Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: The Center of Now

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

This meditation awakens our senses, then guides us to rest in the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, we are invited to relax back into full living presence, into that Beingness that is the center of now.  "Listening to and feeling, the changing flow - right here, right in the center of now."

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Let yourself become aware of this body sitting here breathing, gently scanning through and sensing where there might be some letting go, where you might release a little tension or tightness. Using the image and the sense of a smile, let a smile spread through your eyes, allowing the outer corners of the eyes to lift a little, softening the eyes, feeling the brow smooth, so you can sense a kind of receptivity, ease in bringing that same slight smile to the mouth, feeling the inside of the mouth filled with a smile, noticing if it's possible to relax

the tongue right down to the root, feeling and visualizing that smile spread through the heart. So you're smiling into the heart. Can you sense a growing space there? Openness. Imagine and feel that openness spreading through the chest, including the shoulders, so you can allow the shoulders to just relax back and down some, feeling the shoulders from the inside. See if you can notice the movement of energy, the liveliness, of sensation,

inside the shoulders, the space inside the shoulders, allowing the hands to rest in a very easy and effortless way, and softening the hands, and softening again, And again, feeling them from the inside out. Seeing if you can sense the tingling or vibrating that's there. Sensing an openness of the chest, feeling the chest from the inside out, the heart from the inside out.

Seeing if you can sense the aliveness of sensation there, energy, space, inside the heart, softening the belly, and sensing if you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one. And again, feeling from the inside out the aliveness and space inside the belly. The eyes still soft, a slight smile at the mouth, the hand soft and the belly soft. Scanning down and feeling the aliveness and space that fills the whole pelvic region.

and down through the legs. See if you can sense the length, the volume of your legs, of where your feet contact the floor, perhaps the sense of pressure or warm. Feeling your feet from the inside out, tingling and vibrating, and feeling your hands from the inside out, the aliveness there,

widening the attention, to include simultaneously this whole body, this whole living dance of energy, this field of sensation, widening still, listening to the sounds that are here, listening to and feeling, changing flow right here, right in the center of now. It doesn't take too long before you can notice that the attention drifts. off in mental commentary, time traveling to the future, the past. When you notice that's a opportunity to practice homecoming right back to the center of now, reawaken the senses, listening, softening again in the body, relaxing the shoulders,

the hands. So you're listening to and feeling the flow right here. To help sustain that presence, you might sense that part of what you're listening to and feeling is the movement of the breath, not forcing anything. It's more receptive. The breath breath breath breathes itself, relaxing with the inflow, relaxing with the outflow. letting the breath be a home base, a portal or gateway right into the center of now. Noticing where your attention is and if the mind is drifted,

exploring what it means to relax back, to reopen the attention, to hear sounds, listening, backs the body and relaxing your heart, rest, resting again in the inflow and outflow of the breath. And sensing the presence that's here, the awake openness to moment-to-moment experience, resting in the center of now.