Space To Breathe, Space To Think

A good way to allow yourself to start being more present is to become more aware of the body and explore all the sensations you can feel in your body right now.

You can do this sequentially,

Starting with the feet and slowly working your way up the body,

Noticing different sensations as you go.

Or you can simply get a sense of how the body is feeling as a whole,

Getting a sense of the energy of the body,

The presence of your body.

Maybe feeling all the points of contact between the body and the chair and the floor and clothing.

So you're really literally connecting to the present moment through these points of contact in the body.

And before moving on to mindfulness of the thoughts,

We'll spend a few moments with the breath and practicing the same approach with our breath as we will do with our thoughts.

The first part is simply to become aware of your breath and again feeling the physical sensations in the body associated with the breath.

So it's not just thinking about the breath,

But actually feeling the breath in the body.

And the other thing to try with this mindful approach is to let go of the idea of focusing or concentrating on the breath,

But instead see if you can keep your awareness really nice and light and open and just inviting the breath into the center or the foreground of your awareness.

So you'll still be aware of everything else happening around the breath,

Just in the background of your awareness.

So still aware of the body and thoughts,

Feelings,

Sounds,

Your environment around you.

So not trying to exclude anything from your awareness,

Open to all that is happening in this moment.

But just for a few moments,

Being a bit more interested in the breath and how the breath feels in the body.

And see if you can begin to really consciously allow the breath into the body with each in-breath.

Just notice how that feels to not be restricting the breath in any way and allowing the breath to enter the body fully and freely with each in-breath.

And for the out-breath,

We can have that approach of really letting go and releasing the out-breath,

Noticing how it feels if we don't hold on to the breath at all,

But really let it go with each out-breath.

Allowing the breath in,

Letting go as we breathe out,

And allowing the breath to find its own rhythm and allowing it to flow freely through the body.

And finally,

For the breath,

Before we move on to the thoughts,

See if you can get a sense of the body being breathed by the breath.

So we don't actually have to make any effort to breathe,

We don't have to remember to breathe.

We can just allow the breath to happen automatically,

Naturally and spontaneously.

So rather than experiencing,

I am breathing,

Feeling more like it's the breath breathing the body.

So now if we invite our thoughts to be in the centre,

The foreground of our open awareness,

Allow the breath to join the other sensations of the body,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Sounds,

The environment just slightly in the background.

So paying more interest for the next few moments on the experience of our thoughts and what it feels like to be aware of our thoughts as we think them.

Remembering not to focus or concentrate,

Keeping the mind,

The awareness nice and light and open and just noticing the thoughts as they come and go.

So finding that part of yourself that can sit back and watch,

Listen,

Observe to your thoughts as they appear in your mind.

Simply being aware that you are thinking in this moment.

So now the challenge is to give complete freedom to your thoughts.

Don't try and change your thoughts in any way.

Don't try and redirect them.

Don't try and slow them down or stop them.

And don't care at all what your thoughts are.

It really doesn't matter for this mindfulness meditation what the content of your thoughts are.

It doesn't matter how positive or negative,

How quiet or noisy,

How fast or slow.

All we're practicing at the moment is to be aware of the thoughts as they appear in our mind and it really doesn't matter what those thoughts are.

So give your thoughts all the time,

The space they need.

Give them complete freedom and just sit back and observe.

After a while you may be able to get a sense.

As we practice with the breath,

It's not so much that you are doing the thinking,

But that the thinking is happening to the mind.

The thoughts arrive within your mind,

Again naturally,

Automatically,

Spontaneously.

You don't need to remember to think.

You don't need to make any effort to think your next thought.

It will just arrive on its own.

So enjoying the effortlessness of thinking.

So keeping your awareness nice and open,

Still connected to the present moment through the breath and the body,

Still noticing the sounds in the environment around you,

Still aware of how you feel.

And the thoughts are just one more thing that's happening within this present moment and within your open awareness.

So for the final part of the commentary,

Before I leave a few minutes of silence before we end,

Let's see if we can realize an experience of mental space,

Of a real openness,

Spaciousness within the mind.

We're going to continue to just allow the thoughts to come and go,

To flow freely through the mind.

We don't need to slow,

Quieten or stop the thoughts to experience this spaciousness.

I find the easiest way to do this is to just connect to and be aware of the physical space that's around me and is around me at every moment.

So becoming aware of your body and the presence of your body,

The energy of the body,

And get a sense of the presence and location of your body in the room that you're in.

And exploring,

Becoming aware of the space surrounding your body within the room.

Sense of the space just in front of you,

Just behind you,

To either side,

And above and below.

So holding the space of the room within your awareness,

Your open awareness.

Then allowing your awareness to be more open,

More wide,

More broad,

And simply become aware of the space that's surrounding you right now outside.

And there's no reason not to.

Just allow your awareness to include the space around you all the way to the horizon in all directions and aware of the sky above you.

This needn't involve any visualization,

Just simply that sense of knowing the skies above you,

The horizons around you,

And your body is at the center of this vast open space.

This physical space is now within your open awareness,

And your thoughts continue to be within that same open awareness.

So your thoughts are flowing freely through this open space that's at least as vast and open as the horizon and the sky.

So let's have a few minutes just really enjoying and relaxing into this sense of physical and mental space,

And just being present with the body,

With the thoughts,

The breath flowing freely through the body,

The thoughts flowing freely through the mind within this open space of your open awareness.

Hi,

Everybody.

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So another few more moments before we finish.

Relaxing into the present moment,

Relaxing into the body and just enjoying this space to breathe and think freely.

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