Just Ten Minutes of Meditation
Before you start your practice, find a relatively quiet place to sit where you will be uninterrupted.
You will also need a timer, set for ten minutes. You can use a timer on your phone, an app, or a simple kitchen timer.
Obviously, you cannot read and meditate at the same time. So briefly read through this document before you begin each session.
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•Once you have sat down and begun your timer, close your eyes.
Take a deep breath, focus on the air filling your lungs. Exhale, and feel all of the air leaving your body.
Inhale, and zero in on the sensation of the air moving across the skin of your nostrils. Exhale, and feel the air passing through your nostrils.
Inhale and lift your shoulders up toward your ears, stretching your spine up to the sky; grow as tall as possible.
Exhale and gently drop your shoulders down and back to open your chest. Your posture should be tall and open, not forced or strained.
Gently rock your body forward and back until you find a spot that is comfortable. Then, gently rock your body side to side to find your spot. Allow your body, not your mind, to tell you how to sit.
Finally, take another big inhale and push your belly outward in an exaggerated fashion, filling it with air, pushing your abdominal muscles to their limit.
Exhale, and allow your belly to relax into a comfortable resting position.
•For this practice you will first be using your awareness to directly experience the physical sensations of your body. Then you will experiment with listening to your intuition and allowing labels to arise without effort.
Begin by bringing your awareness to the top of your head, do your best to pay attention to the sensations you feel by experiencing them without labeling them.
Move your awareness from the top of your head to your face; pay attention to your eyes, the area around your eyes, your lips, your jaw, the back of your head and down your neck.
Follow from your neck to your right shoulder, using your awareness to travel all the way down your arm to your hand. Can you feel the palm of your hand, even your fingers, even your fingertips?
Travel from your right hand to your left hand, pay attention to the sensations in your fingers, up into your palm and the back of your hand, your wrist, up your forearm, inside your elbow, all the way up to your left shoulder.
Now move down the front of your body to your chest, the area in front of your heart, the front of your rib cage and finally to your belly.
•Be open to the experience of the sensations as they present themselves.
Bring your awareness back up to your shoulders and your upper back, all around your shoulder blades and in between them; for right now just feeling the physical sensations that arise in the area you are observing.
Keep observing your back. Move down to your low back and then to your hips, feeling the pressure on them from sitting.
Follow down your right leg, from hip to thigh to knee to calf to ankle to foot to toes, paying attention to all of the sensations. Can you feel the top of your foot, the sole of your foot, your toes? Move from your right foot to the left and travel up this leg: ankle, calf, knee, thigh and back to your hips.
•Once you have moved your awareness through your whole body bring your focus back to your head.
This time, instead of focusing on the sensations you feel on your skin or in your muscles, allow yourself to experience any sensations associated with your state of mind.
Continue to practice experiencing sensation without labeling. Simply feel what is going on in your mind as it presents itself.
Stay here for a little while, simply feeling, simply experiencing.
•Now, move your awareness to your heart.
Again, you will be going deeper than just the sensations of your skin or muscles -- allow yourself to experience your emotional state right now.
As you have observed with other sensations, if you stay here and practice non-judgemental awareness, you will see that what your experience shifts and changes as you observe it.
•Now, move your awareness downward to your belly.
You can also think of this as experiencing your gut; this is your state of intuition in this moment.
Sit with these sensations, practice experiencing what they feel like in each moment. Do your best to patiently and kindly witness your own internal state.
•Now, you will repeat this process; you will observe the state of your mind, your heart and your gut. As you move back through these three centers of information calm yourself with a deep breath and on your exhale open to your experience.
You will follow this with another breath, both inhale and exhale, as a quiet, receptive place where you can receive a label -- if there is one -- to give you more clarity.
Let’s begin. Move your awareness to your head. Deep inhale and calm.
Exhale and open to your experience. Feel the sensations associated with your state of mind.
Second breath: inhale and listen.
Exhale and listen. If there is a label or a name that can be associated with your state of mind allow yourself to catch it like a snowflake floating down into your mittened hands.
Move your awareness to your chest. Deep inhale and calm.
Exhale and open to your experience. Feel the sensations associated with your emotional state.
Second breath: inhale and listen.
Exhale and listen. If there is a label or a name that can be associated with your state of heart just receive it as gently as you would hold a soap bubble. A bright thing that exists only in the present moment.
Move your awareness to your gut. Deep inhale and calm.
Exhale and open to your experience. Feel the sensations associated with your intuitive state.
Second breath: inhale and listen.
Exhale and listen. If there is a label or a name that can be associated with your state of deeper knowing open to it like a rose in bloom, slow, gentle, sweet.
The labels that arise for you may be words. Or they may be communicated in another fashion, as through an association or a feeling of certainty.
•This is a practice of listening.
These labels are also temporary, just as temporary as your other sensations. These labels do not define you, they are just another way to understand yourself in the snapshot of one moment in time.
•You are practicing listening to yourself to know yourself. This is awareness.
(Repeat this process until your timer expires.)