Sit comfortably and upright so your back is straight and you cannot fall asleep.
Place your hands on your thighs and allow your arms to hang naturally from your shoulders.
Notice the way your arms just dangle comfortably.
Notice the air swirling around your body.
Notice your feet on the floor,
The contact with your hands on your thighs and the contact of your bum on the seat.
Notice how your head just stands up all by itself.
Consciously relax all the parts of your body you know to be tense and then double check any areas that you're unaware of tension just in case.
Many people hold tension in their jaw or their tongue and don't even realize it.
Try consciously relaxing your jaw and your tongue.
Really let them go.
Now breathe through your nose.
Breathing through your nose connects you instantly with your brain via the olfactory nerve.
And by engaging your diaphragm in a focused way like this,
You tap into your wandering vagus nerve,
Thereby connecting you with your lungs,
Heart,
Gut and back again to your brain.
Don't just take any old breath.
Let your breath dictate.
Take a nice,
Slow,
Big,
Deep breath.
And really feel the air entering your nose,
Going down your windpipe,
Into your lungs and filling every inch of them.
And you really don't need that much air in this seated position.
You'll notice that your breathing will slow quite considerably.
Allow the air entering the boundaries of your body to help you expand and sit upright.
When you exhale,
Take the time to really feel the air leaving the boundaries of your body whilst maintaining your posture.
Really get into your breath.
Feel it coming in.
Feel it going out.
If you haven't done so already,
Allow your eyes to fall shut.
You'll be amazed how slowly you can breathe when your body is still like this.
Now let's see if you can think only about your breath for 60 seconds.
And remember,
If you get distracted,
Welcome and recognize your breath.
If you're distracted,
Welcome and recognize the distraction long enough to note what it is.
And once you've noted it,
Let it go and bring your awareness back to your breath.
Here we go.
Really feel the air entering your body and really feel the air exiting your body.
Coming to your breath can be very useful in mindfulness practice.
So really enjoy this moment of awareness.
Here we go.
Thank you.
Okay,
Now come back to clock time,
To wherever you are on this planet.
Slowly open your eyes.
You can wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes.
You can come back quick.
You can come back slow.
There's no rush here.
Stretch your body and really feel yourself stretch.
Was that easy?
Was it impossible?
Or was it somewhere in between?
Whatever it was,
You can do it.
Was it impossible?
Or was it somewhere in between?
Whatever it was,
You would have experienced seeing your thoughts as separate from yourself.
You came to your breath,
Your physiology,
Your body,
And your thoughts were not bound to these things.
So we can say without doubt,
Your journey into mindfulness has begun.
