Good day,
Rachel here.
Good on you for joining me in this short meditation,
Finding Your Feet in Mindfulness.
In this practice,
We're training our minds to be present in the here and now by giving our minds something really tangible to do.
That is,
To simply pay attention to the sensations we're experiencing.
And specifically in this very short practice,
We're going to focus on finding our feet,
Literally,
With mindfulness.
So to prepare,
Please settle yourself into a comfortable seated position with your eyes closed and we'll begin with a gong.
To start,
I invite you to join me by taking a deep breath in,
Filling your lungs right up.
Then as you breathe out,
Gently and slowly.
Relax.
Now I invite you to become aware of the sensations that are going on in your feet,
Right here,
Right now.
To help establish the connection between your awareness and the sensations in your feet,
You can push your feet into the ground.
This makes it easier to make a connection with the sensations there.
Try that now.
The key is to pay close attention to what it feels like as you push your feet into the ground.
There might be pressure or pain,
Sweatingness or tingliness,
There's no right or wrong.
Just notice the physical sensations.
And then allow your feet to return to their original resting position,
But keep feeling and noticing the sensations in your feet.
You might notice that the sensations in your feet are a little bit more subtle.
Now you're not pushing them into the ground.
That can take a little bit more focus and attention to stay connected to the feelings there.
That's okay.
This is a good step because it actually helps to build your mindfulness muscle.
So stay with it.
Feel the sensations in your feet right now as best you can.
Through the toes,
Balls of your feet,
Arches,
Heels,
Tops of your feet.
If you notice that your mind is wandering away from your feet,
Perhaps to thoughts or distracting noises,
There's no need to worry.
That's natural.
It's okay.
Everyone's mind has that tendency to wander off.
And yet we do want to train our attention to be where we've asked it to be.
Because this skill,
Keeping our attention where we want it,
Has a lot of knock-on benefits in day-to-day life.
So we stay with the practice,
Feeling and noticing the physical sensations throughout your feet right now.
Now we can expand this practice by connecting to other sensations.
There's plenty of sensations throughout our body.
So right now I invite you to notice how your clothes feel against your upper body.
Where can you feel the touch of fabric on your skin?
And what does it feel like?
Be curious.
Check it out.
Focusing and sensing what your clothes feel like against your skin and your upper body.
We have other senses too,
And we can use them as well to help train the mind to be present.
So let's try that now.
Right now I invite you to tune into the sounds that are around you.
What can you hear right now?
Hear sounds,
Far sounds,
Just listening.
Setting aside any commenting or judging or wondering about the sounds,
See if you can just listen to them.
Relaxing and listening.
And now as we conclude,
I invite you to join me by taking a nice deep breath in,
Filling your lungs right up.
And then exhaling gently and slowly,
Releasing all the air from your lungs.
BangetinOverBo Sideá you
