Lisa McColgan

Lutz, FL, USA

Alex Brobst

Jupiter, FL, USA

Expand your awareness beyond the body to release rigidity and find a sense of vast, creative freedom.

Health & Happiness

Presence

Mindfulness Meditation

Buddhism

Mindfulness

Traditions

English

This practice is designed to reconnect us to the vastness of experience in simply being. It serves as a reminder that we don't need to constantly be 'doing' in order to experience aliveness. By dropping into our own bodies and breath and simultaneously expanding into spaciousness, we connect with the intimate, immediate, and visceral aliveness that is always accessible if we seek to find it.

This practice is designed to reconnect us to the vastness of experience in simply being, reminding us that we don't need to constantly be 'doing' in order to experience aliveness.

Opening Into Spaciousness

 Hi all, this is Tiffany. This meditation is going to be a meditation on creating spaciousness. It can be quite a playful meditation. I decide to do this meditation when I find that my mind is very tight or constricted, even if my body is very tight as well. If there's a sense of rigidity to the way I'm experiencing my time or my day, my work, my thoughts. I'll sit down and do this meditation just to really create a sense of freedom, of space, and I find generally that I walk away feeling more creative and open. So I offer this to you in the hopes that it can create that same sense of peace and vastness. We will begin our meditation by finding a seat wherever you may be, in your desk chair at the office, in the car, hopefully not driving, in a chair, or of course on a meditation cushion. And really granting yourself permission to settle in and to be here. That often requires letting go of whatever it is that brought us to this meditation in the first place. Letting go of our worries, letting go of our fears, letting go of our attachments, knowing that all of those things will still be there when we're done, but hopefully we and our relationship to them will be maybe just slightly different. So really settling here. You can settle or begin to settle skillfully by becoming aware of the body's posture and space. Notice the firm rooting of the tailbone and the sit bones to the earth, the length in the spine reaching towards the sky. Let the shoulders drop down away from the ears, the hands to rest naturally either in the lap or on the legs. Just beginning to breathe naturally, notice the feeling and sensation of the breath as it accompanies the body. Perhaps as the body settles you can begin to notice a sense of weight giving the body permission to have mass and take up space. In order to begin cultivating our sense of spaciousness we have to first become aware of our own space, our own bodies, our own place wherever we are. So bringing into the forefront of awareness the sensations in the body, both the shape of the body in space and the feeling of the energy in the body. Perhaps you can notice a waving or a pulsing sensation. Maybe the expanding and contracting of the body with the breathing. Finding the body all at once, the whole body feels too large. Just taking a moment to scan the body, beginning from the feet up through the shins and the calves, the knees, the quads and the hamstrings, the hips, the buttocks, the low belly and low back, maybe noticing the belly button up into the ribs, the heart space, the shoulders, noticing the upper arms, the biceps, triceps, the elbows, the forearms, the wrists and the hands, scanning back up the arms to the shoulders, the collarbones, the neck, noticing the chin, the base of the ears, the front of the face, the back of the head, all the way up to the crown, breathing into the whole body, perhaps taking a deep breath in, noticing how the body moves with the breath, really beginning to cultivate a sense of the body from the inside out, the tangible feelings of sensation, of breath, of contact, noticing the aliveness in your stillness. And as you're here, intimately in touch with the energy of your body and being, you're beginning to play with creating space, becoming larger and more expansive, breathing in and pulling energy into the body and into your being and on the exhale, sending that energy out, becoming vast, feeling whatever space you're in, allowing your energy to seem larger than your body itself. Perhaps as your energy grows, you notice colors behind the eyes, perhaps you begin to notice the sounds around you. You can even begin to notice the silence between the noise. And as we continue to rest here in this spaciousness of awareness, noticing that awareness is large enough to hold everything, from the feeling of touch, of breath, of sense of sound and sight, smell and taste, this spacious awareness even large enough to hold our thoughts, the experience of mind. And as we continue to rest here in this spaciousness of awareness, notice the silence between the noise of sensation, the playfulness of spacious awareness, the coming and going of sounds, the arising and falling away of the breath. We can even become less possessive of our own thoughts, noticing in this space how they simply arise and pass away, all in the midst of you noticing. As we notice, we have the choice to grab onto our thoughts or to let them go. Knowing our thoughts are not us, they are not ours, they are not ourself. Continuing to make the choice to rest here, to be as large as you possibly want to be, to allow your energy to fill your entire room, your entire home, your entire office. Perhaps you grow to be as big as your community, holding your entire city in the vastness of your energy, holding your state, growing to be as large as this country. Perhaps in one breath you can become as big as the whole world. As you get bigger and bigger, noticing the feelings that arise, perhaps a sense of peace, of joy, a lightness and an ease. Perhaps when we're as big as the whole world, our problems can now seem awfully small, our rigidity and narrow views easy to let go of and unnecessary. Perhaps we can sense the freedom in this space, in this largeness, openness, being as big and connected to all that is. Taking a moment here in this openness, in this space, to send a wave of gratitude, of gratitude, breathing into our own heart space, holding the world and the universe in our hands. Feeling grateful to be here, to be alive, to be free. Namaste.