Sit,Walk,Work (SW^2)
5-4-3-2-1: Sensing, Accepting, and Grounding in the Moment
Hi, welcome to the Sit Walk Work Podcast, a show about paying attention. My name is Dominic, your host, and today's episode is a standalone guided meditation designed to give you an opportunity to practice pretty much wherever you are. So when you're ready, the practice will begin shortly after the following chimes. I will give you a brief recap of our practice today, and then I will open it up for any questions about something that may come up for you during practice, or any questions about meditation in general. So I started practice today with this grounding exercise, and it's called 54321. I worked at a little out of order because it made sense for practice, and that was the four things that you felt, the three things that you heard, and then I did two things that you smelled, and then the final, the one thing is something that you tasted, but I don't know the last time you ate something, so I left that one out. And then we rolled into practice, and we based a lot of practice off those same ideas. We just expanded them even more. So we moved first into feeling your breath, right? And we kind of used the breath in that way of receiving and feeling so that that could be one thing that you felt, and then we moved from the feeling of the breath into feeling sensations broader, wider, all the while bringing your attention more and more open. And then I moved you from breath to the body, and then moved into kind of sounds, so we moved into hearing, right? What did you hear? How did hearing overlap with the same qualities of breathing and feeling your body? And then we moved from sound into, how was the mind kind of affecting all of this? What kind of practice or overlay did the mental aspect play to this? And then the last part of practice invited us to the heart qualities, the softer parts of practice, the things that can be a little difficult to cultivate because generally speaking, we don't often say kind things to us, but we welcomed in a space for that. And then closed out the practice by having you visually look for five images or objects in front of you when the practice closed out. This is a guided meditation, it's a non-movement practice. So for those of you who are joining us for the first time, or maybe it's been a little while since you've come in, all I ask right now is you start to make yourself comfortable. If you haven't done so already, take a seat, sit up nice and well so you could take a good breath in. If you choose to kind of lay back or lay down, same rules apply, I need you to be able to breathe. This is a huge part of the practice and the way this practice is structured today is I'll be providing you a variety of prompts, pointing your attention in various directions and then giving you a few minutes of silence to kind of sit with those prompts and explore what's going on. And so that being said, let your hands find a comfortable place to rest in your lap on a desk in front of you, kind of face up or face down wherever you can kind of hold them nice, steady and still make sure your feet are grounded and you have a bit of support. Feel like you're not going to really move. The more you can keep yourself still, the more you can observe the other changing parts of your practice. And then I invite you to close the eyes if that feels safe, if it doesn't just set your vision slightly out in front of you at a spot that you can kind of lock into. And then as the eyes start to close, you kind of send the signals that, hey, we're going to kind of slow down a little bit and take it inward and see what's going on with our body and our breath and our minds today. And the focus that I'm going to take us on and kind of point our attention towards today is centered around this idea of wanting things to be different than they are in the moment. It's an idea of acceptance. Sometimes we think of acceptance in almost as in a weakness, right, like that if we accept something that we might be taken advantage of in a situation or whatnot. But in terms of our practice, the way I'd like for you to consider acceptance is accepting what's happening in this moment. And it's simply just a moment to moment acceptance rather than a much larger picture of that. And so we will move through the practice with that understanding kind of at a high level when you are sitting with what's coming up. How can you be a little more accepting, a little more curious, a little more understanding of what it might be trying to inform you of. So with that, open your attention up. I want you to start by noticing four things you feel in this moment could be the sensation of your feet, grounded, sporting you or this sensation of your seat holding you up. Maybe it's the way your breath is moving in and out today or the touch of air on your skin or even temperature really in the room that you're in. And let your attention open up even wider and notice three sounds that you hear right now. My voice is an obvious version of sound. It could be the hum of something in the background and at a very subtle level, it could even be your heartbeat. Thank you. a lot. a lot of people are going to be able to see the sound of your feet. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I noticed two things that you smell right now. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. I'm going to be able to see the sound of your feet holding you up. And in this way of pointing your attention to your senses, I'm attempting to help you ground into the moment that you might have noticed even now that as you try to hold your attention in a place, there's this internal struggle, something might be trying to pull it away. Maybe that's a continuous stream of thinking or an uncomfortable way your body feels or just generally have a hard time focusing on anything, but that might be true for you. I ask you to meet your practice with a bit of patience, understanding and a willingness to start again. Over time, those will become tools that help deepen and enrich your practice. The softer you are, the smoother it will go. Begin to let your attention feel your breath moving through you. Feeling the breath, sensation in this way isn't about controlling the breath, but rather just noticing how it shapes the body with each inhale and each exhale. Thank you. a lot. a lot of people are going to be able to do this. I'm going to be able to do this. I'm going to be able to do this. I'm going to be able to do this. I'm going to be able to do this. You can notice where the breath is appearing in the body. For some of us that might be in our belly or the lower half of our body, and for some of us it might take space in the upper part of our chest and in our shoulders. Then as you begin to rest your attention here, you can see that your breath by its design has this idea of acceptance built right in, that you receive each breath, there isn't anything you're doing, you don't have to earn it, but it just shows up. And even if you didn't want it, it still shows up. I'm going to be able to do this. I'm going to be able to see how it shifts over time. It's in the act of watching, but not only we learn from the observation, but we're suddenly changed by it. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to allow your attention to begin to invite in and incorporate it. Invite in and incorporate other sensations of your body. Your breath is a very prominent one and obvious one, as it moves in and it moves out. But it isn't alone. The body has a symphony of feelings and sensations that may be present. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. I'm going to be able to see how it changes. And those sensations are very much like the breath that you're observing. They're not really any one thing. They might appear that way, but as you bring the weight of your attention to them, you can notice how they change. And as you notice how they change, you can notice what you think about that change. If you resist it, if you want it to be something else. And what happens if you just take a neutral stance about it and see it? [silence] You may feel tingling or pulsing or things kind of vibrating at a very subtle level. This body that is changing with each moment-to-moment experience that we negotiate with and bargain with and get frustrated with. And yet it supports us. It receives us. [silence] Opening up your attention, the span of your attention even wider. Again, to hear sounds around you. Interesting, much like the breath you receive hearing, you know, go chasing it. It arrives to you. [silence] You may notice some sounds are closer, some are further away. Some have a tempo or rhythm. Some may generate a bit of disruption in your experience into the surface that sense of wanting to push away instead of softening into what this moment is. [silence] [silence] And it may be that your attention has various places it is moving through. It might be still feeling the breath and that might move to feeling the body even more. You might find yourself lost in sound. In this openness, this space, it kind of holds the practice together that we call awareness. There's enough room for all of that. Sometimes it can be difficult because all along you've had the mind and the form of mental chatter or commentary. From about how you're practicing, some cases it might be telling you what you should be doing. [silence] But here's the thing. Your attention works on it the same as it does your breath and what you feel in your body. You can simply look at the nature of your thoughts rather than accept them as true. [silence] [silence] [silence] Practice is about letting go and creating space. And then giving ourselves a bit of space. We can begin to open up to the qualities that have always been present but just not paid attention to. Compassion, kindness, patience, understanding. These are all gifts that at any time we can give to ourselves. Providing them in by bringing your attention to them. [silence] And it's in learning to look for and to call forth. There's a lot of ways or moments that are present right now that are a little kinder that we start to help ourselves. And the work we do here for us becomes work that gets shared amongst all beings. [silence] [silence] Because there's a thread that connects all of us. That is the simple idea that we all want to be happy, safe, healthy and held or seen in compassion. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] And I wish all of you to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe, to be held with compassion. That you allow that into your practice and into your life. [silence] Begin to bring your attention to the space behind your eyelids, to your visual field. That vast sense of darkness, to permeating your practice. Often time our attention feels like it sits right here in the space. Even though it's much, much wider, this is kind of where it localizes. And as you rest here in this openness, it becomes a representation for all the space that held your practice today. Instead of staying consistent and steady, it gave you the opportunity to be the witness of. And from here, when you're ready, I invite you to blink the eyes softly open. And as you start to open the eyes, punctuate your practice today by noticing five things in front of you as the eyes open. [silence] Thank you for listening to today's episode. I invite you to check out my sub-stack where we are building a community of like-minded individuals to discuss all topics related to the idea of paying attention. I hope to see you there, but until then, with meta may you be well. [silence] [silence]