May 6, 2025 • 28 mins
What happens when we pause to notice what's happening within us? Freedom emerges in that space between stimulus and response.
This guided mindfulness meditation introduces a simple yet profound practice of noticing—bringing awareness to breath, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions without judgment. Unlike many meditation practices that feel disconnected from everyday life, this approach is designed to be integrated into your daily activities, creating more choice in how you respond to challenging situations.
We explore the fascinating concept of confirmation bias—how our existing beliefs create filters through which we interpret all experiences. When someone doesn't respond warmly to us, do we automatically assume it confirms our unworthiness? Or can we create space to consider alternative perspectives? The practice of noticing helps us recognize these interpretive patterns as they arise.
The physical component of mindfulness serves as our anchor. By bringing attention to bodily sensations—the weight of our body supported by a chair, the movement of breath, areas of tension or relaxation—we establish presence that grounds us in reality. These physical cues often reveal emotional states operating below conscious awareness, giving us valuable information about what's happening internally.
Throughout the meditation, we bring God into our practice of noticing, asking for guidance and understanding with the sensations we experience. This spiritual dimension adds depth to our awareness, connecting us to wisdom beyond our limited perspectives.
Whether you're new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner, this episode offers practical guidance for cultivating presence that transforms reactivity into conscious choice. Try the practice today and notice how it changes your experience of everyday moments. What patterns might you recognize when you pause to notice what's happening within?
Music by Song Channel Music. Listen at SongChannelMusic.com
Go to WelcomingGod.com to subscribe to our email newsletter and receive updates about all things Welcoming God.
Get your Free to Be ebook by signing up for the Free to Be newsletter.
988 suicide and crisis hotline to call info here.
PsyhcologyToday.com find a therapist page here.
Internal Family Systems find a therapist page here.
Check out Jim and Jori Manske of Non-Violent Communication here.
Check out Eckhart Tolle's work here.
Check out Amber Elizabeth Gray's work here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Haykel (00:00):
Hey everyone, just to let you know, sometimes I do
use swear words in theseepisodes and sometimes we may be
talking about adult content,just in case you're listening
around little ones or peoplethat might not appreciate that.
Just to give you a heads up.
Thanks so much and let's getinto it.
Hi, and thanks for joining meon Welcoming God.
(00:28):
God, thank you.
Please guide our meditationsession today wherever you want
(00:53):
it to go, for the best for all,for the greater good, for your
glory, god, in all spaces,places, times, dimensions and
realities, with the least amountof suffering and the most
amount of joy.
Thank you, thank you, god.
So today we are going toexplore a practice, a
(01:20):
mindfulness meditation practice.
This is not centering prayer.
This is more a mindfulnessmeditation practice of noticing,
so that we can begin to bringourselves into the present
moment more fully and begin toexperience maybe some space from
(01:47):
normal reactivities that we mayhave, maybe some space for
emotions that we're feeling,maybe some calm or peacefulness.
Maybe it brings up an awarenessof more activity in our minds,
(02:08):
within ourselves, that we mightneed some support to deal with.
Whatever comes up, for you knowthat you have the resources to
get support.
I am a firm believer in goodtherapy, professional therapy
with a certified professionaltherapist.
(02:29):
I have a spiritual coach that Iwork with frequently.
I also am a part of some reallygreat online communities that I
feel very supported by andchallenged by at times.
But you know, learning to speakup and speak up when things
(02:51):
don't feel good, and findresolution and take
responsibility for my own partto play or seeing how I'm
showing up to experience things.
So, whatever your needs are,there are resources out there
for support and I encourage youto seek that support.
This is not a substitute fortherapy, for professional
(03:19):
support, if you really do needsupport.
I am not a therapist, so Ireally encourage you as, as you
go through these types ofpractices, if you start to feel
like gosh, I really needsomebody to talk to.
I'm having some difficultthoughts, emotions, feelings.
(03:40):
Things are coming up from thepast.
I don't know how to deal withthese things.
Things are coming up from thepast.
I don't know how to deal withthese things.
Search out, talk to friends,talk to people that you know,
trusted people that you knowthat might be able to point you
towards good support in yourarea.
(04:00):
You can look atpsychologytodaycom.
You can go to the InternalFamily Systems website for IFS
therapists in your area.
There's a ton of resources outthere and, of course, there is
988, which is a crisis hotline.
If you really just are incrisis and need support right
(04:21):
away, please do utilize thatcalling service 988.
So, and that is in the US theUSA.
I'm not sure what else is inthe rest of the world, but, yeah
, I know you have the resourcesto search out the support that
(04:45):
you need and we'll do thatwhenever you need to.
So whenever we're going into amindfulness practice meditation,
mindfulness practice Iencourage you to do this when
you are not doing anything else.
(05:06):
It is unsafe to meditate in adeeply relaxed state while
you're doing anything other thanjust sitting and being present
with yourself.
So, no driving, no operatingheavy machinery, no taking care
(05:28):
of little kids or cooking a mealor whatever.
Make sure that you have timeand space to be uninterrupted
for at least the next five to 10minutes, and you can always
communicate to people in yourhousehold that you're taking
this time and only to interruptyou if it's an emergency, so
(05:49):
that you really can beuninterrupted.
Sometimes, if we're inmeditation and we get deeply
relaxed, if we get interruptedout of that abruptly, it can
feel jarring to the system.
So it's nice to be able to havethe space and time to go into a
meditation, be present in yourmeditation, come out of it
(06:13):
gently, bring yourself fullyback into reality in the present
moment, out of your meditation,so that you can enter back into
life from a meditative state,bringing some of that into your
life and flowing back into yourlife with more flow than just
(06:34):
reactivity, jumping back intolife as it is or was.
So that was a lot ofinformation and I just invite
you to check in with yourselfright now.
How are you feeling in thismoment?
What's going on for you rightnow?
And just noticing.
(06:59):
So this is how we're going tostart our meditation today.
So if you can't meditate rightnow, I invite you to pause the
podcast and set a reminder inyour phone to come back to it
later today when you have amoment of uninterrupted space to
be with yourself and do thisguided meditation.
(07:20):
And, of course, you are in fullcontrol.
During this guided meditation,you can keep your eyes open.
If it's safe and you feelcomfortable to close your eyes,
you can do that.
If you want to just soften yourgaze, look down at the ground
and just soften your gaze, notreally focusing on anything.
(07:40):
You can try that.
You can do this meditationstanding up, sitting down, lying
down whatever's good and rightfor your body.
If you're seated and you'reable to have your feet flat on
the floor, that is nice, butit's not necessary.
So it's kind of like learninghow to be present in whatever
(08:04):
state we're in.
That, to me, is the goal ofmindfulness and meditation is
learning to bring this presenceinto my life, not just to do it
when I have uninterruptedmoments, but we're cultivating
the practice in theseuninterrupted moments.
And when I bring it into mylife, it's not like I'm standing
there in a group of people andall of a sudden I just close my
(08:25):
eyes and go into a five-minutemeditation.
That would be really differentfor people.
They'd be like are you okay?
But it might mean that whileI'm standing with a group of
people, if I get triggered Ifeel emotionally triggered about
something I might be able tostop within my own self and just
notice that I still look likeyou know, my eyes are open and
(08:48):
everything, but I've just turnedmy gaze inward to pay attention
to myself a little bit and justdo some of this noticing
meditation that we're going todo right now to help bring
myself back down to a centeredplace so that I can re-engage
with the group in an outward waythat feels good and right to me
(09:08):
.
So that could be an idea ofbringing it out into your life.
Maybe it shows up as you'rewashing the dishes, where you
become very present with thepractice of washing dishes.
Or while you're driving a car.
You become very present whileyou're driving the car, noticing
(09:29):
everything that you're doing,noticing the traffic around you.
You're totally focused, totallythere, totally present and
aware, but you're not going intosome deep meditation.
You're actually bringing theidea of noticing presence into
your active day.
So I know that might seemcontradictory to what I said
(09:50):
before, where you shouldn't bedriving while you're meditating
or doing anything else.
That is absolutely correct.
You should not be practicingdeep meditation while you're
doing anything else.
You should just be able to havethe time and space to deeply go
into a meditation when you'redoing a deep meditation.
(10:11):
But we can bring what we learnfrom these deep meditations into
our daily lives and bring someof that presence and noticing
awareness into our dailyactivities, which actually can
give us more choice in how we'reresponding to life.
I learned this from Jim andJory Manske of Nonviolent
(10:34):
Communication.
They're trained facilitators inNVC and I took this course with
them.
I think it was called FromReactivity to Choice and it
changed my life and I actuallywrote an ebook called Free to Be
.
That was highly influenced fromwhat I learned from them, as
(10:55):
well as through other teacherslike Eckhart Tolle and other
people as well, so you can getthat on my website as well.
But this practice of being ableto be present in the moment,
noticing how we feel, noticingthe sensations of our bodies, it
can give us a lot ofinformation and it can also give
(11:17):
us a great sense of freedom tochoose, to have a choice in our
actions.
Now there are reactions thatare just automatic and those are
there for safety and survivalmechanisms, that kind of thing.
So those types of things arehappening without much thought
(11:39):
on our part, and that's just anatural part of being a human.
What I'm talking about arehabitual emotional reactions or
habitual thought patterns thatshow up in certain situations.
If you've ever heard ofconfirmation bias, this was
something I only learned aboutmaybe eight years ago or so,
(12:04):
maybe even less and confirmationbias, from my little
understanding of it, is that wehave these beliefs within
ourselves and then we look atthe world through these belief
lenses and we use the lens thatwe're viewing the world from
these beliefs through to confirmthat the beliefs are actually
(12:28):
true.
So if someone doesn't respond ina super friendly way to me and
I already feel like people don'tlike me or I'm not included,
I'm not a part of, I don'tbelong, if somebody responds to
me in a way that doesn't feelwelcoming or warm, I can say oh
see, see, it's true, I am notdot, dot, dot, dot dot.
(12:54):
It's true, I am not dot, dot,dot, dot dot.
When that person might just betotally in their own mind,
thinking about something else,and they're they have no
intention of not being welcomingor warm, but it's just how they
responded in that one moment.
But the belief in me has takenthat moment to confirm the
(13:15):
belief in me, and so it's goodto be able to start to notice
these things, sensations in mybody which lead me to what
emotions are coming up, lead meto the thoughts that may be
(13:38):
causing some of these emotionsand sensations in my body, some
of the things I'm experiencingin the outer world how those
impact me.
So doing a noticing meditationcan be very powerful.
So I hope this is all clear, asclear as it can be, that we are
(14:01):
going to go into a noticingmeditation.
Do it when you're in a safespace to do so, where you can be
uninterrupted, and we'll beginnow.
And we'll begin now so, as youfind yourself, wherever you are,
(14:32):
in the safe space and time ofuninterruption for at least the
next five or so minutes, Iinvite you to notice.
Just notice your physicalbreath.
It doesn't have to change, itcan, but it doesn't have to.
(15:00):
Just noticing your breathmoving.
Notice your physical body, howit feels on whatever surface is
supporting you.
Are you seated, are you sittingright now?
How does your body feel sittingon the chair that you're
sitting in?
Or are you sitting seated onthe ground or on a meditation
(15:21):
cushion or block?
How does your physical bodyfeel where it's physically
sitting right now?
And just notice all of thesurfaces of the skin that are
touching something.
How do those areas of the bodyfeel?
What does it feel like to besupported by this structure, by
(15:48):
the ground underneath you?
And if you're standing or lyingdown, you can do the same thing
, just noticing how yourphysical body feels right now,
supported by the surface thatyou are standing on or laying on
(16:09):
.
(16:39):
And again, we're just bringingour inner eyes, our inner ears.
Like I had mentioned severalepisodes ago from Feminine Power
, the course that I took, they'dsay you know, let's turn on our
inner ears.
We're getting curious about howwe are in our interior world,
inside of ourselves, justnoticing how does this feel,
being curious.
This is nothing major.
I'm not asking you to go intoany deep emotions or thoughts.
We're just noticing these basicthings.
We're just noticing these basicthings.
(17:07):
So, just continuing to againbring your attention, noticing
the physical body, how it feelsright now, noticing the physical
breath moving in and out of thebody, how that feels, and
basically doing a baselinecheck-in.
I learned that from a movementtherapist, amber Elizabeth Gray.
She talked about doing abaseline check-in at the
(17:31):
beginning of a practice to seewhere you are right now.
Check in at the beginning of apractice to see where you are
right now.
And this is all justinformation, just noticing,
(17:52):
bringing our noticing presence.
And if you find that the mindis super active or you're
feeling some sensations thatfeel challenging, triggering,
hard to feel, just again.
What's it like to come back tonoticing the breath, the
physical body supported by theearth, the ground underneath you
(18:16):
and whatever other supportsystem you're using a chair, the
floor, a couch, a bed, whateveryou're seated on, lying on,
standing on just noticing howdoes it feel to feel safe, the
(18:36):
support of this underneath you.
And let's just take anothermoment to bring our awareness to
(18:58):
any physical sensations youmight feel on the body.
What physical sensations do youfeel Do you notice right now?
Physical sensations tingling,prickling, warmth, cold, tension
, relaxation, tension relaxation, tightness, smoothness,
(19:29):
softness.
What physical sensations do younotice right now in your
physical body?
And again, we're just bringingthat existential detective to
(19:53):
the noticing, opening up ourcuriosity, our inner ears, our
inner eyes, just to noticewhat's going on.
You know this witnessingpresence Eckhart Tolle talks
about.
What is it like to just noticewhat we're sensing in the body,
the sensations that we feel.
And if you feel any sensationsthat really want your attention,
what's it like to just breathe,breathe into that sensation,
(20:19):
notice it.
You can call God into it.
God, please help me with thissensation.
God, what do you want me tounderstand, to know about the
sensation, always talking to Godabout it so that you know
(20:41):
you're getting the direct, clearinformation from the one true
source, not from anything elsefrom the one true source, and
allowing God to share whateverGod wants you to know.
From the sensation Good.
And just continuing to breatheto know from the sensation Good.
(21:02):
And just continuing to breathe,notice your physical body, feel
yourself connected to theground, to the earth, and you
(21:30):
may notice that, as you'renoticing a physical sensation
and giving it some space bybreathing as you notice it, by
asking God to help youunderstand it, stand it.
You may notice that thesensation begins to shift or
change.
It might disappear completely,and that's totally normal.
It might not change as well.
(21:51):
So you know it could beanything but just noticing.
We are this witnessing presenceright now.
Good, good.
So just take another moment tocheck back in to this baseline
(22:16):
check-in, to see how you feelnow.
How does your body feel?
How's your breath moving in andout of your body?
How do the sensations in yourbody feel?
Has anything shifted?
Has anything changed since thebeginning of this meditation?
(22:40):
Good, and as we come out ofthis meditation, I invite you to
(23:25):
just wiggle your fingers andyour toes, take some deeper
breaths, open up your eyes, lookaround you, notice where you
are, bring yourself fully backinto the present moment.
And I invite you, as you moveaway from this meditation.
What is one way that you willremember this noticing,
witnessing presence in yourdaily life?
We're not going into a deepmeditation in the middle of our
(23:50):
random daily life.
We're just bringing a littlebit of that noticing presence
into our daily life so that wecan notice.
Oh, I feel some tension in mybody.
Oh, my breath is shallow.
Oh, let me notice my feet onthe ground, let me notice myself
sitting in this chair.
If you're in a meeting or eatingout somewhere, at the dinner
(24:12):
table, at home, at your desk atwork, just bringing a little bit
of this noticing presence intoyour daily life, how will you do
that and when?
So that you can begin to bemore present as you move through
(24:33):
the day and when you have timeand space to go into a
meditation, like we just did, ina safe way, where you're not
doing anything else, and you cando that by yourself,
uninterrupted.
Or maybe you have a partner.
(24:58):
You want to go into a deepermeditation so that you can
cultivate this noticing presencethroughout your daily life, in
your normal life, not whileyou're meditating, but just as
you're moving through your life,and what does that do for you?
So I'm excited for your journeywith this meditation.
(25:24):
You can use this whenever you'dlike and if you have any
comments or questions about this, you can comment question
through the website,welcominggodcom.
Just scroll all the way down tothe bottom of the page to the
Get In Touch section and send mean email there, and this
(25:46):
episode culminates our firstseason of Welcoming God.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I'm super happy and excitedthat you've been here.
I am looking forward to seasonnumber two and I'm currently
deciding, discerning with God,when that will come out.
(26:07):
So stay tuned for anannouncement about that.
And the best way to stay intouch with me is through the
Welcoming God email newsletter.
So if you'd like to be a partof that, go to welcominggodcom
and there's a button in the topbanner of the web page.
You can click that button tosign up for our newsletter and
(26:31):
you'll be updated about allthings Welcoming God, because I
do have some other fun things inthe mix coming up and I look
forward to sharing that with youas well through the email
newsletter.
Thank you so much for beinghere today and please share this
(26:51):
with someone that will benefitfrom it as well.
I look forward to seeing you onthe next episode and take care.
Hey everyone, sarah Haeckel herefrom Welcoming God, a podcast
for spiritual seekers.
This is a legal disclaimer tosay that this podcast is not a
(27:13):
substitute for therapy orprofessional help.
I am not a trained therapist.
I also have not studiedtheology in a formal setting.
This podcast is purely foreducational, inspirational
purposes, to share the goodnessof welcoming God back into my
life and all of the things thatI'm learning on this journey.
(27:35):
So thank you for joining mehere and I look forward to
seeing you on the next episode.
Thanks for joining me onanother episode of Welcoming God
(27:58):
.
Please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen and
consider leaving us a review, asit helps more people find and
benefit from this show.
Music by Song Channel Music.
You can listen and hear more atsongchannelmusiccom.
Until we meet again, aloha nuiloa, take care and God bless.
Hey everyone, just to let you know, sometimes I do
use swear words in theseepisodes and sometimes we may be
talking about adult content,just in case you're listening
around little ones or peoplethat might not appreciate that.
Just to give you a heads up.
Thanks so much and let's getinto it.
Hi, and thanks for joining meon Welcoming God.
(00:28):
God, thank you.
Please guide our meditationsession today wherever you want
(00:53):
it to go, for the best for all,for the greater good, for your
glory, god, in all spaces,places, times, dimensions and
realities, with the least amountof suffering and the most
amount of joy.
Thank you, thank you, god.
So today we are going toexplore a practice, a
(01:20):
mindfulness meditation practice.
This is not centering prayer.
This is more a mindfulnessmeditation practice of noticing,
so that we can begin to bringourselves into the present
moment more fully and begin toexperience maybe some space from
(01:47):
normal reactivities that we mayhave, maybe some space for
emotions that we're feeling,maybe some calm or peacefulness.
Maybe it brings up an awarenessof more activity in our minds,
(02:08):
within ourselves, that we mightneed some support to deal with.
Whatever comes up, for you knowthat you have the resources to
get support.
I am a firm believer in goodtherapy, professional therapy
with a certified professionaltherapist.
(02:29):
I have a spiritual coach that Iwork with frequently.
I also am a part of some reallygreat online communities that I
feel very supported by andchallenged by at times.
But you know, learning to speakup and speak up when things
(02:51):
don't feel good, and findresolution and take
responsibility for my own partto play or seeing how I'm
showing up to experience things.
So, whatever your needs are,there are resources out there
for support and I encourage youto seek that support.
This is not a substitute fortherapy, for professional
(03:19):
support, if you really do needsupport.
I am not a therapist, so Ireally encourage you as, as you
go through these types ofpractices, if you start to feel
like gosh, I really needsomebody to talk to.
I'm having some difficultthoughts, emotions, feelings.
(03:40):
Things are coming up from thepast.
I don't know how to deal withthese things.
Things are coming up from thepast.
I don't know how to deal withthese things.
Search out, talk to friends,talk to people that you know,
trusted people that you knowthat might be able to point you
towards good support in yourarea.
(04:00):
You can look atpsychologytodaycom.
You can go to the InternalFamily Systems website for IFS
therapists in your area.
There's a ton of resources outthere and, of course, there is
988, which is a crisis hotline.
If you really just are incrisis and need support right
(04:21):
away, please do utilize thatcalling service 988.
So, and that is in the US theUSA.
I'm not sure what else is inthe rest of the world, but, yeah
, I know you have the resourcesto search out the support that
(04:45):
you need and we'll do thatwhenever you need to.
So whenever we're going into amindfulness practice meditation,
mindfulness practice Iencourage you to do this when
you are not doing anything else.
(05:06):
It is unsafe to meditate in adeeply relaxed state while
you're doing anything other thanjust sitting and being present
with yourself.
So, no driving, no operatingheavy machinery, no taking care
(05:28):
of little kids or cooking a mealor whatever.
Make sure that you have timeand space to be uninterrupted
for at least the next five to 10minutes, and you can always
communicate to people in yourhousehold that you're taking
this time and only to interruptyou if it's an emergency, so
(05:49):
that you really can beuninterrupted.
Sometimes, if we're inmeditation and we get deeply
relaxed, if we get interruptedout of that abruptly, it can
feel jarring to the system.
So it's nice to be able to havethe space and time to go into a
meditation, be present in yourmeditation, come out of it
(06:13):
gently, bring yourself fullyback into reality in the present
moment, out of your meditation,so that you can enter back into
life from a meditative state,bringing some of that into your
life and flowing back into yourlife with more flow than just
(06:34):
reactivity, jumping back intolife as it is or was.
So that was a lot ofinformation and I just invite
you to check in with yourselfright now.
How are you feeling in thismoment?
What's going on for you rightnow?
And just noticing.
(06:59):
So this is how we're going tostart our meditation today.
So if you can't meditate rightnow, I invite you to pause the
podcast and set a reminder inyour phone to come back to it
later today when you have amoment of uninterrupted space to
be with yourself and do thisguided meditation.
(07:20):
And, of course, you are in fullcontrol.
During this guided meditation,you can keep your eyes open.
If it's safe and you feelcomfortable to close your eyes,
you can do that.
If you want to just soften yourgaze, look down at the ground
and just soften your gaze, notreally focusing on anything.
(07:40):
You can try that.
You can do this meditationstanding up, sitting down, lying
down whatever's good and rightfor your body.
If you're seated and you'reable to have your feet flat on
the floor, that is nice, butit's not necessary.
So it's kind of like learninghow to be present in whatever
(08:04):
state we're in.
That, to me, is the goal ofmindfulness and meditation is
learning to bring this presenceinto my life, not just to do it
when I have uninterruptedmoments, but we're cultivating
the practice in theseuninterrupted moments.
And when I bring it into mylife, it's not like I'm standing
there in a group of people andall of a sudden I just close my
(08:25):
eyes and go into a five-minutemeditation.
That would be really differentfor people.
They'd be like are you okay?
But it might mean that whileI'm standing with a group of
people, if I get triggered Ifeel emotionally triggered about
something I might be able tostop within my own self and just
notice that I still look likeyou know, my eyes are open and
(08:48):
everything, but I've just turnedmy gaze inward to pay attention
to myself a little bit and justdo some of this noticing
meditation that we're going todo right now to help bring
myself back down to a centeredplace so that I can re-engage
with the group in an outward waythat feels good and right to me
(09:08):
.
So that could be an idea ofbringing it out into your life.
Maybe it shows up as you'rewashing the dishes, where you
become very present with thepractice of washing dishes.
Or while you're driving a car.
You become very present whileyou're driving the car, noticing
(09:29):
everything that you're doing,noticing the traffic around you.
You're totally focused, totallythere, totally present and
aware, but you're not going intosome deep meditation.
You're actually bringing theidea of noticing presence into
your active day.
So I know that might seemcontradictory to what I said
(09:50):
before, where you shouldn't bedriving while you're meditating
or doing anything else.
That is absolutely correct.
You should not be practicingdeep meditation while you're
doing anything else.
You should just be able to havethe time and space to deeply go
into a meditation when you'redoing a deep meditation.
(10:11):
But we can bring what we learnfrom these deep meditations into
our daily lives and bring someof that presence and noticing
awareness into our dailyactivities, which actually can
give us more choice in how we'reresponding to life.
I learned this from Jim andJory Manske of Nonviolent
(10:34):
Communication.
They're trained facilitators inNVC and I took this course with
them.
I think it was called FromReactivity to Choice and it
changed my life and I actuallywrote an ebook called Free to Be
.
That was highly influenced fromwhat I learned from them, as
(10:55):
well as through other teacherslike Eckhart Tolle and other
people as well, so you can getthat on my website as well.
But this practice of being ableto be present in the moment,
noticing how we feel, noticingthe sensations of our bodies, it
can give us a lot ofinformation and it can also give
(11:17):
us a great sense of freedom tochoose, to have a choice in our
actions.
Now there are reactions thatare just automatic and those are
there for safety and survivalmechanisms, that kind of thing.
So those types of things arehappening without much thought
(11:39):
on our part, and that's just anatural part of being a human.
What I'm talking about arehabitual emotional reactions or
habitual thought patterns thatshow up in certain situations.
If you've ever heard ofconfirmation bias, this was
something I only learned aboutmaybe eight years ago or so,
(12:04):
maybe even less and confirmationbias, from my little
understanding of it, is that wehave these beliefs within
ourselves and then we look atthe world through these belief
lenses and we use the lens thatwe're viewing the world from
these beliefs through to confirmthat the beliefs are actually
(12:28):
true.
So if someone doesn't respond ina super friendly way to me and
I already feel like people don'tlike me or I'm not included,
I'm not a part of, I don'tbelong, if somebody responds to
me in a way that doesn't feelwelcoming or warm, I can say oh
see, see, it's true, I am notdot, dot, dot, dot dot.
(12:54):
It's true, I am not dot, dot,dot, dot dot.
When that person might just betotally in their own mind,
thinking about something else,and they're they have no
intention of not being welcomingor warm, but it's just how they
responded in that one moment.
But the belief in me has takenthat moment to confirm the
(13:15):
belief in me, and so it's goodto be able to start to notice
these things, sensations in mybody which lead me to what
emotions are coming up, lead meto the thoughts that may be
(13:38):
causing some of these emotionsand sensations in my body, some
of the things I'm experiencingin the outer world how those
impact me.
So doing a noticing meditationcan be very powerful.
So I hope this is all clear, asclear as it can be, that we are
(14:01):
going to go into a noticingmeditation.
Do it when you're in a safespace to do so, where you can be
uninterrupted, and we'll beginnow.
And we'll begin now so, as youfind yourself, wherever you are,
(14:32):
in the safe space and time ofuninterruption for at least the
next five or so minutes, Iinvite you to notice.
Just notice your physicalbreath.
It doesn't have to change, itcan, but it doesn't have to.
(15:00):
Just noticing your breathmoving.
Notice your physical body, howit feels on whatever surface is
supporting you.
Are you seated, are you sittingright now?
How does your body feel sittingon the chair that you're
sitting in?
Or are you sitting seated onthe ground or on a meditation
(15:21):
cushion or block?
How does your physical bodyfeel where it's physically
sitting right now?
And just notice all of thesurfaces of the skin that are
touching something.
How do those areas of the bodyfeel?
What does it feel like to besupported by this structure, by
(15:48):
the ground underneath you?
And if you're standing or lyingdown, you can do the same thing
, just noticing how yourphysical body feels right now,
supported by the surface thatyou are standing on or laying on
(16:09):
.
(16:39):
And again, we're just bringingour inner eyes, our inner ears.
Like I had mentioned severalepisodes ago from Feminine Power
, the course that I took, they'dsay you know, let's turn on our
inner ears.
We're getting curious about howwe are in our interior world,
inside of ourselves, justnoticing how does this feel,
being curious.
This is nothing major.
I'm not asking you to go intoany deep emotions or thoughts.
We're just noticing these basicthings.
We're just noticing these basicthings.
(17:07):
So, just continuing to againbring your attention, noticing
the physical body, how it feelsright now, noticing the physical
breath moving in and out of thebody, how that feels, and
basically doing a baselinecheck-in.
I learned that from a movementtherapist, amber Elizabeth Gray.
She talked about doing abaseline check-in at the
(17:31):
beginning of a practice to seewhere you are right now.
Check in at the beginning of apractice to see where you are
right now.
And this is all justinformation, just noticing,
(17:52):
bringing our noticing presence.
And if you find that the mindis super active or you're
feeling some sensations thatfeel challenging, triggering,
hard to feel, just again.
What's it like to come back tonoticing the breath, the
physical body supported by theearth, the ground underneath you
(18:16):
and whatever other supportsystem you're using a chair, the
floor, a couch, a bed, whateveryou're seated on, lying on,
standing on just noticing howdoes it feel to feel safe, the
(18:36):
support of this underneath you.
And let's just take anothermoment to bring our awareness to
(18:58):
any physical sensations youmight feel on the body.
What physical sensations do youfeel Do you notice right now?
Physical sensations tingling,prickling, warmth, cold, tension
, relaxation, tension relaxation, tightness, smoothness,
(19:29):
softness.
What physical sensations do younotice right now in your
physical body?
And again, we're just bringingthat existential detective to
(19:53):
the noticing, opening up ourcuriosity, our inner ears, our
inner eyes, just to noticewhat's going on.
You know this witnessingpresence Eckhart Tolle talks
about.
What is it like to just noticewhat we're sensing in the body,
the sensations that we feel.
And if you feel any sensationsthat really want your attention,
what's it like to just breathe,breathe into that sensation,
(20:19):
notice it.
You can call God into it.
God, please help me with thissensation.
God, what do you want me tounderstand, to know about the
sensation, always talking to Godabout it so that you know
(20:41):
you're getting the direct, clearinformation from the one true
source, not from anything elsefrom the one true source, and
allowing God to share whateverGod wants you to know.
From the sensation Good.
And just continuing to breatheto know from the sensation Good.
(21:02):
And just continuing to breathe,notice your physical body, feel
yourself connected to theground, to the earth, and you
(21:30):
may notice that, as you'renoticing a physical sensation
and giving it some space bybreathing as you notice it, by
asking God to help youunderstand it, stand it.
You may notice that thesensation begins to shift or
change.
It might disappear completely,and that's totally normal.
It might not change as well.
(21:51):
So you know it could beanything but just noticing.
We are this witnessing presenceright now.
Good, good.
So just take another moment tocheck back in to this baseline
(22:16):
check-in, to see how you feelnow.
How does your body feel?
How's your breath moving in andout of your body?
How do the sensations in yourbody feel?
Has anything shifted?
Has anything changed since thebeginning of this meditation?
(22:40):
Good, and as we come out ofthis meditation, I invite you to
(23:25):
just wiggle your fingers andyour toes, take some deeper
breaths, open up your eyes, lookaround you, notice where you
are, bring yourself fully backinto the present moment.
And I invite you, as you moveaway from this meditation.
What is one way that you willremember this noticing,
witnessing presence in yourdaily life?
We're not going into a deepmeditation in the middle of our
(23:50):
random daily life.
We're just bringing a littlebit of that noticing presence
into our daily life so that wecan notice.
Oh, I feel some tension in mybody.
Oh, my breath is shallow.
Oh, let me notice my feet onthe ground, let me notice myself
sitting in this chair.
If you're in a meeting or eatingout somewhere, at the dinner
(24:12):
table, at home, at your desk atwork, just bringing a little bit
of this noticing presence intoyour daily life, how will you do
that and when?
So that you can begin to bemore present as you move through
(24:33):
the day and when you have timeand space to go into a
meditation, like we just did, ina safe way, where you're not
doing anything else, and you cando that by yourself,
uninterrupted.
Or maybe you have a partner.
(24:58):
You want to go into a deepermeditation so that you can
cultivate this noticing presencethroughout your daily life, in
your normal life, not whileyou're meditating, but just as
you're moving through your life,and what does that do for you?
So I'm excited for your journeywith this meditation.
(25:24):
You can use this whenever you'dlike and if you have any
comments or questions about this, you can comment question
through the website,welcominggodcom.
Just scroll all the way down tothe bottom of the page to the
Get In Touch section and send mean email there, and this
(25:46):
episode culminates our firstseason of Welcoming God.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I'm super happy and excitedthat you've been here.
I am looking forward to seasonnumber two and I'm currently
deciding, discerning with God,when that will come out.
(26:07):
So stay tuned for anannouncement about that.
And the best way to stay intouch with me is through the
Welcoming God email newsletter.
So if you'd like to be a partof that, go to welcominggodcom
and there's a button in the topbanner of the web page.
You can click that button tosign up for our newsletter and
(26:31):
you'll be updated about allthings Welcoming God, because I
do have some other fun things inthe mix coming up and I look
forward to sharing that with youas well through the email
newsletter.
Thank you so much for beinghere today and please share this
(26:51):
with someone that will benefitfrom it as well.
I look forward to seeing you onthe next episode and take care.
Hey everyone, sarah Haeckel herefrom Welcoming God, a podcast
for spiritual seekers.
This is a legal disclaimer tosay that this podcast is not a
(27:13):
substitute for therapy orprofessional help.
I am not a trained therapist.
I also have not studiedtheology in a formal setting.
This podcast is purely foreducational, inspirational
purposes, to share the goodnessof welcoming God back into my
life and all of the things thatI'm learning on this journey.
(27:35):
So thank you for joining mehere and I look forward to
seeing you on the next episode.
Thanks for joining me onanother episode of Welcoming God
(27:58):
.
Please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen and
consider leaving us a review, asit helps more people find and
benefit from this show.
Music by Song Channel Music.
You can listen and hear more atsongchannelmusiccom.
Until we meet again, aloha nuiloa, take care and God bless.
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