The Zoom Sessions No 4: Saturday Meditation Drop-In (18th April 2020)

Hello my name is Matt Albury.

The following recording is of our Saturday night Zoom meditation session that happened on the 18th of April.

These sessions are happening due to the pandemic and lockdown that we were unable to meet as a group so we met online.

The following practice contains a grounding technique,

A body scan,

An observation of breath,

Sensations and emotions and then we'll settle into stillness and the practice ends with an examine.

The idea of these sessions are that they are a drop-in so you either can stay for a whole 45 minutes or just access parts that you're interested in.

Okay then everyone so we'll just bring ourselves into that place then we'll we settle ourselves into the practice.

So as we do this now just bring your awareness to your feet on the floor and then take your awareness to the chair that's supporting your body and then take your awareness then to the sounds that you can hear inside of the room to start off with and then from there then we go out to you in the signs we can hear around us maybe sounds outside the room and then we'll start then by doing our two breaths so take that lovely breath in deep in through the nose and side of the mouth.

Do that again lovely deep breath in and just let yourself settle in and before we start the body scan we'll just set an intention for ourselves for our practice so what I mean by this is what do you want from this practice for yourself so this is very personal to you and it could be that you just want to a time of quiet perhaps or a time of relaxation perhaps time of healing whatever this is for you just think through now what you want this practice to be for you you you and then take the intention in with the breath just following the breath into the body bringing the intention with it just letting it settle in your heart center and we'll come back to the intention at the end of the practice so when you're ready now we'll do a body scan so take your awareness to the sensation of the feet on the floor taking your awareness up onto your toes taking your awareness then up onto the top of the feet and the ankles and just notice the physical sensations present there in your feet and then take your awareness then up onto your shins and your calf muscles your knees the thighs the hips and the backside just notice the physical sensations there and then flow your awareness across up through from the hips up onto the belly and the lower back taking your awareness across up onto the upper back and the chest just taking a moment to notice what's present the sensations there are and then take your awareness then up onto the shoulders the shoulder joints and taking the awareness down through the upper arms the elbows the forearms the wrists the back of the hands and the palms just notice that little hollow that forms in the palm and then take your awareness out into your thumbs first fingers second fingers third fingers and fourth and then flow your awareness all the way up through the arms just noticing the physical sensations present as you flow all the way back up to the shoulder joint and then take your awareness across up onto the throat in the back of the neck taking your awareness across onto the jaw the mouth the lips the teeth the insides of the cheeks the roof of the mouth the tongue the space underneath your tongue and then take a moment just to notice the tastes and physical sensations present in the mouth at the moment and then bring your awareness then up onto the nose and the nostrils around onto the ears taking your awareness out onto the eyelids and the eyelashes and the eyeballs themselves and then take your awareness then onto the forehead the back of the head and then finally up onto the crown and then when you're ready just allow yourself to flow all the way through your body bringing awareness to the body as you flow all the way back to the fingertips tips of the toes and this is the time again that we did last week where you can let go of anything you want to let go of so as you just picture yourself being emptied out whatever you want to let go of anything that's frustrating you,

Perhaps fears,

Concerns just let them go out of you at this time just picturing them going out into the ground at the ground the earth just taking them away just flowing in your own pace just flowing as you go and then when you're ready just bring your awareness back as you flow through your body as if you're being filled afresh all the way up to the top of the head just going at your own pace and then when you reach the top of the head just take a moment just to be aware of your presence what it feels like to be in your body in the space that you're in and then when you hear the bell will start to take us through the various stages of our observation you so the first stage now is we bring observation to the breath so to start off with this just bring firstly your awareness for the breath of the nostrils so you're narrowing down your awareness to the sensation of the breath coming in out through the nose maybe notice some temperature differences differences in the air flow through the different nostrils but we're really just bringing our awareness into that place and then in your own time follow the breath into the body so we're not trying to slow the breath down or speed it up we're just following our natural breath cycle just follow the breath rolling into your body in the sensations of the chest rise the ribs moving the belly moving the ribs on the back just follow that breath in notice the little pause that happens before your breath starts to roll back out and then notice in the little pause before the breath starts to come back in again so this is your first stage of observation just allow yourself just to follow the breath coming in and going back out if you get distracted at all just come back to observation of the breath you you you you you you you so now there's the option to continue watching the breath or bring your observation out to the bodily sensations that are present so with this you can actually just bring like you're saying your observation just to watch in the physical sensations in the body with that sense of acceptance just accepting that's what's going on this time or there's a little variation you can do where as you breathe in you say to yourself breathing in I'm aware of my body and breathing out I soften so there's an option to say this to yourself so you allow any areas of tension just to try and soften in your body but again just do what's right for you either just bring in our observation that witnessing what's present there in your body at the moment just watching what's there or the option of that breathing in I'm aware of my body breathing out I soften you you you you you you you you you you again we're not trying to change our thoughts or emotions we're not judging them as good or bad we try not to get caught up in them so it's just like as if we were watching something through a window so as we as we settle and watch our breath,

Just bring your awareness to those emotions that are present.

All those thoughts that are going through the mind.

We're just bringing that quality of the observer,

The witness of them.

And if you get distracted that's what we just come back to this place.

Just come back to watching the thoughts or the emotions.

You you you you you you you you you Now when you're ready just drop your awareness then to the stillness.

So you just allow yourself just to sink into the stillness that's present there.

So again it's different for different people in different places.

Sometimes people feel the stillness in the centre of the heart,

The heart centre.

Others it's just that depth in the presence and the being present that's there.

Allow this just to be your final place of observation.

So you bring your awareness to that sense of presence,

That sense of stillness.

Lord Roy Rinslow calls it that calm abiding actually.

Which is a nice way of thinking about it.

So just bring your awareness to there.

And I'll chime the bell every five minutes so you know we're progressing.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you begin by lighting a candle you come home to yourself come home lovingly accept into your home the person that you are you let your hands find rest and allow your hands to hold the weave from your day come home as we remember the day as it was recall a moment of light moment of life and loud to live again in your mind's eye now yourself to focus on the things that brought life in that situation maybe it was encouragement be still be grateful as we remember the day as it was recall a moment of frustration or disappointment or despair perhaps and let that live again in your mind's eye as you gently revisited and if possible without judgment against yourself be still be accepting now gently bring the moment of life and light and the moment of disappointment or frustration allow them to sink into the divine love within you just allow and divine love to take those moments away from you she just released them to that love deep within be still be still and in the closing moments of our practice think about tomorrow the things that you might hope to achieve the things you might want to do tomorrow you might even want to take this time to set an intention for your day thinking of what qualities you would like to bring into your day you be still trust your tomorrow and as I gently blow out the candle just return your awareness back to your breath to hear the three bells and then we'll do our grounding practice together and then open our eyes slowly and gently as we've been sat now for over 40 minutes so bring your awareness to the sounds around you and then bring your awareness to the sensation of the chair that supported your body as you practiced and then take your awareness to your feet firm on the floor it's lovely floor that's been solid and supported us if you like give your toes a bit of a wriggle around too and before we open our eyes we'll take two breaths so we take one breath in through the nose out through the mouth and then do that again take a lovely deep breath in and we do that again lovely deep breath in then gently open your eyes when you're ready