I love Resting Awareness meditation technique. It is a simple and very relaxing form of meditation. And it can do wonders for your mind and body.r
If you’ve been looking for a simple way to relax and to improve your mental health, this exercise will do wonders for you.
Let me show you how to do Resting Awareness meditation, and its benefits.
How To Do Resting Awareness Meditation Technique
- Lie down comfortably on the ground. Make sure you have good posture and good spinal alignment. You might like to place your head on a soft pillow.
- Allow your attention to come to the soundscape. Simply become aware of the sounds around you. It is a gentle awareness. Do not force yourself to focus. Instead, simply allow the sounds to enter your mind freely, coming and going, without attachment. Be the hearing. Allow your entire existence to simply be one with the sounds around you.
- Inevitably, thoughts will come to mind. That is natural. Allow your thoughts to come and go freely, as they will. Do not attach to them. Do not attempt to repress them. Just let them come and go, and gently return your focus to the soundscape.
- When it feels natural to do so, allow your awareness to extend to the air around you. Be aware of the air brushing over your skin, around your face, and the air entering into your body as you breathe.
- Expand your awareness once more so you are aware of the sensations in your body. Again, do not cling to them or repress them, simply permit them to exist.
- You are currently meditating on the sounds around you and the feelings in your body. Remember, it is a resting awareness. Your mind is not active. You are simply allowing sounds and feelings to exist as they occur.
- Expand your field of awareness once more so you are aware of mental activity in the mind. Be aware of thoughts and feelings as they occur. Your mind is resting and you are allowing these thoughts and feelings to flow as they will. If momentary emotional currents arise, again, simply permit them to come and go as they will.
- Now take one more step. Be aware of all that is occurring within you and around you. Let your mind be boundless. Be aware of the infinity of space all around you. Let your mind be one with that space. There is no separation, no “You”, just existence. All is one.
The Wonderful Benefits of Resting Awareness
I can honestly say that Resting Awareness meditation is one of my favorites. I love teaching it in my online meditation lessons because it is a wonderfully relaxing meditation technique.
By resting the mind we step outside our usual mode of existence. We completely let go of the self. We experience the moment precisely as it is.
Do not be surprised if your breath becomes deep and slow during this resting awareness meditation. Indeed, one of the benefits of the method is that it slows the breathing rate down. This is a natural byproduct of relaxation.
And of course, we get the regular benefits of meditation too. We stimulate activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. We reduce amygdala activity. And we help both the mind and the body to heal.
But more than this, resting awareness is simply a wonderfully enjoyable experience. It is ever so refreshing to simply stop and exist, to experience the moment precisely as it is.
As you practice mindfulness you begin to cultivate a non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. And as you progress in meditation you will come to see a truer view of reality, one that is less distorted by thoughts, emotion, and beliefs.
Because you have been practicing mindfulness, you will start experiencing moments of Resting Awareness. These are moments when we simply perceive things for what they are, without judgment.
Jon Kabat Zinn calls it a “non-conceptual direct knowing of…aspects of human experience, beyond thinking, without separation or identification”.
If you would like to experience the state of Resting Awareness, book an online meditation lesson with me today.
Paul Harrison is a passionate meditation teacher who believes in genuine, authentic meditation. He has more than 15 years experience in meditation and mindfulness. He studied meditation in beautiful Oxford, UK, and Hamilton Ontario Canada, and earned his degree at Staffordshire University.
“My goal is to provide the most authentic meditation sessions so you can harness the power of your own mind for personal transformation” – Paul Harrison
