Sounds and Thoughts

So settling into a comfortable position for this meditation. Allowing your eyes to gently close. And as a way of gathering awareness to the present moment, just taking three deep, slow, full breaths. Breathing in and following the breath for its full journey in. And breathing out, following the breath for its full journey out.

And two more like that. And now just letting go of any control of the breath. Allowing the breath to be natural. And expanding the focus of your attention out to the sounds around you. And sounds in all directions.

And having a sense of taking in the whole surrounding soundscape at once. Allowing this dance of sound to unfold in awareness. And noticing the changing nature of sounds. How sounds are transient and fleeting. They may have a beginning.

they unfold, and then dissolve back into stillness. And now letting this awareness of sounds fade into the background and bringing your awareness now to the internal world and listening to thoughts. And bringing your full attention now to observing and listening to thoughts. They might be thoughts about problems, plans or worries, or perhaps about what we're doing now. There might be negative, happy or neutral thoughts.

Just see if it's possible to simply observe them all as they come, stay awhile, and then go. So just letting the dance of thoughts unfold. There's no need to try to control your thoughts in any way. So just letting them come and go on their own, just like you did with sounds. And now withdrawing attention from the thoughts and noticing the still spaciousness in which every thought is born into, unfolds in, and then dissipates back into.

So this is not something you can grasp with the mind, but simply sensing into that stillness that's there at the heart of who you are. And just resting for a few moments in that awareness and just letting the dance of thoughts unfold. And then taking a deep breath in. And breathing out, begin to wriggle fingers and toes. And then opening the eyes.

And as you go about your day to day, just remembering that no matter where you find yourself and no matter what happens, the breath is always available to you as an anchor back to that awareness and to a sense of stillness, wholeness, and inner peace. And wishing you a wonderful day.