Mindfulness for Right is course,
Week one,
Mindfulness of the senses.
So first I'd like you to just get in contact with the feeling of the chair that you're sitting in.
Feeling your back against the back of it,
Your bottom in the chair,
The feeling of the sitting bones,
The feeling of your feet on the floor.
So just allowing yourself to arrive in the chair and to feel yourself sitting in it.
And perhaps just taking a few conscious breaths,
Deliberately slowing the in-breath and slowing the out-breath.
Breathing in deeply,
Relaxing and letting go on the out-breath.
Feeling yourself settling and arriving here and now in the present.
Allowing your mind to focus on the feeling of your body in the chair.
How does that feel?
What sensations are present for you now?
Focusing first on what you can feel of the chair that you're sitting in.
Where do you feel it?
What is it like?
Perhaps noticing the feeling of gravity pulling you down against the chair and into it.
The weight of your body.
Perhaps pulling down at your shoulders,
Your arms.
The press against the floor through your legs into your feet.
The long line of your spine.
The weight of it pushing into the chair.
Your body upright but relaxed.
And as you sit in the chair,
Just noticing if there's any tendency for your mind to wander off.
And if that's what it's doing,
That's absolutely fine.
That's what minds do.
But just having the intention to bring it back to focus on the sensations in the body.
To focus on what it feels like to just sit in this chair in this moment.
And gradually bringing your awareness to the fact that you are a body that breathes.
And that in every moment you can feel the rise and fall of your breath in your body.
Focusing on this now.
Following the breath as you can feel it in the body,
In the torso.
You are a body that breathes.
Just noticing what this feels like.
How is your breath today?
Not trying,
Not changing,
Just seeing what it's like today.
Allowing it to be.
Where can you feel it most?
Allowing your attention to rest in that place where you can feel it most.
And if your mind wanders,
That's okay.
Just gently bringing it back to the focus of your mindfulness meditation today.
Which is at the moment the feeling of the breath.
Holding that sense of being a body that breathes.
A body sitting in a chair.
Sitting in a room.
And with a widening of your awareness.
See if you can keep a sense of your body.
But also turn your awareness out towards the room and the sounds in the room.
What can you hear?
Allowing the sounds to come to you.
Noticing what you can hear.
Even if what you can hear is silence.
You might notice if the sounds are close to or far away.
What noises are loud and what noises are soft.
You might start to notice the pitch of sounds.
Some high pitched,
Some low pitched.
Keeping your focus with the sounds that you can hear.
And if your mind wanders,
Gently bring it back.
Come back to the sounds in the room.
And widening your awareness further into the other senses.
Just noticing,
Is there anything you can smell?
Inside these smells may be very subtle.
But if you choose to meditate outside,
They may be much stronger.
And expanding your awareness again into the realm of taste.
What tastes are there in your mouth?
Just noticing.
And then just letting any specific sense impression go.
And allowing yourself to just sit in the chair with a spacious awareness of all senses.
All experiences.
Resting lightly with the breath.
Do you feel the leaving out air?
Thank you.
