Hello,
My name is Haley and thank you for joining me for this 10 minute guided meditation where we will work on cultivating awareness by becoming aware of our own bodies.
So I invite you to take a moment to find a comfortable seated position.
You can sit cross-legged on the floor,
But you may also choose to sit in a chair with your feet planted on the ground.
Or you could sit in any position where your back is supported either by a wall or maybe even the back of a couch.
Or for our meditation today,
Since we're going to focus on becoming aware of the body,
It might feel good to lie down on the floor so long as you know you aren't going to fall asleep.
Just take a moment to settle in and find that comfortable position for your meditation practice today.
And then when you're ready,
I'll invite you to either close the eyes gently here or just gaze softly down the line of your nose.
And we'll open our practice by taking three deep cleansing breaths together.
So when you're ready,
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth,
Maybe letting out a sigh.
And we'll do this two more times.
Inhaling deeply through the nose,
Exhaling out of the mouth.
And once you've completed your three cleansing breaths,
Just allow that breath to return back to a natural rhythm in and out of the nose.
And then gently begin to draw your awareness,
Your attention down to the places where your body meets the floor,
The chair,
The mat,
The couch.
The places where your body meets the support here.
Become aware of this transition between the body and your seat.
And see if you can notice any subtle sensations within the body in this place.
So noticing the weight of your body as it rests against your seat.
Noticing if you can feel any subtle tingling or vibrating sensations in the body,
In the places where the body meets the seat.
And taking a moment to notice if you feel light or heavy as you sit here.
There's no right or wrong way to feel.
We're just practicing simply noticing without judging the sensations in our body.
Just noticing if we can feel a sense of tingling,
A sense of aliveness in the body.
And then take a moment to see if you can feel a sense of temperature.
Feel maybe noticing if the body feels hot or cold as you sit here.
Again,
There's no need to change the feeling.
We are practicing becoming that third party observer to our body's experience here.
Just working on becoming the witness,
Witnessing sensations in the body.
Maybe noticing if you can witness the sensation of your clothing touching your skin.
Becoming aware of the places on your body where your clothing touches the skin.
And then maybe becoming aware of places on the body where there is no clothing touching the skin.
And feeling the difference here between the places where clothing does touch the skin and where clothing does not touch the skin.
Or maybe tuning into different types of clothing touching the skin.
So the clothing of your shirt compared to the fabric of your pants.
Noticing if you can feel any subtle differences between these two pieces of clothing and the way they touch your skin.
And then gently becoming aware of how the breath moves your body.
Again,
No need to change the breath in any way here.
Here taking a moment just to tune into the movement of your body as you breathe.
Looking closely at this movement of the body.
Maybe your chest rises and falls.
Maybe your belly expands and contracts.
Whatever it is that you feel your body moving as you breathe,
Becoming aware of this place.
And then dropping the awareness or the attention on the breath and how it moves the body.
And just become aware of the entire body sitting and resting here.
And seeing if you can become aware of all these subtle tiny sensations that float and flicker through the body even as we sit in stillness.
Maybe noticing that tingling or buzzing,
That felt sense of aliveness.
Or maybe you feel a bit of tension or tightness in the body.
Or you feel open and spaciousness.
Whatever it is that you feel,
Approaching it without judgment.
Just witnessing it.
Just being aware of the sensation.
And then when you're ready,
Dropping all effort here.
And slowly beginning to bring small movements back into the body.
And as you begin to move gently here,
Maybe circling out those wrists or dropping the head from side to side.
Just practice becoming aware of the sensations in the body now as you move.
Noticing how it feels to move your fingers and maybe your toes here.
Just witnessing.
And when you're ready,
If your eyes are closed,
Slowly beginning to bat the eyes open again.
And coming back into this time and space.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today and for giving me the honor and the privilege to guide your practice and practice alongside you.
As you move into the rest of your day,
Know that all of these very subtle sensations that you are potentially able to feel in the body are always there.
And we can pause and take a moment at any point throughout our day just to tune back into these sensations.
To bring ourselves back into the present moment and to create that feeling of spaciousness around whatever it is that we are currently experiencing.
And if you had a hard time with this practice and you didn't feel any of these sensations in the body,
Knowing that that is totally normal and we move throughout our lives so often without taking any notice of our body and the way it feels and these tiny,
Small sensations within it.
But as you practice bringing your awareness to the breath and how the breath moves your body,
Slowly beginning to notice smaller and more subtle sensations in the body will become easier as we cultivate our relationship with our own bodies and with the sensations within them.
I hope you have a beautiful,
Beautiful rest of your day.
Om Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Om Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
