Hi,
This is Anna from the Bell Center.
Welcome to today's meditation and for today's practice we will once again take a look at our breath and see what is there to explore within this wonderful tool that is constantly with us,
Constantly keeping us alive.
A beautiful point of focus for our meditation.
So as we start,
Find your meditation posture,
A comfortable yet steady seat that you can hold for the next 10 minutes.
See that your spine is elongated and your sit bones rooted firmly.
Feel free to take a bit of a deeper breath here just to settle in and then arrive in this posture and let go of any control of the breath.
Just let it flow naturally.
As we do so and as we turn the attention to the breath,
Often a little bit of control stays with us.
We try to elongate the breath or deepen it and that's alright.
Just slowly,
Slowly let go of this control and let it do its thing.
Let it flow.
And as you're stopping and you're doing,
You're shifting completely into the role of observation.
And now observe this beautiful tool.
Start to feel your breath as it is flowing in and out of your body.
How and where do you feel it?
Maybe you feel some air in and around your nostrils as the air enters,
As it leaves your body.
And most likely you feel some sensations within,
Especially in the center of your body,
In your belly,
In your ribcage,
Your chest.
Maybe there's also some other subtle movements in the body from the breath as you're sitting completely still.
Maybe some tiny movements in your spine as you're breathing in and out,
Your shoulders or hips.
And then bring your focus especially to your inhalation now.
When do you feel your inhalation starting?
Where and how is the inhalation taking place in your whole body?
What feelings,
What sensations come with it?
And then the same in your exhalation.
As your exhalation is taking place,
Where and how do you feel it in your body?
Where does the inhalation end and the exhalation start?
Maybe there's a little pause.
Maybe it's very fluid.
Try not to analyze it or judge it.
Just observe.
The same as the exhalation ends and the inhalation starts again.
Can you notice this little switch?
And then bringing it all together and feeling the whole cycle of your breath as one big flow.
Feeling it in your body.
Noticing all the little sensations that come with it.
Noticing potential pauses in between.
Whole cycle of the breath.
This beautiful tool,
This beautiful anchor is always present as our mind maybe drifts off.
So easily can bring us back into the present moment,
Into our bodies.
Beautiful.
And then maybe take a bit of a deeper breath and let this deeper breath slowly bring you back into the room that you're sitting in.
And then we're ending our practice with the giving of gratitude.
Bringing your hands together in front of your heart.
Giving yourself a smile here.
Just feeling here into the smile today.
Feeling into a general gratitude for yourself,
For others.
Sitting with this word of gratitude for a moment and with your smile.
And then taking the smile with you into your day.
And I thank you for practicing today together.
