Hello,
My name is Matt Albury.
This following meditation is a meditation to help us ground with what's going on in the here and now.
To help us feel what emotions we're feeling,
What we might be feeling in our physical body as well as our mind.
And also to help us ground so that we feel grounded and centred whilst we feel these feelings.
It's using the basis of a word called atta.
And atta is in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and atta translates into many things such as meaning now,
Presence,
You know,
Be here.
I'm going to use that quality of atta in this practice.
So to start off with this practice,
Just firstly allow yourself to get comfortable because in meditation that is very important.
Because the more comfortable we are in our seated position,
The more likely we are going to be still during our practice.
So have a bit of a wriggle on your chair or your cushion and allow yourself to feel the sensation of being held.
Notice the contact with the cushion.
Notice your seat bones evenly sitting on this cushion or chair.
And then drop your awareness down to your feet on the floor.
And take a moment just to notice that physical sensation of the floor there.
And then take a moment just to listen to all the sounds that are around you where you are at this moment.
In meditation it's important that we notice what's there and accept what there is going on around us as part of our practice.
So firstly listen out to the sounds outside of the room where you are.
And then also listen to the sounds inside of the room where you are.
And as I was saying we're doing this with a sense of acceptance,
Whatever is there.
And then take your awareness then to your breath.
And here we're going to take a couple of lovely breaths in through the nose and sighing out through the mouth.
There's no rush,
Just go at your own pace.
But just take a lovely deep slow breath through your nose and breathe out with a sigh if you're comfortable doing that.
Because again this just helps our body to settle into our practice.
And then we'll start now with our breath.
So firstly bring your awareness to the sensation of the breath and the body.
So we're noticing the breath coming through the nose,
Spilling into our body with the inhale and all the beautiful movements that go with that.
Just taking those breaths in and out.
And in some of the sutras there is such a mystery about the breath,
Such an awe of this breath that comes into your body and just brings in life forces prana into you.
And keep an element of that mystery with your breath.
This breath has been with you since the moment you were born and you took your first breath.
Just noticing the breath coming in,
The movement in the lungs,
The chest,
The ribs and also the movement in the belly as well.
But just allow yourself to settle with this breath.
Amen and go.
And as you're doing this now start to bring in that sense of enquiry by asking how am I?
How am I doing?
This recording is during the pandemic of 2020 and it's been a very challenging year for many of us.
But it's this opportunity now just to stop and ask how am I doing?
How am I?
And just allow yourself to bring kindness to the answers that you hear.
So even if they're answers that we're not really wanting in our lives at the moment,
Maybe we are being honest that we're struggling,
Just bring an acceptance and a kindness to that voice.
Bringing a compassionate voice into this moment.
So we're coming back with that sense of ata,
Here,
Now,
Present.
How am I now in this moment?
And then when you're ready allow yourself just to peel away to notice what the mind is doing at the moment.
Your mind might be busy,
It might be calm,
But again we do this with a sense of acceptance that this is how we are at this moment and it will pass.
One of the qualities of yoga is it teaches us that as long as we connect and yoke to our spiritual self,
Our real self,
We notice how everything else just comes and goes.
Thoughts arise and they go.
That every moment is different.
Passing,
Changing.
And as you notice your mind,
Notice what emotions are in your body at the moment,
Which are attached to these thoughts.
Notice where the emotion sits in your body.
Is it around the eyes,
The jaw,
The back of the neck and the shoulders,
The belly,
The lower back,
All the areas that we hold attention.
And as we sit just in this moment,
In our presence,
We just watch the mind,
The emotions,
The physical body,
Again bringing that quality of acceptance of them in this moment.
Notice your body as your breath become more shallow since you've thought about your emotions,
Your feelings.
As your breath quickened as you've watched the mind.
As your body become tense.
And if it has,
Again we bring this acceptance to this moment that that is what has happened.
And then just return back to the awareness of your breath,
Really allowing yourself to take lovely deep breaths in and out.
So as you sit with that emotion,
Sit with that thought,
You bring the underlying depth of the breath.
Watching the breath roll in and out.
It's a beautiful rhythm,
Just coming and going.
So we're just sitting,
Feeling how we feel.
Knowing this too will pass.
Everything passes.
Just returning to the breath all the time.
As we check in with how we are,
Just return to the breath again.
And then we just return again with the question,
How am I now?
How am I doing?
And again as we ask this question,
We just notice the body,
We notice the mind,
We notice where the emotions are sat in the body.
And as we do this,
We watch the breath roll in and out.
And then just return your awareness away from all the thoughts.
And just return your awareness away from all of the emotions and the body and the mind.
And just completely return back to your breath.
And we bring the quality of that lovely deep breath in through the nose and sighing out through the mouth now.
So as you do this,
Just take lovely deep breaths in,
Sigh out through the mouth.
Take your awareness to your feet on the floor.
Notice that solid floor underneath your feet.
Bring your awareness to the chair supporting your body.
Listen to the sounds around you,
Where you are.
Again this sense of utter,
Now,
Here.
And then gently just flutter your eyelids open,
Just in a very gentle gaze and look down at your hands in your lap or on your thighs.
And just notice the quality of softness in your hands.
Without moving your head,
Allow your peripheral vision to widen so that you look around what is there in the room with you without moving your head.
Just allowing your awareness to come to the physical things outside of your practice.
And then again bring your awareness as you do this to this chair or this cushion.
How does it feel against your body?
Notice that floor and push it away from you.
Push that floor so you can feel the firmness of it under the feet.
And then gently move as we come towards the end of our practice.
Roll your shoulders perhaps or gently just roll the head.
Or just gently squeeze your hands together.
Just feeling the physical sensation of movement in the body.
And then to finish the practice just take two lovely deep breaths.
There'll be no bell at the end of this practice.
So just take two lovely breaths in and out through the mouth.
So in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Just allowing yourself just to settle.
And when you've done this just take that quality of stillness into the rest of your day.
Thank you for practicing with me.
