Choiceless Awareness Practice For Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

This is a choiceless awareness meditation for mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Over the next 40 minutes or so,

We will be moving into and through different anchors for our attention,

For our awareness.

And coming toward the end into what's known as choiceless awareness,

Where we allow different aspects of our experience to come in and out of awareness,

Not trying to stay focused on one part of our experience in particular,

But opening ourselves up to whatever is present.

And we'll start this meditation by preparing as we always do.

Coming into a quiet space where we are least likely to be interrupted and finding a chair that allows us to be both comfortable and alert.

Feet on the floor,

Spine uplifted,

But not rigid.

A posture that blends both relaxation and allows alert attention.

Focused and relaxed.

If you've found this place,

This chair,

You might take a moment to just shift your body weight slightly forward in the chair and slightly back,

Slightly to the left and slightly to the right.

Really noticing your center of gravity in this moment.

Noticing coming back to whatever your center is.

Letting the body be still.

Sensing the feet on the floor,

The pressure of the bottoms of the feet against the ground.

Seeing the placement of the hands.

Beginning to notice the sensations that come with stillness,

That come with being both relaxed and alert.

And if you'd like,

This might be an opportunity to set an intention for our practice today.

This might be a wish for how you show up for this practice,

Whether that's with compassion,

Gentleness,

Or firmness.

Taking a moment to set whatever intention might arise for you.

And it may be that as you are sitting in stillness,

There's a natural awareness of the breath rising and falling within your body.

And if you'd like now,

The invitation is to take a few intentional breaths in and out,

Purposely deepening the breath,

Letting it come in through the nostrils or mouth,

Into the throat area,

The chest.

Letting it come all the way into the belly,

If it will,

And then allowing the breath to release slowly.

Basically sensing the inhale and the exhale from within the body.

And then dropping the effort of these intentional breaths and letting the breath come into a natural rhythm of its own,

One that requires no effort from you.

A natural rhythm that's not trying to get you anywhere or do anything.

Allowing the breath to be however it is right this moment.

Sensing the breath in the body and discovering for yourself where the breath may be most accessible and neutral.

It might be easiest to make contact with the breath at the nostrils and tip of the nose.

Sensing air becoming breath at the nostrils.

Sensing air coming in to the nose and then the release at the nose.

Sensing if there's any extra effort that's not needed and letting go,

If so.

It could be that the breath is most accessible in the chest or heart area.

And if you'd like,

You're welcome to put a hand on the chest and see if the breath is possible to be sensed in this area.

There may be a slight uplift of the chest on the inhale,

A slight fall of the chest on an exhale.

Or it might be that the breath isn't so easily sensed in this area.

And that's also okay.

Simply discovering what's true for you in this moment.

The breath may also be felt in the region of the belly,

Sensed in the expansion and contraction of the stomach and diaphragm.

Pausing to explore this possibility for yourself.

And if the breath is not easily felt in the belly,

That's totally okay.

Coming back to the breath as it's sensed in the chest or the nostrils.

No better or worse place to sense or connect with the breath.

Just experimenting with what's true for your body,

Your breath in this moment.

And wherever or however the breath is felt,

Staying with it to the extent that it's possible to without striving.

Seeing if you can stay with the breath from the start of the inhale all the way to the end of the inhale,

Whether that's a short,

Quick period of time or extended period of time.

Discovering the full length of the inhale.

The full felt sense of the inhale.

It may also be possible to feel into that space between the end of the inhale and the start of the exhale.

That space before inhale becomes exhale.

Realizing how this is felt in the body.

And bringing awareness to the length,

The extent of the exhale.

Following the breath from the beginning of the exhale all the way till the exhale is concluded.

Whether that's a quick exhale or long exhale,

It doesn't matter.

Not trying to change anything or force anything,

But being with the breath as it is.

From the beginning of the exhale all the way to the end of the exhale.

And then if you choose,

Investigating what it's like to stay with the breath through the whole breath cycle from the beginning of the inhale through the end of the inhale,

That space between inhale and exhale.

The beginning of the exhale all the way to the end of the exhale.

In that brief space until the breath cycle begins again.

Accompanying the breath with our attention.

When the mind wanders as it inevitably will,

Kindly but firmly coming back if that's our intention.

And as the breath continues without effort,

Allow awareness to shift,

To expand,

To sense not just the breath within the body,

But the body itself.

The body sitting supported by the chair.

The body experiencing stillness and breath.

The body experiencing breathing and being.

Sensing into the body.

Feet planted on the floor.

Hands resting on the legs or the lap.

Backs of the legs.

Making contact with the chair.

Men not covered by clothing,

Making contact with air.

Sensing the body all the way from the bottoms of the feet.

Up the legs,

Past the joints of the knees and the hips.

Up the back,

Front sides of the torso.

Up the shoulders and neck.

Down the arms to the fingers.

Awareness going all the way to the top of the head.

But we are permeated by awareness,

Filled up by it.

And it is natural when we bring awareness to our physical experience to sometimes be met with uncomfortable sensations.

It might be that there's a noticing of soreness or tension,

Pain even.

And there are different ways to skillfully work with discomfort within meditation.

If you're noticing discomfort within the body,

It can be quite skillful to mindfully shift the physical body to a slightly or not so slightly different position or posture.

Making this shift not something we do unconsciously,

But something we do as consciously as we accompanied the breath.

Stop sensing into the sensations that we're experiencing before shifting the body.

And then staying with those sensations as we shift and after.

Seeing what unfolds as we mindfully shift our position.

It could be that rather than shifting the body,

You may choose to work with the discomfort by shifting the focus of awareness or attention to something more neutral than the body or the place of discomfort.

That means that we might turn our awareness to the sensation of the feet on the ground if that's a place that's neutral instead of uncomfortable.

It might be shifting our focus to the sensations of the hands resting.

Or if the whole body is experiencing discomfort,

It may be that we shift our focus to something outside of our body,

Such as the sounds as they come and go.

Or there may be an opening of the eyes if they're closed and spending a moment really seeing what's in front of us,

Bringing mindfulness to the act of seeing.

If there's discomfort,

There is one more option,

And that is intentionally and gently bringing our awareness closer to the difficult sensations,

Coming into a gentle investigation of the area causing pain or unpleasantness,

Exploring the contours of this area of the body,

Seeing how it shifts if it does as the breath comes in and out of the body,

And skillfully turning away from this area of the body if the discomfort gets too uncomfortable,

Discerning for ourselves with our own expertise on our bodies,

What's appropriate in any given moment when it comes to pain or discomfort.

We'll now let the experience of the body sitting and the breath in the body fade to the background.

We'll bring awareness now to the sense of hearing that we have,

That we perhaps have been taking for granted as we've listened to this guided meditation.

We'll now bring awareness to this sense of sound,

This ability to listen on purpose.

And it is possible to use what we sometimes call the soundscape as a focus of our meditation as a focus for awareness,

Starting by really paying attention to what sounds might be closest to us.

If it's possible to hear subtle sounds as the breath comes in and out of the body,

Sounds coming from the room that you find yourself in,

Noticing the sound of my voice as you sit in meditation,

Paying attention as sounds come and go,

Change in terms of volume or pitch.

And it may be that there's an awareness of how the mind labels some sounds good and other sounds bad and might not even notice other sounds,

Sounds that might fall in the category of neutral.

It's natural for the mind to do this labeling.

And if there's labeling happening in your own mind,

Simply allowing that to be true.

And then expanding our sense of hearing to open ourselves up,

To be receptive to sounds coming from further away,

Noticing if there's a striving quality to your listening,

Trying to make sounds happen and letting that drop away.

Just receiving what sounds are available to be heard from within the room and also from beyond.

This might lead your ears to focus on the sounds of traffic or birdsong,

The sounds of other people who might inhabit your home or live near you.

Getting curious what's available to be heard and dropping the need or desire for something in particular to happen.

Dropping the expectation that there should be a particular experience you should be having,

That the soundscape should be a particular way.

Just being with sounds as they arise,

As they change,

And as they come out of your ability to hear them,

As they go away.

When the mind wants to be entertained or think about something that's happened or might happen,

Or if the mind goes on a tangent about a particular sound,

Noticing.

That's all,

Just noticing.

Coming back,

Coming back to your intention,

And coming back to sound.

We'll now let that soundscape fall away to the background of our awareness.

Getting at rest with awareness of breath and awareness of the body as we turn our awareness to the activity of the mind itself.

Getting to be with our own thoughts,

Our own mental activity.

These thoughts that happen spontaneously based on what's come before and what will come after.

These thoughts that we sometimes so want to control,

Wanting more of some and less of others,

Understandably.

But as we're with our thoughts right now,

We're not trying to control them,

To push some down and away,

Or to make more of others.

It's simply being with the mental activity that's happening in our minds,

Being with the thoughts that are coming and going,

With a sense of receptivity and openness,

Curiosity even.

Asking what's here right now?

Where is my mind?

Sometimes particularly sticky thoughts will try to pull us in,

Take us down a path or into a rabbit hole.

And that's okay.

But not focused on the active thinking right now,

But awareness of thinking.

Aware of whether we're remembering or planning,

Aware of whether we are evaluating ourselves or the world around us,

Comparing,

Aware of there's self-criticism,

Bringing awareness to what's happening with our thoughts,

Just as we've brought awareness to what's happening in the body or with the breath or with sounds.

Not so different.

And there may be a noticing of the ways that many thoughts are not so neutral,

That like sensations in the body,

There may be a pleasant quality to thoughts,

To certain thoughts,

Or an unpleasant quality to certain thoughts.

Or it might be that there are thoughts that come and go that don't particularly pull us in either direction.

It's possible to notice whether the quality of these thoughts,

The feeling of them,

Whether that is part of your experience right now in terms of mood,

Emotional state.

So coming now to be not just with thoughts,

But what's present for you in terms of emotions,

How the heart is.

There might be a noticing,

Oh,

Anger,

Irritation,

Frustration.

Or it could be pleasure,

Interest,

Excitement,

Not needing to think about what we're experiencing,

But letting our experience be fully known to us.

And then as we continue to sit in stillness,

We open ourselves up to not just what's happening in our minds and hearts,

But creating the possibility that we might also be aware of sounds or the body sitting or the breath,

That we may not need to always focus on one particular anchor for our awareness,

But that it might be possible to sit in stillness and to let these different aspects of our experience come to the foreground or the center of our awareness and stay for a bit.

And then to go back to the background as another aspect of our experience comes forward.

This awareness,

The opening of our attention up to receive whatever's present,

Whether that's noises from the environment or the breath in the belly or nostrils or chest,

Sensations from within the body.

Allowing awareness to be with any of these aspects of our experience and allowing for awareness to come in and out of any of these,

Even as we know where awareness is at any given time.

Oh,

Thinking,

Breathing,

Hearing.

And when we get lost,

As we will,

Coming back to the present moment,

However it's most easily accessed.

Being with the present,

Being in the present,

No need for a particular focus or anchor.

Being in the present moment and coming back when we wander.

Intuitively sensing,

Oh,

I've gone away for a moment,

But here is sound to pull me back.

Or here is the belly,

The breath in the belly to ground me and root me right back here.

Here is this moment.

Being open to however the present is experienced.

Allowing awareness to be with any of these aspects of our experience and allowing for awareness.

Being with the fullness of experience.

The fullness of this moment.

No need to try to control,

Simply coming back as many times as needed.

Coming back to the right now,

To whatever is present.

And as we prepare to end this meditation,

You may choose to come back to an intention that you set as we started.

Bringing curiosity and openness.

Thanking yourself for the effort of this practice,

The effort of kindly but firmly working toward your intention.