Turning the Volume Down Sensory Meditation

This week we are turning our sensory experience down and bringing our awareness in. If you struggle with turning your senses off, try this practice to help you pull your awareness inwards.

Meditation Tip of the Week

Instead of fighting with your thoughts, just let your thoughts come and go like watching clouds move across the sky - light, easy, no rush.

Here’s a classic Zen illustration:

If you stir up a pond and the water gets muddy and unclear, what do you do to make it clear again? Is there anything you can do?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You just let it be and it clears itself.

Letting your thoughts be, you come into harmony with your thoughts. You will notice them, and they won’t bother you. You won’t be afraid of them, because you know that they will come and leave you. You won’t be identified with them, or let them control you. You will see, you are not your thoughts. You have thoughts and emotions - but you are not your thoughts and emotions.

Journal Prompts

Now that we have finished up exploring Sensory Meditation - what are your feelings about this?

Take a few minutes to sit down and think about what worked and maybe didn't work for you and consider how you might choose to use this in your life and/or your home meditation practice. Here are a few prompts to get you started:

How was your experience with this style of meditation?

When/how/why would you use this meditation?

What kinds of emotional or physical responses did you have to this style of meditation?

How will you include this in your practice? Do you see yourself using this often or just occasionally?

Was this style difficult for you or very easy? Why and in what ways?

As we wind down sensory meditation - take a few moments to look back over your personal experience. You can journal or express your experience in any way you feel comfortable. Here are a few prompts to get you started:

Before you started sensory meditation, what did you think that meant?

How did you connect to your senses in these meditations and how has it changed your experience with your senses on a daily basis (or has it?)?

How and when can you see yourself using this style to help you in your daily life and home meditation practice?

What was your unique response both during and after each of our sensory meditations - explore this more if you like!

Extra Reading

Stopping and connecting to others, really listening and paying attention to what is in our sensory experience right now can change our view dramatically.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2046481915666263