Transcription
Let's begin the afternoon with some standing together. Some of you at the front may want to step up, because we're going to be doing a little bit of mindful movement. If there are any spaces, you can move into them. So beginning just by standing in whatever posture is comfortable for you. It might be feet together, feet apart. Let the weight drop into your feet. Feel how that feels. Feel the sensations of contact with the floor. Bringing mindfulness, an aliveness of presence, to those sensations.
Now, is it possible to stay in touch with those sensations and actually let the mindfulness expand up the body to include the whole body? So this whole field of sensations arising and passing, moving, flickering, dancing, we're open to all of that. Just mindful of the bodily sensation right now. Coming, going, changing. Slowly reaching the arms up directly above the head, and feel how that feels. Can you bring mindfulness to the sensations? How do the hands feel? The arms, the armpits, the belly? Can you still feel the sensations of contact with the floor?
Then leaning over a little bit to the left so that the right side of the body is opened up, there's a stretch. But mindful of the sensations. What does that feel like? That whole side of the body from the waist up, but even down into the leg, and up into the tips of the fingers. And then leaning the other way. Letting the mindfulness be fluid to include, to meet the changing sensations. And back towards the left. Towards the right. And then centring again, really reaching up towards the ceiling, feeling that stretch, meeting it, open to it with mindfulness of the sensations.
Now, be careful with your body, but if it's okay for you, you can make a gentle arch with your lower back, reaching your hands behind you, or you may want to put your hands on your lower back to support your back. So whatever's right for your body. Please don't strain yourself. And then feeling the sensations. Arch the head back gently, and feeling the sensations in the throat and the chest and the hands. And letting the breath help you. Breathing into the stretch, mindful of the sensations. Still in touch with the sensations of the floor.
And then bringing the hands down to parallel with the floor. Watch your neighbour's head. And just feeling now the band of sensation from one set of fingertips to the other. Feel the stretch right across the chest. Mindful. And if it's okay, you can move your hands a little bit behind you a few inches, and opening up the chest just by moving the hands back. How does that feel right across the chest? And again, letting the breath help you to open. And then letting the hands come down. Shaking them out. How does that feel? What's the sensation in the hands as they're shaking out? Shaking out the right leg. How does that feel? Shaking out the left leg. Again, bringing mindfulness. How does that feel in the foot? Shaking out both legs. [laughter] Maybe some gentle twists. Letting the arms move about you. And again feeling into the fingertips, the lower back, the sensations with the floor. Just letting the mindfulness be very fluid, very open, receptive.
And then coming to a standstill. And just whatever your body feels like it needs to do right now. But being alive to the play of sensations as it does so. And then coming back to a standstill. And again, feeling the sensations of contact with the floor, the pressure, the warmth, the coolness in the feet. Allowing the mindfulness to expand to include the whole body as well as the feet. And then can it open even further? Expand way beyond the body, a very open mindfulness, to include sounds. So body sensations, changing, flickering, and sounds coming and going. The awareness just open to it all, receptive to it all, letting it come, letting it go, present.
So you can move into the sitting posture. See if you can let the mindfulness be fluid as you move postures.
