G'day,
My name is Rachel Grace.
Thanks for joining me for this practice.
I invite you to take a moment now to prepare for this practice by finding a posture that supports you to be both alert and relaxed.
Allowing your eyes to gently close or softening your gaze down to the floor in front of you if that feels right for you.
We'll start the practice with the ring of a gong.
Let yourself settle in by taking a few big breaths in and out.
Allowing your breath to return to its natural and gentle rhythm.
Taking a moment to notice how you're arriving into this moment,
The state of your body and your mind right now.
Noticing any obvious areas of tension in your body.
Allowing yourself to settle and relax just as you are right here,
Right now.
In this session we will practice using the sensations in the feet and hands as an anchor to focus and train the attention to be more steady and concentrated.
So to begin,
I invite you now to bring your attention to noticing the physical sensations in the feet right now.
What can you feel there?
Feeling the sensations like pressure,
Pain,
Sweatiness,
Heaviness,
Tightness,
Warmth or coolness,
Or perhaps numbness and blankness.
These count as sensations too.
Which foot is resting more heavily on the floor?
Which part of the foot is experiencing the most pressure from its contact with the floor?
Is it the big toe?
The side of your foot?
The balls of your feet?
Or the heels?
There's no need to strive or search for a sensation.
Just receive whatever sensations are there to be felt,
Including if there's no sensations to be felt other than blankness and numbness.
No need to look for sensations.
Just notice and accept whatever is there to be felt or not felt just as it is in this moment.
Feeling and sensing all the sensations through the bottom of your feet,
The toes and the tops of your feet.
If you notice that your mind wanders away from your feet,
There's no need to worry.
That's totally normal.
Just gently and kindly bringing your attention back to your feet,
Feeling again,
Feeling the sensations in your feet.
Now,
Shifting your attention to your hands,
What sensations can you feel in your hands right now?
Are they warm or cold?
Do they feel heavy or light,
Tense or relaxed?
Notice if the sensations in your hands are changing.
Are they staying the same?
You're not looking for anything special.
You're just paying close attention to the physical state.
Where is the mind now?
If it has drifted away from being fully present with the unfolding experience in your hands,
Gently return your attention and simply start again.
Let all other experiences,
Sounds,
Thoughts,
Images and sensations in other parts of the body rise and fall like waves of the ocean around the sounds.
Don't worry if you feel like you're not doing this perfectly.
None of us do.
It's okay.
Just practicing,
Feeling the physical sensations in your hands,
Sensing them from the inside out.
Where is the attention now?
The moment you become aware of being lost in distraction,
This is the significant moment in mindfulness meditation.
It's a moment of awareness which gives us the chance to choose how we respond.
It's not a failure,
It's the training.
Simply noticing when the mind has wandered and gently returning attention to the experience of the sensations in the body with an attitude of kindness.
Simply starting again.
Where is the mind now?
The moment you become aware of being lost in distraction.
It's not a failure,
It's the significant moment in mindfulness meditation.
It's the significant moment in mindfulness meditation.
Where is the mind now?
As we approach the end of our practice now,
I invite you to join me in taking a deep breath in,
Filling our lungs and then relaxing your body and your mind as you breathe out,
Releasing all the air from the lungs.
We'll end our practice with three rings of the gong.
Allowing your eyes to open,
Gently bringing your attention back up into the environment around you.
Take a moment now to appreciate yourself for the dedication to your own well-being that you've just demonstrated.
Each time you practice you are changing your brain for the better and you're building your capacity to handle life more skillfully.
So well done.
May mindfulness positively impact you,
What you do and all of those around you.
Thank you for practicing with me.
I hope you'll join me again.
