Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

CHAPTER 6: MINDFULNESS ON THE CUSHION • 129

PRACTICE SCRIPT 6.7: THE SPACE BETWEEN

Approximate timing: 2 minutes for introduction; 20 minutes for practice

Start with the Getting Seated for Meditation Script. Take a few moments to bring your awareness
to your body. How do you feel? Pause and be present here in this moment. Take a deep breath in and
exhale.
Bring your awareness to your breath. Take a few breaths and observe. Notice if it is even, regular,
and smooth. Your breath will be your object of concentration for this meditation. You will continually
bring yourself back to your breath as an anchor. Do not try to change your breath. Simply be present
to it. Notice it.
As you breathe, you will become aware of sense impressions. These can be things that you see,
smell, taste, hear, or feel on your skin or inside your body. You may hear children outside, birds chirp-
ing, a lawn mower or snow blower going. You may have a candle lit and notice a flicker in the flame
and feel a slight breeze on your skin. Your stomach may grumble or your muscles tighten. These are
sense impressions. Notice them as they arise. As they arise into your awareness, say to yourself, “I am
hearing the chirping of the birds,” or “I am feeling the grumbling of my stomach.” Notice that these
sense impressions arise and pass away and that your breath is a constant. Notice this and bring your
awareness back to your breath.
As your sense impressions arise, you will also notice that they feel pleasant, neutral, or
unpleasant. Notice this. Notice how your brain tends to automatically label your sense impres-
sions. Perhaps you hear the birds chirping and you feel a feeling-tone, a pleasant feeling-tone. Or
maybe you hear a lawn mower, and you feel an unpleasant feeling-tone. Notice this. Notice that
the feeling tones arise and pass away as well. The feeling-tone comes to your awareness; it peaks;
then it softens and passes away. As you notice the sense impressions and the feeling-tones, allow
them to be and bring your awareness back to your breath.

Feeling-Tone

Pleasant,

Neutral,

Unpleasant

Stimulus

Mental Event or

Sense

Impression

Your Power

to Choose

Your

Response

Notice, Attack,

Avoid, or Allow

Response

(a) Filled with

intention and

purpose, or

(b) a default

reaction to

stimuli

List Stimuli: Feeling-Tone: Choice: Response:

FIGURE 6.8 Cultivating growing awareness and change.

(continued )