Welcome to this breath awareness meditation.
To begin I would like to invite you to come into a comfortable position and whether that is sitting on the floor on a cushion with your legs crossed,
Whether it's sitting in a chair with your back straight or whether that is lying down.
Find that position now and just take a couple of moments to get settled into this position,
Making sure that you are comfortable,
That your breathing is relaxed,
Slowly allowing your body to settle into this comfortable position and gently closing your eyes,
Resting your hands in your lap if you are sitting down or if you are lying you can either rest your hands by your side or on your belly,
Whatever feels comfortable to you.
And gently begin to bring your attention to your breath,
Breathing in through your nostrils,
Noticing the breath come into your body and breathing out through your nostrils,
Noticing as the breath leaves your body.
And there's no need at this moment to control your breath,
Just allow your breathing to happen naturally,
No forcing the breath,
Just allow the breath to naturally come into your body and naturally leave your body.
And on each inhalation noticing the sensations as the breath comes into your body and with each exhalation noticing the sensations in your body as the breath leaves the body.
And just continuing to follow your breath,
Breathing in following the breath into your body and breathing out following the breath as it leaves your body.
Gently beginning to deepen your breath,
Just breathing a little bit deeper than you would normally breathe.
There's no need to force the breath,
Just comfortably and with kindness deepen your breath,
Noticing the breath as it comes just a little bit deeper into the body.
And on the exhale,
Just extending the breath out that little bit more breathing a little bit deeper than you would normally breathe.
With each in-breath in,
Maybe feeling a gentle rise in your abdomen as the breath begins to come deeper into your body.
And as you exhale,
Feeling your abdomen retract,
Feeling your abdomen relax,
Allowing your body to relax just a little bit more with each exhale.
Continuing to keep your attention and your focus on the breath,
Following the breath as it comes into your body and again following the breath as it leaves your body.
And if at any moment you notice that your mind has wandered away from your breath,
That's perfectly fine.
It's perfectly normal for our minds to wander.
It's perfectly normal for our minds to get caught up in some thoughts that might appear.
And if you notice that this happens,
Just gently and with kindness bring your attention back to the breath.
There's no need to get irritated with yourself when your mind wanders.
Just be kind to yourself and congratulate yourself on having come to awareness that your mind wandered.
And when you notice that your mind has gone off with some thoughts,
Just gently bring it back to your breath.
And again,
Focusing on the sensation of the breath coming into your body,
Noticing your abdomen rising on the in-breath,
And noticing your body as it relaxes on the exhale.
Continuing in this deep breathing pattern,
Again just a little bit deeper than you would normally breathe,
But not so deep to be forced.
Continuing to pay attention to the sensations in your body,
Allowing your body to relax just a little bit more on each exhale.
And as we continue to breathe in this deep breathing pattern,
We're going to add a very short pause.
We're going to add a short pause after the inhalation,
And then we're going to add a very short pause after the exhalation.
So we're going to breathe in nice and deeply,
Pause and exhale nice and deeply,
Nice long exhale and pause the breath.
And inhale deeply,
Pause and a long calm exhale and pause the breath.
And now just continue at your own rhythm,
Taking a nice deep inhale,
Pausing before the exhale and then releasing your breath and pausing after the exhale.
And again,
No need to force the breath in any way,
Just breathing a little bit deeper than you would normally breathe.
Just adding that very short pause between the inhalation and the exhalation and adding a second pause between the exhalation and the inhalation.
Continuing to breathe at your own pace,
Noticing the sensations in your body as the breath comes in,
Noticing the sensations as you pause your breath and noticing the sensations as you release the breath.
And again,
Noticing the sensations as you once again pause the breath.
And ever so gently,
Slowly begin to come back to your normal breathing pattern.
No need to hold a pause between the inhalation and the exhalation,
Just breathing normally,
Allowing the breath to gently come into your body,
Allowing the breath to gently leave your body.
And you might notice that your normal breathing pattern has now become a little bit slower than it was before.
You might naturally be breathing just a little bit deeper than you normally do.
And just for a few moments,
Following your breath as it lightly comes into your body,
Following the breath as it lightly leaves your body.
And maybe taking just the last few breaths of this meditation to notice how your body is changing.
Notice any of the sensations in your body.
Notice how you're feeling both in your body and your mind in this moment.
If you notice any tension in your body,
Maybe just taking a few moments to breathe into that tension and with your breath releasing that tension from your body.
And when you feel ready,
You can begin to slowly move your body,
Slowly move your fingers,
Maybe move your feet,
Your toes,
Begin to move your arms and your legs,
Just ever so gently and with kindness,
Bringing movement back into your body.
And when you feel ready,
You can open your eyes and take a look at the place that you are in.
Maybe gently resting your gaze on a few objects,
Observing maybe the colors and the shapes of these objects,
Just beginning to slowly orient yourself to the place that you are in.
And when you feel ready,
You can come back to the now.
