Standing breathing meditation:
“Welcome to this mindful violin standing meditation
This practice is designed to slow down and still the body and the mind
It’s important to practice at a time when you won’t be interrupted by my messages,
Allowing this to be a time when you can be simply by yourself, just observing things as they are.
Arrange to stand with your violin and bow ready on a surface close to you, feet flat on the floor in a relaxed and upright posture. Gently, closing the eyes or lowering the gaze, just to minimize visual distractions and allow your body to quiet down.
And now if it is okay for your to bring awareness to the feeling of the body breathing.
You may notice the feeling of the breath moving into and out of the nostrils, or you may notice the feeling of the chest or the abdomen rising and falling as you breathe, or maybe you feel the breathing sensations someplace else in the body. So, wherever you can feel these sensations most clearly, simply rest your attention on that location as you feel each breath moving into the body and each breath moving out of the body.
When breathing in, knowing that you are breathing in, when breathing out, knowing that you are breathing out.
The breath may feel deep or shallow, it might feel long or short, the breaths may be rapid or slow, however, it is, it’s perfectly fine, there is no need to force the breath or change it in any way at all, just allowing the body on its own, as it’s been doing for you your whole life.
You’ve probably noticed by now that the mind will wander off into thoughts. Thoughts about the distant past or about something that happened before you started practice today, or it could be thoughts about the future, maybe you’re worrying about something, or planning something, and it’s not a problem at all when this happens, it is just what the mind does. So, whenever you notice that you’re no longer present with the awareness of the breath without judging yourself, simply bring your attention back and begin again. And perhaps noticing the thought of breathing and distinguishing it from the feeling of breathing.
It doesn’t matter how many times the mind wanders off; we bring it back gently to our breath without judgment.
And now expand the feel of your awareness to include the whole body, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, feeling the whole body standing here. Perhaps bringing awareness to sensations related to touch, such as the feeling of the feet against the floor, the arms hanging on both sides of your body, allowing the observation to not only include the breath, but the whole body standing here.
Observing the body in each moment and simply allowing things to be however they are,
And whenever you notice that your mind has wandered off, gently bring your attention back to the sense of the whole body standing here.
Whenever you are ready, you can slightly open your eyes to take your violin laying nearby, holding it as you would do when you are playing. Try to find a relaxed upright posture. There is no right or wrong posture, simply let your breathing guide you to a position that feels right for you.
Feel the contact of the instrument with your shoulder, the position of both hands, one holding the instrument and the other still resting, feel the gravity of your whole body, and continue breathing. Feel how the violin becomes a part of your body, like another extremity.
Continue now breathing and feeling the entire body with your instrument
If your mind wanders off, gently bring it back to your breathing and physical sensation. Your mind will always choose to wander, something will always come up to distract you. When that happens, without judging yourself or the situation, come back one more time.
Now, take your bow from where you left it and hold it normally, still leaving it by your side. Feel its weight between your fingers, and its shape, feel your thumb, your index, your middle finger, ring finger, and pinky.
Now, choose a string and start passing the bow at a pulse that accompanies your breathing. It is not necessary to try to produce a great sound, but one that accompanies your calmness, whatever feels right for your body. Bring focus to this open string sound and listen to it with interest and curiosity, without judgment.
Continue passing the bow. Do not try too hard, let the sound happen, and let your breathing, body, and bow connect
When your mind starts overanalyzing, you can bring your attention back to your breathing for a few seconds or you may choose to bring it back to the sound. Observe the sound qualities of intensity, pitch, timber, and duration of each bow. Remember that you do not need to control anything, but simply let it happen, moving, breathing, and listening.
If your body decides to modulate the sound, let it do it. If you feel that that is turning you analytical go back to your breathing or sound and stay, there.
As this mindful meditation comes to an end you may wish to acknowledge you’ve taken this time out for self-care, to step out of the busyness of your musical life and engage in a state of effortless doing, in a state of just being, of moment-to-moment awareness, intentionally making the time to be by yourself and with yourself fully and allowing the sense of self-care expand into your daily life and practice.”
Body scan violin meditation
“Welcome to this violin body scan meditation. This practice is designed to slow down and still the body and the mind
It’s important to practice at a time when you won’t be interrupted by my messages,
Allowing this to be a time when you can be simply by yourself, just observing things as they are.
Arrange to sit on a flat chair, with your violin and bow ready and close to you, feet flat on the floor, or a cushion on the floor in a relaxed and upright posture. Gently, closing the eyes or lowering the gaze, just to minimize visual distractions and allow your body to become still.
Now try to bring your attention to the places where your body is in contact with the surface where it is resting. Remember, there is no right way to feel your body, just notice each passing moment, accept what is happening in yourself, and see if it is possible to let go and allow things exactly as they are. Allowing yourself to be exactly as you are.
Now turn your attention to the toes of the left foot. Paying close attention to any sensations in the toes. Paying attention to the big toe, the little toe, and all of the toes in between of the left foot, you may notice the feeling of numbness or tingling, a sense of coolness or warmth, clothing or air against the skin of the toes, just feeling whatever is here to be felt, and if there are no sensations in the toes, just noting no sensations, there is nothing at all you need to do to create a sensation. And now turning attention to the toes of your right foot.
Going up in the body, bring your attention to your left ankle, noticing all the different parts of it, the front of the ankle, the side of the ankle, the back of the ankle, noticing the muscles surrounding the ankle and the joint itself, just noting any sensations in this part of the body, going up in your leg the lower leg, noticing the calve and the chin, the knee.
Now, move your attention to the right side, Pay attention to the big toe, the little toe, and all the toes in between the left foot. Move your attention through your leg as before and notice the sensations. If you notice your mind starts wandering, bring it back to the present experience, to the noticing of sensations in this part of the body.
Becoming aware of the hips, noticing the sensations in the hips. Moving your attention to the pelvis, noticing any sensations in the region of the body, becoming aware of the buttocks, becoming aware of the contact with the surface of the chair, and now bringing attention to the lower back. Observe with interest and curiosity whatever is here to be felt. And rather than tightening and resisting, perhaps allowing the body and the mind to open and soften instead. Moving your attention to the middle part of the back now, feel the contact between this part of the body and the floor. Going up to your upper back. Now experience the sensations in the entire length of the spine from your coccyx up to your neck. Allowing your attention to move to the stomach area, perhaps going back to the feeling of the abdomen rising and falling with the breath.
Bringing awareness to the ribcage, another place where you may feel movement as you breathe in and out, sometimes these sensations are very subtle so there is no need to force the breathing as do not feel anything, here, we just note no sensation, and leave it at that. Paying close attention to the chest area and the lungs within the chest. Filling the lungs with fresh air as you breathe and letting it goes with the out-breath. You may notice the beating of the heart in the chest, or there may be no sensations at all and that is also fine. And now breathing into the entire length of the torso, noticing how the whole torso feels.
Now allowing your attention to move to your left-hand fingers, and bring attention to your thumb, your pinky, ring finger, and middle finger. There may be a feeling of numbness, tingling, or air in your fingers, just noticing, without judging. Feel the joints muscles and tendons going up this arm and how they connect to your shoulder and back. Just notice whatever experience is here to be felt in the entire length of your left arm. Now allow your attention to move to your right-hand fingers, feeling any occurring sensations, noticing them as you move to your elbow and shoulder through the different parts of the right arm.
Whenever you are ready, you can slightly open your eyes to take your violin laying nearby, holding it as you would do when you are playing.
Try to find a relaxed upright posture. There is no right or wrong posture, simply let your breathing guide you to a position that feels right for you.
Feel the contact of the instrument with your shoulder, the position of both hands, one holding the instrument and the other still resting.
feel the gravity of your whole body and continue breathing. Feel how the violin becomes a part of your body, like another extremity.
Continue now breathing and feeling the entire body with your instrument
If your mind wanders off, gently bring it back to your breathing and physical sensation. Your mind will always choose to wander, something will always come up to distract you. When that happens, without judging yourself or the situation, come back one more time.
Now, take your bow from where you left it and hold it normally, still leaving it by your side. Feel its weight between your fingers, and its shape, feel your thumb, your index, your middle finger, ring finger, and pinky.
Now, choose a string and start passing the bow at a pulse that accompanies your breathing. It is not necessary to produce a great sound, but one that accompanies your calmness. Bring focus to this open string sound and listen to it with interest and curiosity, without judgment.
Continue passing the bow. Do not try too hard, let the sound happen, and let your breathing, body, and bow connect
When your mind starts overanalyzing, you can bring your attention back to your breathing for a few seconds or you may choose to bring it back to the sound. Observe the sound qualities of intensity, pitch, timber, and duration of each bow. Remember that you do not need to control anything, but simply let it happen, moving, breathing, and listening.
If your body decides to modulate the sound, let it do it. If you feel that that is turning you analytical go back to your breathing or sound and stay there.
As this mindful meditation comes to an end you may wish to acknowledge you’ve taken this time out for self-care, to step out of the busyness of your musical life and engage in a state of effortless doing, in a state of just being, of moment-to-moment awareness, intentionally making the time to be by yourself and with yourself fully and allowing the sense of self-care expand into your daily life and practice.”
Scripts
Below, you will find 3 kinds of meditation: sitting meditation, standing meditation, and body scan meditation.
Sitting breathing meditation
“Welcome to this mindful violin sitting meditation.
This practice is designed to slow down and still the body and the mind.
It’s important to practice at a time when you won’t be interrupted by my messages,
allowing this to be a time when you can be simply by yourself, just observing things as they are.
Arrange to sit on a flat chair, with your violin and bow ready and close to you, feet flat on the floor, or a cushion on the floor in a relaxed and upright posture. Gently, closing the eyes or lowering the gaze, just to minimize visual distractions and allow your body to become still.
And now if it is okay for your to bring awareness to the feeling of the body breathing.
You may notice the feeling of the breath moving into and out of the nostrils, or you may notice the feeling of the chest or the abdomen rising and falling as you breathe, or maybe you feel the breathing sensations someplace else in the body. So, wherever you can feel these sensations most clearly, simply rest your attention on that location as you feel each breath moving into the body and each breath moving out of the body.
When breathing in, knowing that you are breathing in, when breathing out, knowing that you are breathing out.
The breath may feel deep or shallow, it might feel long or short, the breaths may be rapid or slow, however, it is, it’s perfectly fine, there is no need to force the breath or change it in any way at all, just allowing the body on its own, as it’s been doing for you your whole life.
You’ve probable notice by now that the mind will wander off into thoughts. Thoughts about the distant past or about something that happened before you started practice today, or it could be thoughts about the future, maybe you’re worrying about something, or planning something, and it’s not a problem at all when this happens, it is just what the mind does. So, whenever you notice that you’re no longer present with the awareness of the breath without judging yourself, simply bring your attention back and begin again. And perhaps noticing the thought of breathing and distinguishing it from the feeling of breathing.
It doesn’t matter how many times the mind wanders off; we bring it back gently to our breath without judgment.
And now expand the feel of your awareness to include the whole body, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, feeling the whole body sitting here. Perhaps bringing awareness to sensations related to touch, such as the places where the body is in contact with the chair...the feeling of the feet against the floor, the hands against the surface they are resting on, allowing the observation to not only include the breath, but the whole body sitting here.
Observing the body in each moment and simply allowing things to be however they are,
And whenever you notice that your mind has wandered off, gently bring your attention back to the sense of the whole body sitting here.
Whenever you are ready, you can slightly open your eyes to take your violin laying nearby. holding it as you would do when you are playing.
Try to find a relaxed upright posture. There is no right or wrong posture, simply let your breathing guide you to a position that feels right for you.
Feel the contact of the instrument with your shoulder, the position of both hands, one holding the instrument and the other still resting, feel the gravity of your whole body, and continue breathing. Feel how the violin becomes a part of your body, like another extremity.
Continue now breathing and feeling the entire body with your instrument
If your mind wanders off, gently bring it back to your breathing and physical sensation. Your mind will always choose to wander, something will always come up to distract you. When that happens, without judging yourself or the situation, come back one more time.
Now, take your bow from where you left it and hold it normally, still leaving it by your side. Feel its weight between your fingers, its shape, feel your thumb, your index, your middle finger, ring finger, and pinky…
Now, choose a string and start passing the bow at a pulse that accompanies your breathing. It is not necessary to produce a great sound, but one that accompanies your calmness. Bring focus to this open string sound and listen to it with interest and curiosity, without judgment.
Continue passing the bow. Do not try too hard, let the sound happen, and let your breathing, body, and bow connect
When your mind starts overanalyzing, you can bring your attention back to your breathing for a few seconds or you may choose to bring it back to the sound. Observe the sound qualities of intensity, pitch, timber, and duration of each bow. Remember that you do not need to control anything, but simply let it happen, moving, breathing, and listening.
If your body decides to modulate the sound, let it do it. If you feel that that is turning you analytical go back to your breathing or sound and stay there.
As this mindful meditation comes to an end you may wish to acknowledge you’ve taken this time out for self-care, to step out of the busyness of your musical life and engage in a state of effortless doing, in a state of just being, of moment-to-moment awareness, intentionally making the time to be by yourself and with yourself fully and allowing the sense of self-care expand into your daily life and practice.”
Appendixes: Appendix A / Appendix B / Appendix C / Scripts