Three Step Check-In

This is a three-step check-in meditation.

It will be lightly guided,

Meaning there will be times of speaking and times of silence.

You can use those times of silence to really lean into the practice and open up to what's here right now.

Begin by taking your meditation seat,

Sitting up tall and straight either on a chair or cushion.

You can be standing or lying down if you like.

This is not about the position of the body,

But about awareness.

Allowing the feet to be on the floor and if you can,

Invite the hands to some stillness.

Legs,

The lap,

Wherever they happen to land.

You don't need to hold them in any particular way,

But you can if you like.

Whatever is most supportive for you in this moment.

Adjust the posture of the body to find a balance between wakefulness and comfort,

With perhaps a bit of curiosity about what is most helpful for you right now.

You can have the eyes open or closed.

Again,

What is most helpful for you in this moment?

Our first step in this three-step check-in is to just become aware.

That awareness includes our internal environment,

Body,

Heart,

And mind,

And our external environment,

Our surroundings.

This is a gentle process of tuning in and noticing what's here right now.

With the body,

Checking in with the five senses,

Just a gentle peek at each one.

And seeing,

What is it like to experience seeing behind closed eyes?

Or if you do have the eyes open just a bit,

What are the shapes,

Perhaps colors or textures that appear?

How is that different or maybe very much the same of the experience of seeing when the eyes are closed?

Noticing hearing.

What is the experience of listening like in this moment?

Just receiving sounds,

Not having to silence them or identify them or think about them.

Just receiving sounds.

What's here?

A little bit of playful curiosity.

Just listening.

Even if it's silent,

That is an experience of listening.

A sense of touch.

What might be felt on the surface of the skin?

Clothing or temperature of the room?

Contact with the chair?

Floor at the bottoms of the feet or perhaps the tips of the fingers?

Inside the body,

Are there itches or aches?

Perhaps felt sense of the heart beating?

Again,

Not an interrogation,

Just a light check-in to the sense of touch and the different layers that that offers.

You may also choose to spend a moment paying attention to your sense of smell and taste.

And here too,

Not having to notice any scent,

Not having to taste any flavor,

But moving your attention to smelling and tasting.

Just a gentle peek here as well.

And as with sound,

It may be silent.

It may be silent with sense of smell or sense of taste.

That is the environment of the senses and also now turning your attention towards emotions,

Your heart.

Here too,

A gentle playful curiosity can be helpful.

Not an interrogation,

Just a gentle peek into what emotions might be present in this moment.

Becoming aware of them,

Not having to change anything or fix anything.

Noticing what emotions are making themselves known,

Acknowledging those and not holding on or getting caught up in them,

But just observing what is here with a light touch.

And shifting attention to this third aspect of our internal experience,

Body,

Heart,

And mind.

Noticing what the process of thinking is like in this moment.

And not having to dig into each thought and unpack it.

Just notice what it's about and then letting it go.

Receiving the next thought.

How fast is thinking?

Does one thought come up again and again or different thoughts like different emotions or different sensations?

Momentary experiences.

And then with your external experience,

Environment around you,

What is noticed there?

A sense of the room you're in and inhabiting.

Are there sounds nearby or perhaps far away that are making themselves known and moving on?

What is it like to be present in the ecosystem of this moment where you are?

What's that like?

And how are you responding to that?

Now that is our first step in this three-step check-in is our environment,

Internal and around us.

Body,

Heart,

And mind.

And the space we're in.

The next step is focusing.

Now that we've opened up and warmed up our sense of noticing,

Narrowing that to a fine beam,

Bringing it to bear on one spot,

That is focus.

A potential focus for you may be a comfortable experience that's happening right now.

Perhaps a home base,

An anchor for your attention that invites you back again and again to this very moment.

It may be sensations associated with taking in air and letting it go wherever you feel breathing most happening in the body.

Maybe a different focus is helpful to you in this moment,

This particular practice.

It may be another layer of the sense of touch guiding your attention to the bottoms of your feet in contact with the floor.

Noticing the texture of the chair or cushion if you are seated.

Some comfortable experience that you can feel or pay attention to.

There might not be any sensation at all.

That's okay.

This isn't about having to create sensation.

But notice what's here,

Even if it's silent.

So bring your attention to that one spot that is comfortable for you to attend to and experience.

It may be a physical spot on the body where you feel breathing the most or where sounds are touching your awareness.

Take your time.

Find an experience you can get in touch with that's comfortable,

Supportive for you.

And bring your attention there.

Breathing in and breathing out.

And from time to time you may notice that attention wanders.

That's an expected part of this process in this practice.

It's not a perfect,

It's a practice.

So when you notice attention has wandered,

Just come back to your home base,

To your focus,

And refresh that experience.

Get reacquainted.

And then again,

Perhaps a moment later,

Our third step in this three-step check-in after becoming aware,

After focusing,

Is to expand awareness,

To include the entire body and your immediate surroundings.

So allow that awareness to expand.

What is it like to inhabit the entire body?

Shifting that focus to a wide lens that is more inclusive of the entire body,

Experiencing the breath or the entire body receiving sounds.

And here too,

The playful curiosity,

What is it like in this moment to inhabit the entire body?

Perhaps to inhabit this room or this space that you're in.

Receiving whatever it is that makes itself known and moves on.

Noticing what is here.

The conditions that you're in,

They're influencing how you are in this moment.

Would it shift things just a little bit in your experience of this moment to receive it with kindness?

A little care,

The same care you may extend to others.

What would that be like?

To receive this moment in yourself with care?

Maybe even a little friendliness.

And when you're ready,

If you've had your eyes closed,

You can open those.

And still listening,

We're not stopping being mindfully present,

But extending it.

Maybe stretching just a bit in a way that might feel good to you.

This three-step check-in is not about retreating from.

It's not about avoiding what is here.

It is tuning into what's here right now.

And you can meet pleasant experiences and unpleasant experiences with this three-step check-in.

It is done gently and may take a few minutes.

It may take just a few moments to lightly check in at any time.

Thank you very much for your practice,

Your dedication.

And this concludes this meditation practice.