Kathy Almond

Georgia, United States

Tori Allenspach

Asheville, NC, USA

Jess Wester

Colorado, USA

Strengthen your sensing superpower by exploring your internal landscape and expanding your awareness outward.

English

One of our super powers as humans is the capacity to sense, both inside and beyond ourselves. It is also the key to deepening your meditation practice. This guided meditation helps you cultivate this sensing with intentionality so you can go about your day with more awareness, living in communion with yourself and the world around.

Sensing Morning Meditation: Ground Into Self & Surroundings

Welcome to this 15-minute mindfulness meditation. My name is Eden and I'll be leading us on this little journey today. Go ahead and just start to find yourself in a comfortable seat, maybe taking any last little movements that feel good to your body this morning as you join the day, as you join this moment just a little more fully, and starting to find some stillness wherever you are, and tapping into a tall spine, perhaps gently tucking the chin, letting that spine elongate even further, and just taking a few slow, deep breaths here, presencing ourselves just a little bit more, letting the day already fall away so we can be right here, committing to these 15 minutes for you, and if you have not already, go ahead and gently close the eyes from top to bottom, or usher in a soft gaze. Today, we're going to play with this superpower that we have as humans, this ability to sense. So, starting by first bringing that awareness pointedly to the breath, just tracing the breath in and out of the body, what line does the breath move along, where does the breath like to go, what's the quality and the texture of the breath, and can you just notice releasing any judgments or expectations or pride and just being with the breath as it continues to change through the body, noticing the breath that's here today. This is the breath that carries you even when your attention is not on it. What a miracle. Just taking a few more breaths here to honor each of those breaths, and then gently letting that focus go, and then moving it now to third eye center, right between the eyebrows, bringing that attention, that inner eye there. Maybe you notice that your closed eyes turn up and in slightly, maybe you notice muscles in the face relaxing and others constricting as you move your attention here. What does it feel like to move that attention here? If you're anything like me, perhaps thoughts have crept in, this need to know what it feels like to label these feelings, to dissect the experience, so can you separate from those thoughts and just sense what this space in the third eye is like today? Noticing the second that you start to label or dissect the experience, you've moved from sensing into knowing, so just playing with that here inside your being, strengthening this sensing muscle that allows us to truly be present, noticing what's here, perhaps softening the eyebrows, finding more space in the body, good. And with the next breath, go ahead and roll this attention down now into the heart. What is that like to sense what's here in the heart, right below the surface? Again, separating from that need to know, that need to label, can you just sit in your ability to sense? Can you find the muscles, the bone, the tissue all around the heart, in the heart, and notice what it's like to just be with it all, to sense this magnificent organ inside of you, that also continues to beat, continues to support your life without it needing any of your attention? What a miracle. Maybe perhaps you've noticed that the position of your eyes has shifted yet again. Maybe the place where your attention lives in your body has shifted as you look at the heart, beautiful. Now we move this capacity to sense to the space beyond us, shifting to now tap into the four corners of your room, maybe the floor beneath, the ceiling above, maybe if you're outside, sensing the trees, the ground, your fence, your dog, holding them in space, knowing exactly where they are even when the eyes are not seeing them. How wondrous it is that we can do that in our bodies, this utter sense of communion with the world around us, this superpower that we have, knowing exactly where you are in space because of what's around you, the world that holds you here. As we've now released the physical body from our awareness, from our sensing, and we've gotten bigger, our senses are now taking up space beyond our body, taking up this whole room, taking up this whole area that you're in. What is that like? What do you feel moving through you? What's the quality of your energy here? Breathing into this space, allowing yourself to fill it all up as your senses roam around. Good. So now we're just going to take a few rounds of flexing this energetic muscle, this sensing muscle that's so important to mindfulness, be present with ourselves and the world, this level of communion with our internal and external landscapes, these incredible ecosystems that live within us and beyond us. So with the next round of breath, drawing in all of that capacity to sense and coming back to sensing your heart, bring it all back in, getting small, getting minute, getting particular, bringing all of this sensing back to the heart. Wow. And with your next round of breath here, sending it back out to those four corners, the ceiling, the floor, your fence, your dog, this space around you. Get big. Feel your body take up a little more space when your mind is doing the same already. Feeling that energetic body grow beyond your physical because of this sensing. All right. Now you know the drill, doing one more round here, bringing it all back into the heart, getting small, minute, particular. What's here? Can you notice? Now extending back out into the room, into your space, moving back out, filling all of this space up with you, this human superpower. Deep breath, taking up space. Beautiful. Just letting that focus now go, slowly, gently wandering, meandering back into your physical body. Feeling that seat beneath you, feeling that tall spine again, feeling the gentle ebb and flow of the breath as it moves, as it pleases. Taking a moment here in the physical body to give thanks to this human superpower that we so often overlook because it's always here. It's always been a part of our human experience and how we move through the world, but what a blessing it is. May we all bring our capacity to sense into this day with just a little more intention. Noticing ourselves, our body, our energetics, our space, our community, our environment, our landscapes, our breath, just a little bit more as we remember that we are always in communion with them, whether our attention is on them or not. Knowing there's no rush here, but whenever you are ready to rejoin the day, you can start to usher in a little bit of gentle movement into the body, the spine, the fingertips, the toes, and then ushering in this light back into the eyes by blinking them open. Welcome back to today.