your day or evening.