Please make yourself as comfortable as possible.
You can close your eyes or you may keep your eyes open,
Looking at a point just in front of you,
And keep your eyes soft.
Try to sit in an upright position and at the same time relax.
Take a moment to settle yourself.
Your back is straight and the shoulders are low.
You can rest your hands on your legs or in your lap and then take a moment to notice how your body feels.
Is there any tension somewhere or do you feel relaxed?
Or maybe you notice some discomfort or is there something else?
Just observe.
You don't have to change anything.
How is the temperature of your body and the air around you?
Maybe you notice a lot of thoughts while sitting here and this is quite normal.
There will always be a lot of thinking going on in our mind and the only thing you have to do is notice these thoughts.
Don't follow them,
Just bring back your attention to your breath and your body sitting here.
Try to be open and present.
Now here in this moment,
Just feel the breath.
You can notice how the breath flows in at the nose and flows out again.
Perhaps you feel the breath on your upper lip or you can feel the rising and falling in the breast area or you can focus on how the abdomen lifts a little upwards when you inhale and goes down again at the exhale.
Keep your attention with the movement of the breath.
Follow the waves of the breath,
Just like the waves on the beach,
Going in and out.
A constant movement,
Moment to moment.
You do not have to change anything.
It's good just the way it is.
And now expanding the focus of your awareness around your breathing to the body as a whole as it sits here in this posture.
Awareness of the sensations of breathing,
But also other sensations that may be rising in your body.
You may be aware of the sensations of touch under your feet or hands on your knees or in your lap.
Sensations of touch where your thighs and buttocks are on the chair or stool.
There may be other sensations arising in the body.
Holding them all in awareness.
Awareness of the space that your body takes up and the space around you.
Awareness now of your whole body as it sits here breathing.
From time to time,
When we sit in this way,
Then the body gives rise to intense sensations.
Times when our body may be in discomfort or painful sensations arising.
And if that happens,
Then we have a choice about what to do.
Either we can adjust our posture to try to ease the discomfort slightly.
And if we decide to move,
Then letting the movement itself be part of the sitting,
Part of the meditation.
Being aware of the intention to move and of the movement itself.
And then of the after effects of the movement.
So the movement is not an opting out of the meditation,
But folded into it.
So that's the first option with pain and discomfort.
The second option when intense sensations arise,
Is to deliberately bring the focus of your awareness right up to and into wherever those sensations are arising.
Perhaps imagining that the breath,
When you breathe in,
Could go to that region of the body and help you explore and discover what is arising at that place.
You may find that the sense of discomfort consists of a whole bundle of sensations.
There may be pulling or throbbing or pulsing,
Whatever.
And that each of these sensations may change from time to time.
Not necessarily all at the same time,
But they may have a constantly changing pattern.
And using the breath,
Breathing into this region of the body,
To become aware and to explore this pattern.
Sometimes one of these sensations may pulse for a while,
And then resume.
It may change,
Or it may stay the same.
Exploring with a sense of discovery,
Rather than trying to fix it in some way,
Or make it better.
And then if it stops pulling for your attention,
Then letting it go.
And coming back to the sense of your sitting here,
The sense of the body as a whole.
Now expanding your focus once more to hearing.
Maybe you are aware of the sounds around you.
People talking,
Walking or cycling by,
Sounds of birds or dogs or music,
Sounds of cars driving by.
Just be aware of hearing.
From moment to moment,
Aware of all the sounds around you.
Just hearing them.
Don't judge.
Notice if a thought or a story comes up,
And just bring back your attention to your breath,
Or to just hearing the sounds.
Maybe recognizing that you are labeling the sounds as pleasant,
Unpleasant or neutral.
Sounds are just there.
You don't have to do anything with them.
Just let them be.
And if you notice that your mind wanders,
Again and again bring back your awareness,
Without judgment,
Gently bringing back your attention to hearing,
To all the sounds around you.
Using the sounds as an anchor to stay in the present moment,
And not seeing them as a disturbance of your meditation.
If you find yourself being carried away on the flow of thoughts or feelings that go through your head,
Then bring back your attention to the sounds around you.
Now for the last few moments of this sitting,
Bringing your attention back to the focus on your body and the feeling of your breathing in the abdomen,
In the belly.
Tuning in to all sensations on this in-breath and this out-breath.
And as you sit here and as you breathe,
Allowing yourself to cultivate this sense of moment-to-moment awareness.
And remembering that the breath is available to you at any moment of your day,
To allow you to feel grounded.
A sense of balance and awareness of accepting yourself,
Just as you are in each moment.
Now that we're coming to the end of this meditation,
When you hear the bell please open your eyes.
You may want to stretch a little and bring this feeling of calmness,
Of awareness into the rest of your day.
