The Zoom Sessions No 11: Saturday Meditation Drop In 6th June 2020

Hello,

My name is Matt Albrig.

The following recording is a recording of a Zoom meditation session that took place on the 6th of June 2020.

Because of the corona pandemic,

We were unable to meet in person,

So we used to meet on Saturday nights and Mondays to be able to practice our meditation practice.

Tonight's session contains a body scan,

Then an awareness practice,

Where we focus on the breath and different things such as the emotions.

And then the practice will finish with an examining of the day.

So,

To start us off with then,

Just now bring your awareness to your feet on the floor.

Just bring our awareness to that sensation of the floor under the feet.

Just bringing that solid sensation there,

Helping us feel grounded.

And then flow your awareness then from your feet up to the chair or the bed or the cushion,

Whatever,

Your saddle.

Just noticing the physical sensations of being held by that chair.

Noticing the contact.

And then take your awareness to the sounds that you can hear around you where you are.

So firstly,

Listen to the sounds you can hear outside of the room.

And then take your awareness to the sounds you can hear inside of the room.

And then we'll deepen our breath with two lovely breaths,

Taking a breath in through the nose and sighing out through the nose.

So take a lovely deep breath in.

I'm going to do that again,

Lovely deep breath in.

And just allow yourself just to settle.

And as you're settling,

Bring an intention into your mind what you want this practice to be for you.

So allow yourself just to think what you need from this next 40 minutes or so of practice.

Maybe it's a time of relaxation,

It's a time of grounding.

And then when you have that intention,

Just allow it to settle in your heart centre.

Just storing it there ready for when we practice.

And then we'll start our body scan.

So take your awareness then back to the bottom of the feet and to the toes,

The tops of the feet and the ankles.

Just notice the physical sensations in your feet.

And then flow your awareness then up through the left shin,

Left calf muscle.

Flowing that awareness up onto the left knee.

Notice in the front of the knee and the back of the knee.

Flowing your awareness through the thigh and the hip and the left buttock.

Just notice the physical sensations there in the left leg.

And then take your awareness then through the left side of the abdomen,

The left upper chest,

The lower back on the left and the upper back on the left.

Just notice the sensations on that side of the body.

And then take your awareness up onto the left shoulder,

The left shoulder joint.

Taking your awareness then down through the upper arm,

Noticing the biceps and the triceps.

Taking your awareness down onto the elbow,

The forearm,

Your left wrist,

The back of the hand and the palm of the hand.

Just notice that little hollow there in your palm.

And then take your awareness out onto your left thumb,

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger and fourth.

And then flow your awareness all the way up through the left arm,

Noticing the physical sensations on that side of the body.

Then taking your awareness then up on the left side of the throat,

Onto the jaw,

The mouth,

The teeth,

Your gums,

The insides of the cheek,

The roof of the mouth,

The tongue and the space underneath your tongue.

And then when you're ready take your awareness then up onto your nose and your nostrils.

Noticing the left nostril.

Taking your awareness around onto the left ear,

The left eyelid,

Eyelashes and your left eye.

Then allow your awareness to come up onto the back of the head on the left hand side,

The forehead and then up onto the crown.

And then drop your awareness all the way back down to your feet again.

And then work your awareness then up through the right foot,

Noticing the toes and the top of the feet,

The ankle,

The shin and the calf muscle on the right side,

The knee,

Noticing the front and the back of the knee.

Taking your awareness then up onto the thigh,

The right hip and the right buttock.

Flowing your awareness then up onto the right side of the belly,

The right side of the lower back.

Taking your awareness then up onto the right chest,

The right of your upper back.

Flowing your awareness then up onto your right shoulder,

Your right shoulder joint.

Taking your awareness then down through the upper arm,

Noticing the bicep and the tricep.

Taking your awareness onto the elbow and the forearm,

The right wrist,

The back of the hand,

The palm of the hand.

Notice that little hollow there in your palm.

Taking your awareness then onto the right thumb,

The first finger,

Second finger,

Third finger and fourth.

And then flow your awareness all the way back up through the right arm up to the shoulder joint,

Noticing all the physical sensations in your right arm.

And then we flow our awareness across up onto the right side of the throat,

Back onto the jaw,

Back onto the mouth.

And then taking our awareness up onto the nose and the right nostrils.

Taking your awareness around onto the right eyelid and eyelashes and the right eye,

Just noticing the sensations present.

And then take your awareness to the right side of the forehead,

The back of the head,

And then your crown.

And then take your awareness to the right side of your body,

Right from the crown of the head to the tips of the fingers and the tips of the toes.

Just bringing awareness to the right side.

And then when you're ready,

Bring your awareness across over to the left side of the body,

Doing a similar thing,

Noticing the physical sensations of the left side of your body flowing from the top of the head all the way down to the tips of the toes,

Just noticing that physical sensation.

Noticing any slight differences compared to the right side and the physical sensations.

And then return your awareness then back up to the top of the head.

And then as if I've opened a tap on the bottom of your toe,

Just allow yourself just to drain out now like we normally do,

Scanning all the way through your body as if you're being emptied out.

Just use this time to get rid of anything you want to let go of,

Anything that's been troubling you today.

Just picture just going out,

Flowing out of your body into the ground and the ground just taking it away.

And then when you're ready in your own time,

Scan all the way back through your body as if you're being filled afresh all the way up to the top of the head,

Right from the tips of the fingers,

The tips of the toes,

Scanning all the way through your body,

Noting as you go.

And then when you reach the top of the head,

Just enjoy your presence for a moment.

What it feels like to be in your body,

In the space you're in.

This beautiful,

Unique presence which is you in your body in this moment.

Just noticing what it feels like to be here now.

And then when you hear the bell,

It'll start to then guide us in our awareness practice.

So to start us off in our awareness practice,

Bring your awareness to your breath.

All I mean by bringing awareness to it is just actually watching the whole journey of your breath as it comes in through the nose into your body,

Causing all the lovely subtle movements as your body moves with the breath expanding the body.

Noticing that little pause that occurs before you start to breathe out again.

We watch all the little subtle movements of the breath as our body deflates as the air leaves.

And then we picture this breath coming back in again.

Let this be the first stage of our observation,

Just bringing awareness to the breath.

The key here is it doesn't matter how many times we go off,

Doesn't matter how many times we drift off or think about something else.

We just come back.

We just come back to watching the breath.

Letting this be our anchor for our practice.

And in your own time,

Just bring your awareness then back to your body,

Noticing any areas where there might be tension perhaps in your body.

If there's areas of tension,

Just allow yourself to soften as best you can in that area.

Maybe picture in the breath going into that area and bring in softness.

Or another thing that you can do is actually tense that area and then release it and then you'll experience the actual physical release and you'll realise that softness that comes.

Something we often do in yoga,

Where you notice actually what it feels like where it's tight and then by just releasing after bringing extra tension and you just notice and it softens.

And again the key with this awareness practice is we're just noticing what sensations are there.

We're not berating ourselves but perhaps having aches and pains.

We're just acknowledging what's there.

And then just when you're ready just come away from observing the body and just come back to your breath again.

Allowing yourself just to get lost in the sensation of the breath moving.

That lovely gentle rhythm of your breath as it comes and goes.

As I was saying at the beginning,

Maybe noticing where it's more prominent.

Maybe you notice it more in your chest,

Maybe you notice it more in your nostrils,

Maybe you notice it in your belly.

Get your awareness to the breath at its most prominent place and just allow yourself just to hang out there for a bit,

Just watching the breath of that area.

Just allowing yourself just to be lost in that breath.

And so just want you to think also for yourself how different these thoughts are,

How different you and then there's the option now to just bring your awareness to how you're feeling so it's a bit like asking yourself how am I am I feeling at this moment just noticing how you are and again because it's awareness practice we don't drill into why we feel like we do we just acknowledge that is how I feel at this moment and that's okay and as you bring awareness to how you're feeling do you notice where it sits in the body so anywhere in particular that you sense it in your body and then you just come away again then just back to our breath and for the remainder of the awareness practices is where we just come and stay so we watch the breath once you come and go as I was saying at the start if we get distracted we just label what it is you can say that we're just thinking planning we just label what interrupts us and then just come back to our breath you you you as some of you have heard before the key here is just to drop any expectations so we just allow ourselves just to sit watching our breath don't allow ourselves to get frustrated with ourselves we're just sitting just watching our breath just being completely present in the moment you you you you you you you you so just continue just watching the breath allowing yourself just to hang out in that area of where you notice the breath the most as you like when you if you do notice other areas of tension that are trying to get your awareness in your body just allow them try to bring softness there again just acknowledging how you feel physically even if it's a case of bringing gentle movement in again and when you're ready just return yourself back again to the sensation of the breath in your body you you you you you and then when you hear the next bell i'll start to guide us in our examining of the day so this next size we'll look at the different aspects of our day and just seek to then release them because as we approach the end of the day you we begin our practice by lighting a candle so come home to yourself come home lovingly welcome into your home the person that you are allow your hands to find rest and allow your hands to hold the weave from your day come home come home as we remember the day as it was remember a part of the day that brought life that made you come alive and gently revisit this allow it to live again in your mind's eye focusing particularly on what it was about that experience that brought life to your day be still be grateful and as we remember the day as it was remember a moment that might have caused frustration or disappointment and gently revisit this too allowing that to live again in your mind's eye but as much as possible without judgment and with kindness to yourself so be still be accepting so then gently take the moment of life and light and the moment of frustration and just let them settle to the divine love within you just releasing them to that divine love in your heart center allowing it to cover and take those moments from you be still and as we move to think of tomorrow think of anything in your day where maybe you said something that you wish you hadn't or something that you wish you hadn't done that maybe you need to make amends for so in our minds I set an intention to to make amends tomorrow unless to do so would cause more harm but the key here is having that attitude of willingness to actually admit when we have done wrong and then finally we move to our thoughts of tomorrow and what we would like to do what we hope to achieve tomorrow or maybe setting intentions for our day thinking of how we want to be tomorrow what qualities we'd like to bring into our day tomorrow and then we trust for our tomorrow and then gently as we approach the end of our practice bring your awareness then back to your breath and just allow yourself just to settle there again until you hear the few rings of the bell and then I'll take us through the grounding practice and we'll open our eyes together so so gently bring your awareness then back to the sound you can hear in the room where you are just taking a moment just to notice those and then allow your awareness then to go to the sound you can hear outside of your room just noticing what's present and then take your awareness to the sensation of the chair that supported your body as you've practiced just noticing places of contact if you like roll your shoulders a bit perhaps you've been sat for quite a while just allow yourself just to flex a bit and then take your awareness then down to the feet on the floor just noticing that firm floor under you that supported you held you as you've practiced and then we'll take the two breaths in through the nose and sign out to the mouth take a lovely deep breath in and then we'll do that again lovely deep breath in and then gently open your eyes when you're ready