So in this practice,
We are going to meditate with eyes open,
And we're going to challenge ourselves to stay in the present moment by focusing on the information coming to us through our senses.
So let's begin with noticing the things that we can see and hear and feel and so on.
And we can do this via the 54321 practice.
So let's start by noticing five things that we can see around us.
Each thing you notice,
Take it in,
Appreciate it.
And now moving to the sense of hearing,
Noticing four things that you can hear in your environment.
So we can see the sense of hearing,
The sense of hearing,
The sense of hearing,
The sense of touch,
Noticing three things you can feel in the physical body.
As we open our awareness to the physical body,
Perhaps noticing the feet in contact with the ground beneath you,
Clothes that you're wearing,
Touching the skin,
And so on.
And now we're going to move to the sense of smell.
Can you notice two things that you can smell?
And finally,
To the sense of taste,
Can you taste any sensation in the mouth?
And with this awareness to sensations,
We're going to move two sensations in the soles of the feet.
So as you're standing,
Just noticing that sense of contact with the floor and notice any sensations in the soles of the feet.
And then taking the awareness into the legs,
You might notice that there's muscles in the legs activating to keep you balanced as you're standing.
So just scan through the lower legs,
Notice the knees,
Upper legs,
Having an awareness of sensations in the legs.
And then noticing the position of the pelvis and hips.
Make any adjustments to your alignment as you also take awareness into the back and the spinal column.
So noticing the natural curves of your back,
Noticing the muscles of the back,
Aware of the rib cage at the back,
Sides and front of the body.
And as you're noticing the front of the torso,
As well as the rib cage,
The chest muscles here,
The chest,
Chest wall,
Abdomen,
The waist,
Just noticing sensations through the front of the torso.
Then taking awareness up into the shoulders.
So noticing through the shoulders at the sides,
The front,
The back,
And most importantly,
The tops of the shoulders,
Noticing sensations here.
And then taking awareness into the neck and the jaw joint,
The ears,
Eyes,
Nose,
Mouth,
Throat,
Perhaps noticing swallowing as you're aware of the throat,
Aware of the whole face,
Head,
Neck,
Shoulders.
And now down along the arms,
Upper arms,
Elbows,
Lower arms,
The wrists,
Thumbs,
Fingers,
And hands,
Notice sensations in the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands.
And aware of the sensations throughout the hands and arms.
So you're aware of both arms together.
Then aware of both legs and awareness,
Sensations arising both legs,
Aware of the torso,
Front and back,
And sides of the torso.
And then aware of your whole body,
The position that you're standing in,
And taking awareness back to the feet.
So noticing the ankles and noticing the toes,
Any sensations there,
And noticing those soles of the feet.
So where we began noticing sensations in the body,
Back to noticing the soles of the feet.
And noticing as you pick up the toes,
Just picking them up slightly,
Spread the toes apart,
Place the toes back down on the floor,
And be aware of how each toe is supporting your body.
Each toe is helping you balance.
So aware of sensations in the toes,
And then moving awareness to the heels and noticing that the heels are supporting you.
You've got that sense of connection with the earth beneath you.
You're quite strong through the heels if you bring awareness there.
Now we're just going to try gently rocking forward and backward on our feet.
So just rocking forward and backwards.
No big movement,
Just a shifting of weight.
But as you do,
What sensations do you notice in the feet?
Now trying side to side.
So just shifting the weight side to side.
And again,
Noticing sensations here in the feet.
And now if you like,
With knees soft,
Making little circles with your knees,
Feeling the changing sensations in the soles of your feet.
And if you want,
Lifting up one leg,
Supporting yourself for balance if you need,
Just circling one foot at a time.
So circling the foot in one direction a few times and then in the other direction.
Then swapping sides,
So balancing on the other leg and circling the foot a few times in one direction and then swapping direction.
Then place both feet on the ground and just start to walk on the spot.
So just picking up one foot in front of you,
Placing it down again,
Small and slow movements.
We're not marching.
We're simply doing this as an awareness exercise to cultivate awareness of sensations in the body,
In particular through the soles of the feet.
So just coming back to stand,
Standing with your feet comfortably apart so that you can easily balance.
And feeling how your feet are supporting your whole body.
And perhaps appreciating for a moment how small the surface area of your feet are and yet your feet are supporting your entire body.
And if you wish,
Having a moment of gratitude for the hard work that your feet are doing,
Something that we would normally just take for granted.
And now the invitation is to engage in a short practice of mindful walking.
As you walk,
The idea is to do just the same as what we've been doing,
Standing still.
While walking,
Have an awareness at the soles of the feet and notice the weight transfer through the body as you lift one foot and then put it down,
Lift the next foot,
Put it down and so on.
And it's a process of using your feet as your anchor point.
Often in meditation,
Our anchor point is our breathing and here too we'll be aware of breathing.
However the main focus is on the feet.
Just in the area that you have around you,
Just taking a few minutes now to walk with a focus on walking,
With a focus on the sensations of movement and the sensations,
The change in sensations in the soles of the feet.
Okay good.
And now just very easily and with an awareness on the feet bringing yourself back to the starting standing position that you're in.
And once you get back to that standing position you might like to just gently lift one foot and another foot noticing sensations,
Noticing if there's any change in sensations.
And then coming to a position of stillness in the body,
Feet hip width apart as we now are going to move into closing the eyes just for a few minutes and to notice what is different in our sensations and awareness of sensations and our experience with eyes closed.
So aware of the whole body.
Noticing breathing,
Noticing sensations throughout the body.
Just having an open awareness to sensations that are arising.
You might notice with eyes closed as you're standing there's a subtle transfer of weight constantly occurring.
If we bring our attention to our feet again we can notice that while we're standing still there may be subtle movement happening that if we pay close attention we can notice.
And then once again letting the eyes open.
Noticing what you see,
What you hear,
What you're in contact with,
What you feel,
Any sense of smell,
Sense of taste.
And just in general an awareness of your experience as we bring this practice to a close.
