Hello,
I'm Rebecca Ryan.
The practice I have for you today is a senses meditation.
This is a seated practice.
Take a moment now to find yourself a comfortable seat.
Somewhere you can sit supported with a long,
Naturally alert spine and body.
Taking a moment to come into your comfortable seat.
The senses meditation will take us through our senses of smell,
Taste,
Sight,
Touch and hearing in that order.
So when you're in your comfortable seat,
Taking a nice energizing inhale through your nose and sighing out through parted lips like ahhhh.
Doing that twice more with the rhythm of your own breath.
A full inhale,
A releasing exhale.
When you've done your three exhale breaths,
Notice again your comfortable sitting position.
Noticing where your body is supported by the chair or the floor.
Feeling a lightness in your chest and a firmness in the contact points between your body and the supports.
And now if you haven't already done so,
Close your eyes.
First bring your awareness to your sense of smell.
As you inhale and exhale,
Notice what you smell.
Awareness at your nostrils.
This can be a funny sensation for a while.
Perhaps you don't notice any smell at all.
That's okay.
Keep the awareness at your nostrils as you inhale and exhale.
Noticing the sensation of smell.
Moving our awareness now to our sense of taste.
Bring your awareness to your mouth,
Your tongue and any other place where you notice the sensation of taste.
Awareness in your mouth and with the sensation of taste.
Sometimes when you bring your awareness to the sensation of taste you may feel a sense of needing to swallow or lick your lips.
Moving how your body feels when you bring your awareness to your sense of taste.
Moving now to an awareness of what it feels like to have our sensation with sight.
So really gently blink your eyes open and gently gaze ahead.
Noticing what's in your line of sight.
No need to focus or stare.
Just an open gaze.
Being aware of your sensation of sight.
Gently closing your eyes and staying with the sensation of sight for a moment as you notice what it's like to look at your closed eyelids.
Perhaps you can still see some external light.
Awareness of your sensation of sight.
Moving now to our sensation of touch.
Noticing the temperature of your skin.
Any air or clothing that touches your skin.
Perhaps when you bring your sensation to touch you notice where your jewellery or other ornaments touch your body.
A full body sensation of touch.
Sometimes when we do this we get a sense of tingling,
Awareness in one part of the body or another.
That's fine.
Just gently noticing what a sensation of touch feels like to you.
Often we think of touch as just being where our hands touch something else.
See if you can expand that sensation of touch to be your full body.
Noticing the temperature of your body.
Noticing where clothes or jewellery touch your body.
Perhaps glasses.
Perhaps you can notice where your body is touching and supported by the chair or your other supports.
Sensations of warmth or coolness on the skin.
Let's linger a bit longer with this full body sensation of touch.
Moving your awareness now to your sense of hearing.
Awareness of your ears and your sense of hearing.
Perhaps you can notice far away sounds much further than where you're sitting.
Perhaps you can notice nearby sounds.
Awareness of your sense of hearing.
And if it's comfortable,
Bring that awareness of your sense of hearing really close to the subtle sounds of your own body.
Your breath.
Perhaps a sensation of the sound of your heartbeat.
Subtle sensations.
Staying for a few more moments with these nearby sensations of sound.
Focusing on your sense of hearing.
And now that we've moved our sensation and awareness through those five main senses,
Choosing now one of those senses to return your awareness to.
Smell,
Taste,
Sight,
Touch or hearing.
Choosing now and returning to that sense.
Noticing what that feels like for you.
Perhaps inquiring gently of yourself why you chose that sense.
How does it feel to be focused on that sense that you've chosen?
If your mind wanders and it tends to do that,
Really gently bring it back to the sense that you've chosen to linger with.
Your awareness on your chosen sense.
Open inquiring.
Recognising your sense of preference.
Knowing that most of us do have a preference for sense.
And when you recognise that,
Perhaps in the future you can choose that as the anchor of a different meditation.
The sense that you prefer to focus on.
And then releasing your focus and awareness on the chosen sense.
Noticing how you are seated.
Noticing the contact points between your body and any supports that you have.
Noticing the length in your spine.
Noticing the rhythm of your breath.
And then take a lovely deep inhale and a noisy exhale.
Releasing this practice.
Releasing the focus on your senses.
Smile and go on with your day.
Thanks for practicing with me.
Namaste.
