Welcome to this mindfulness of thoughts meditation.
We will practice together for the next while with the intention of creating some space between us and our thoughts.
And taking a little step back from the constant stream of mental activity.
Remembering our attitudes of kindness,
Compassion,
Non-judgment and curiosity.
Starting by taking a comfortable seating position.
Allowing the spine to move away from the back of the chair.
Just taking a moment now to centre ourselves to find that space of balance,
Of stillness and dignity.
And fully arriving now into the body,
Into the being here in this moment.
Noticing what sensations are present.
Looking into the feet grounded,
Planted on the floor.
Noticing the sense of contact with the chair.
The hands resting on the lap.
Feeling goal of thoughts about our experience but feeling into the direct sensations.
Bringing awareness now onto the breath,
Onto the sensation of breathing.
Knowing that however often the mind wanders,
The breath is always there to anchor us back to the present moment.
If ever things feel challenging or overwhelming,
The breath is always our safe space,
Our haven to return home to.
Starting to tune into sounds now,
Becoming aware of sounds,
Maybe outside.
Noticing that the mind will want to get caught up in judgements about the sounds and stories.
As best we can,
Letting go of that and simply tuning into the physical sound.
Turning now to sounds inside the room,
Maybe the sound of my voice,
Maybe sounds within our own body.
Seeing if the mind has resistance to sounds or reacts to sounds.
And as best we can,
Just softening that.
Seeing if we can let go of judgment,
Stories about the sounds and just hear the physical sounds themselves.
Starting to bring awareness now to the realm of thinking.
Starting to notice thoughts as they arise in the mind.
Maybe labeling the thoughts as they arise,
Planning,
Worrying,
Remembering.
As best we can,
Looking at our thoughts rather than from our thoughts.
Seeing them arise and letting go of the need to attach to them.
Turning now to the image of a waterfall and imagining we're standing underneath the waterfall in the direct flow of water.
It's crashing down on our head and it can feel a little overwhelming.
And then realizing that all we need to do is just take a little step back and we're behind the flow of water now.
We're able to watch the water falling without it landing on our head.
Just like this constant flow of water,
Our constant stream of thoughts can feel intense and overwhelming.
But we always have the choice to just take a step backwards and watch our thoughts from a distance.
Thinking that we can't stop the flow,
Nor do we need to.
The thoughts will keep flowing just like the water,
But we can create space between us and the flow of thoughts.
Thinking that we are not our thoughts.
Thoughts are just stories,
Just mental events.
And we can choose to not get caught up in them.
Moving now to the image of a stream with crystal clear flowing water over rocks.
And a large oak tree on the other bank,
Full with leaves.
And as we sit on the side of the stream,
We notice that as a leaf falls off,
It drops into the water and simply flows away.
We don't need to do anything with the leaf.
We don't need to do anything at all.
We can just sit and watch as it flows by.
Imagining that our thoughts are leaves on the tree.
Each time we have a thought,
We have a choice to sit back and simply watch it drop into the water and flow away.
And feeling into that sense of space that this creates.
A sense of freedom.
Of no longer being attached.
Of no longer having to act or react.
That space where we can simply watch our thoughts as they flow away.
Knowing that sometimes we'll have lots of thoughts and lots of leaves will drop off.
And sometimes there'll be a long gap between leaves dropping.
Feeling we don't have to do anything,
Just to sit and watch.
Feeling that any time in life when our thoughts feel overwhelming,
We always have the option to stop and create space between us and them.
Remembering the waterfall,
We don't have to stand under the direct flow of the water.
It doesn't need to crash down on our heads.
We always have the choice just to take the step back and create that space.
Watch that stream of thoughts from a distance.
Not getting attached,
Without getting caught up,
Letting go of the need to react.
Our thoughts are just stories.
Feeling into the body now.
Noticing how it feels to have created this space.
This mental space.
Just noticing if there's an echo of that in the physical body.
Maybe there's a sense of calm.
Maybe the breathing has slowed a little.
Just noticing anything there is to notice.
Feeling into any sensations that there are in the body.
The sense of touch.
The subtle sense of movement of the abdomen as we breathe.
The sense of hearing,
What sounds are there to notice.
Expanding out and connecting in with the fullness of this experience of being in this body,
In this room,
In this moment.
Remembering the space that we created in the mind.
And knowing that that's always available to us,
Every day in our lives.
And thanking ourselves for giving ourselves this time to nurture the mind,
The body.
For giving ourselves this opportunity to connect back in with the present.
Starting to make subtle movements.
Gently moving the body.
And when it feels right in your own time,
Opening the eyes.
