Welcome to this meditation,
Awakening to joy.
Start the way you are right now.
Bring all your senses to this meditation and recognize how things are for you on the mental level right now.
Still with your eyes open,
You may want to look around and recognize that you are safe.
And you are okay in this very moment.
There'll be time during this meditation that your mind will try to take you into the past,
Perhaps into the future.
Your mind will try to have a dialogue with your awareness.
And regardless of the context and concepts that your mind will throw at you,
You know that you are safe in this moment and you can experience it safely,
Calmly.
So now allow your eyes to close and draw your awareness within.
And that internal landscape that you experience right now is the inner reality of your physical body.
What are you feeling right now?
Sensations may include tightness,
Softness,
Heat,
Cold,
Tingling.
I allow you right now to choose your own label to describe that inner reality.
That is the canvas for your awareness to reside.
You will quickly notice that your mind will fluidly interject trying to judge.
Judge by telling you,
This is pleasant,
This is unpleasant.
I want this.
I do not want this.
And this is a very important part of this experience.
To recognize how your cognition creates the experience on the mental level.
And when you recognize that,
Start being aware of this very process,
That there are not only sensations within your body,
But also your mind giving them a label,
Describing them.
And this process is so spontaneous that you might not even notice when that transition happens.
I am here by your side to remind you,
To bring you back,
Not to the description,
But to the experience itself.
Every time you find yourself mentally describing your experience,
Simply recognize it and bring your awareness to the experience itself,
Expansion,
Contraction,
Softness,
Tightness that may be positioned in your belly,
Solar plexus in your throat,
Shoulders,
Any part of your body.
How does it feel to experience sensations without giving them a label or description?
Bring awareness back to itself.
And after a moment of being the experience,
You may briefly come back and now intentionally think to yourself,
How did it feel?
And after briefly coming back to the cognition,
Return the awareness back to itself,
Back to being the experience on the level of your body.
Who is observing the experience of your inner sensation?
Who is the observer?
Is the awareness in your brain?
Is the awareness in any particular brain cell?
Is the observer locked up in your physical body?
As you continue being with the experience of your inner sensations,
You may once again take a short detour to your mind and ask yourself again,
How is the experience?
And then return once again to the experience itself.
And now I will let you to continue this dance between your mind and the awareness on your own as I stand witness.
Right here by your side,
Offering my support and holding the space.
And now,
Before we conclude,
Ask yourself once again from the level of your mind,
Was there at any point of this experience a period of joy and fulfillment?
Know that you are the awareness that is the active ingredient of the experience and you can come back to it and explore it further at any given moment.
So right now,
Take what you will and begin moving back with your awareness into the physicality of things that are defined by your physical senses.
Begin by connecting with the sound of my voice and any other external sounds that come to your awareness through your ears.
Connect with your sight in a way that you can even through your closed eyelids.
Sense of smell,
Sense of taste,
Checking in,
And finally,
Sense of touch.
Experiencing your hands in your lap,
Your feet on the floor,
Your sit bones,
Your lower and upper back.
Slowly recognizing how your physical body has boundaries that separate you from the rest of the space that surrounds you.
And now recognize that you can move your body,
Starting slowly with your toes,
Adding movement of your fingers,
Slowly and gently tilting your head to the left,
Tilting your head to the right,
Back to the center,
And expand your lungs by taking a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
And when you decide that you are ready,
Open your eyes and welcome back.