Welcome to this meditation on mindfulness of breath with Will Oliver.
As we begin,
I invite you to travel lightly on the river of your own breath.
Here,
Every inhale is a gathering.
And every exhale.
Is full expression.
In the stillness between them carries a remembering beyond words.
Trust the breath to find you.
Trust the pauses to carry you home.
Allow your body to rest here.
As a stone rests at the bottom of a river.
Steady.
Silent.
Hole.
Let your eyes close if they will.
As your breath deepens inward,
Slowly,
Pausing at the top.
And outward ever more slowly.
Repeating this pattern.
Depth and protection.
Your closed eyes welcome the darkness.
As the soil where breath takes root.
Turn your attention to the breath already moving inside of you.
You're not the maker of this breath.
You are the beloved it seeks to touch.
Notice if you will,
Where in your body in this moment your breath is most alive.
Is it the cool passage at the nostrils?
The gentle rise of the chest?
The soft swell of the belly.
Allow yourself to be carried by your breath.
As leaves are carried on the river's surface,
As songs are carried on evening winds.
No effort is needed.
Your breath.
The breath.
Will find its way to you.
If during the course of this meditation the mind wanders,
Bless the wandering.
Blessed as part of the old dance,
Leaving,
Retrieving,
And returning.
Each return.
To awareness.
In this practice is a kind of praise of the practice itself.
Each noticing is a step toward wholeness.
Breathing in.
.
.
You gather the scattered threads of yourself.
Holding present.
Breathing out,
You weave them into belonging with the world.
The breath remembers you.
Even when your mind wanders and forgets.
The breath carries the wisdom your bones have never lost.
Let these winds of truth wash through you now.
Cleansing.
Carrying.
.
.
Restoring.
Each breath a messenger,
Each pause a homecoming.
There is nothing you must chase.
Nothing to be forced,
No,
Just mindful awareness of what always is.
This river of breath that carries everything.
Your only task is to feel it moving.
Rest.
In the breath that loves you.
In the stillness that remembers you.
In the darkness.
That protects you.
When you feel ready.
Stir yourself.
Lift your gaze or open your eyes consciously carrying this river of breath forward.
Into the day.
