Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance
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WEEK 6: Mindfulness as a Way of Life
Mindfulness meditation: Body and breath (20 minutes) This will be a longer practise to let you deepen your awareness of body and breath, and will run for about 20 minutes. Just start by sitting comfortably, allowing your back to be long. Top of your head extending up through the roof, base of your spine down into the floor. Shoulders relaxed. And as the back of your neck lengthens, noticing how your chin tucks in just slightly. Noticing your posture, the way that you're sitting in the chair. The points of contact. And subtler sensations throughout the body. Just aware of the whole body and its sensations. As best you can greeting all sensations in the same way. Just bringing a sense of curiosity and openness, acceptance and friendliness to whatever you experience. And then bringing your attention down to the soles of your feet. Noticing all the different sensations showing up there right now. Maybe intense sensations, maybe areas of numbness, a relative lack of sensation. And just noticing what's actually showing up right now in the soles of your feet. Noticing your big toes, and your little toes, and all the toes in between. Your instep. Ankles, and heels. And also noticing your shins and calves, knees, thighs, hamstrings, and buttocks. And so holding both legs and both feet in awareness. Letting go of any tension that you find there. Then moving your awareness to your hands. Noticing your palms, and the back of your hands. Noticing your thumbs. The front and back, sides and tips. And the fingers. And both of your arms. And then letting your body continue to breathe naturally, bringing your awareness to your stomach. Noticing the sensations of expansion and contraction there. Clothes making contact with the skin. Noticing your chest, and your back. Aware of sensations on the surface, where the skin makes contact with the clothes. Then taking your awareness in deeper in through the layers of skin and muscles, bones, right into the centre of your chest. You may even notice the sensations of your heart beating. Moving your awareness to your shoulders, letting go of any tension that you
Š Monash University 2015
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find there. And noticing any reactions that you may have to any of the sensations that are showing up here. And just letting go of those reactions, judgments, thoughts. And then just opening to whatever sensations remain. Noticing the actual sensory qualities, location, size, intensity. Any movement, expansion and contraction. Temperature. And anything else that you can notice about any of the sensations showing up right now in your shoulders. And also noticing your neck. And then moving your awareness to your face. Letting go any tension in the jaw. Allowing the teeth to be slightly apart. And then noticing all the different sensations showing up on different parts of your face. And as best you can, greeting them all in the same way. And then bringing your attention to the tip of your nose. Noticing the air as it enters and leaves your body. Your body naturally knows how to breathe just enough all by itself. What we need to do is just bring awareness to the sensations of the breath entering and leaving the body. Following each in breath, and each out breath all the way through. Noticing the points where the breath turns around. The air, cooler on the way in, and warmer on the way out. Noticing which nostril you're breathing through the most. Resting your awareness lightly on the breath. Using the breath as an anchor. And letting everything else be there just as it is. Allowing thoughts to come and go, sensations elsewhere in the body to come and go. And then expanding your awareness around the nostrils to include your head, and your neck and shoulders, and your whole body. And so just aware of your body as a whole now, sitting and breathing. Just aware of the air entering and leaving different parts of your body. Allowing different sensations to come and go. Simply noticing them as they come and go. Aware of each in breath, and each out breath. Just sitting. And as we start to bring this practise to a close, just noticing what's different for you now compared to the start of the practise. In particular, paying attention to anything that seems useful or beneficial or pleasant about this practise. Really noticing that. And then once again becoming aware of the chair underneath you, noticing how it supports your weight. Becoming aware of your posture, and of your feet making contact with the floor. And then when you're ready, just gently allowing your eyes to open.
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