This week, Melli O’Brien guides us in a practice that invites us to pause and reconnect with the simplicity of being.
In the midst of life’s noise and distractions, this soundscape meditation creates space to step back and truly listen. By exploring the sensations of the body, the natural rhythm of the breath, and the sounds surrounding us, we’re reminded that peace is found in awareness, not in controlling what’s around us.
A Guided Meditation for Tuning Into the Present Soundscape
- Prepare for this practice by settling into as comfortable a position as you can find. Allow the body to be settled and as relaxed as possible here and at the same time seeing if you can remain upright rather than slouching. Let the way that you place your physical body reflect your intention to be alert and engaged in the practice for the next ten minutes.
- Allow your eyes to lightly close now, if that feels okay for you, or simply lower your gaze. Then bring awareness into the physical body and into the sensations at the contact points between your body and the surface beneath you. Move awareness in close and explore those sensations at the contact point. Then shift the focus to just feeling that gentle rhythm of the breath moving in the body and how the body is being gently rocked and cradled by the natural breath.
- Now, expand your attention out from the breath and bring the focus to the sounds all around you in this particular moment. Take in the sounds in all directions. Sounds in front. Sounds behind. To the sides. Above and below. Take in the whole surrounding soundscape at once.
- As the sounds continue to unfold and change, notice if there’s any tendency to mentally label the sounds as they come, or to judge whether you like them or not. Notice how easily sounds can create a story. If you notice this, see if it’s possible to drop any mental commentary and come back to listening to the sounds themselves. Listen as if hearing for the first time, as if each sound was totally new to you. Observe how each sound arises out of stillness. It unfolds and then dissipates back into stillness. Coming and going, constantly changing. Notice the transient nature of sounds.
- Now let go of listening to sounds and bring awareness to your internal world of thoughts. No need to try and control your thoughts in any way. Just let them come and go on their own, just as you did with sounds. Thoughts coming and going, like clouds passing across the sky of your awareness. Thoughts arising, unfolding, and dissipating back into stillness.
- As you continue to be aware of these mental events, notice that these thoughts are coming and going in your awareness. You are the observer, not the thoughts. You can even say that: Here I am watching. I am not the thoughts. I am not the mind.
- Now see if you can withdraw attention from observing the thoughts and simply sense into the awareness of the silent field in which all things come and go. The awareness that you are. This is not something you can grasp with the mind. You’re sensing into that silent beingness, that silent awareness that’s at the very core of all experience.
- Now, let yourself relax back into this silent center of your being. Drop into that still, unchanging depth of being. Allow everything else to arise and pass. Let life flow through you. Rest in the depths of being. It’s like you’re way down deep at the bottom of the ocean in this timeless space, and all that’s coming and going is surface phenomena. Things arising and passing, arising in passing.
- In these last few moments of practice, come back to gently focus on your breathing. Take a long, slow, deep breath in. As you breathe out, begin to wriggle the fingers and toes. Take a moment to notice how you feel after making this time for meditation. When you’re ready, open your eyes.
- Remember that no matter what happens today, you can always reconnect to the stillness and peace within by just taking a moment of mindfulness. Wishing you a great day.
