Breathing Meditation For Beginners

While our minds might flit here and there like capricious butterflies, our breath is always here, always now, always reliably in the present, offering us a safe and steady anchor to quieten thoughts and soothe emotions.

With mindfulness of the breath, we pay attention to two things: the sensations of our breath, just as it is, and the wandering of our mind, when we realize it has strayed. As always, we gently bring it back, with kindness - having come back to awareness of our present experience

Transcript

This is a breathing meditation for beginners.

For this practice we are going to sit upright but also letting our back and our shoulders be soft.

We are not going to try and change the breath,

We are not making it any different from what it is,

We are just observing the breath as if you were letting the breath breathe itself at its own natural pace without judgement.

You will probably notice that as you observe it the breath will become slower,

Deeper and thus just the natural response of the body to you stopping,

Getting out of doing mode and into being mode so that the body is calming down and your parasympathetic nervous system is activated.

But our job in this practice is just to notice the breath as it is and every time a mind wanders just gently and with kindness bring it back to the breath.

So let's sit up in a nice,

A lit and relaxed pose with your feet flat on the floor,

The jaw nice and soft.

You can tuck in your chin a little bit so that if you've got your eyes open you are looking down towards the floor.

Just a nice soft relaxed gaze without needing to stare at anything.

And you can put your hands in your lap or wherever comfortable.

So if you turn your attention now towards the breath,

Just observing it not controlling it,

Where do you feel the breath?

Where is the most prominent area in your body where you feel the breath?

You might notice the breath in your chest rising and falling naturally with each in breath and out breath.

You might notice the nice cool air around your nostrils going in and warmer air coming out.

And you might be able to notice it at the back of your throat as well.

Or it could be in your belly again gently rising and falling,

Expanding and relaxing.

And wherever you feel it the most,

See if you can follow the whole cycle of breathing.

The in breath and then that little gap before it turns into the out breath.

Then again a little gap before the next in breath.

This breath is an anchor keeping us tethered safely to the present moment.

This breath is always in the present,

Always you,

Always now.

And where is your attention now?

Keep in mind that the mind will very probably wander and this is absolutely 100% natural.

You don't need to beat yourself up for it because as soon as you notice you have gained mindfulness,

You have become aware.

So it really is something to celebrate and then just gently come back to the breath.

This lovely reliable anchor of the breath always available,

Always leading us back to the present,

To the gift of just being.

And again for another couple of minutes just breathing in and breathing out.

Just being you.

Let that Benji DVD CD you will get called,

You will make one or the other.

And if you're finding it hard to focus,

Something that you can try is counting the breaths.

So in your mind count 1 on the in-breath and 2 on the out-breath and 3 on the next in-breath and so on all the way up to 10.

And then you can start again.

30- sleep.

We are coming to the end of this practice now,

But before you open your eyes,

I'd like you to just take a second to thank yourself for doing this,

For giving yourself the gift of some space today to just be.

Thank you.

And when you're ready,

You can start wiggling your fingers and toes and have a nice stretch and then open your eyes and enjoy the rest of your day.