Body Awareness
This week is focused on connecting to your body sensations and becoming aware of tension and relaxation. The body is your anchor this week. You can direct your attention to each part of the body from the outer skin to the workings of the muscles to directly experience the constantly changing state of being alive..
Sit with a relaxed and calm mind, observing the flow of sensations, without aversion, without expectations.
Joseph Goldstein
The Experience of Insight
Monday
Just after waking up
Finding Sitting Posture
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Just before practice
The Practice of Observing
Just before sleep
Isolation of Tension and Letting Go
Mere physical sitting is not enough. You have to sit carefully and attentively. Let your body sit and let your mind sit. Let your emotions sit; let your breathing sit, let your blood circulation sit. Let your entire being sit.
Taizan Maezumi
On Zen Practice
Tuesday
Just after waking up
Sitting Still in Good Posture
Just before practice
Mind/Body Dialogue
Just before sleep
Intentional Deep Relaxation
Eventually we see that mind and body aren't so separate, aren't so different.... We begin experiencing thought and mental states throughout our whole system; then, feeling and thinking become aspects of the same process, not so different from each other.
Stephen Levine
A Gradual Awakening
Wednesday
Just after waking up
Peaceful Abiding
Just before practice
Minimizing Effort
Just before sleep
Muscle Awareness
As meditative mindfulness develops, your whole experience of life changes. Your experience of being alive, the very sensation of being conscious becomes lucid and precise, no longer just an unnoticed background for your preoccupations.
Bhante Gunaratana
Mindfulness in Plain English
Thursday
Just after waking up
Walking Meditation
Just before practice
Finding the Middle Way
Just before sleep
Listening to the Body
How to calm the body? One way is through "sweeping meditation", in which you "sweep" your attention through the body concentrating on the sensations in the body as you do so. The body need to be noticed and accepted for what it is. So we bring into consciousness even the tensions, unpleasant sensations and sensation-less parts of the body....Then, as these formations start to calm down, we begin to feel much more aware of the silence of mind.
Ajahn Sumedo
The Way It Is
Friday
Just after waking up
Experiencing the Core
Just before practice
The Sweet Spot
Just before sleep
Exterior Body Scan