A Simple Breathing Practice

Befriending the breath is one of the simplest tools we have to find our way back to clarity, compassion and presence. For as long as we are in our bodies, we have access to that which gives us life - our breath. Through building an intimate connection with the breath, and coming to know some of the subtle characteristics of the breath, we build capacity to better connect in wherever we are.

Transcript

Equality that supports us in resting in presence and sitting with all that may arise is one of friendliness,

Compassion or kindness.

The ability to be with ourselves as we are,

To hold and accept ourselves with a smiling heart.

This is a quality that in our lives today can take some conscious effort and practice to cultivate and remember our way to.

This being aware,

Listening and holding quality is just that,

Our practice.

One that we can spend some time intentionally exploring and deepening and one that also leaves our meditation cushion and comes with us into our daily lives as we begin to sprinkle moments of mindfulness and checking in throughout our day.

So here in this sitting let's have the intention of finding our way back to this friendly holding,

To re-becoming our own best friends,

The person that we can enjoy being in the company of and accepting for their full selves.

We'll begin by gently closing down your eyes if you're comfortable to.

Begin sensing the openness and kindness in the shape of a smile.

So as you close down your eyes and allow your attention to turn inwards,

Simply noticing what becomes obvious or at least more noticeable.

There may be physical tension throughout the body,

There may be thoughts,

Either rememberings,

Commentary or future planning.

There may be sounds from your environment.

Just noticing what it is that becomes a little bit more noticeable when we start to turn our attention inwards.

And then when you're ready just gently bring your attention to the space between your eyeballs.

And in a place that we often follow and hold tension around,

Our eyes.

See if you can sense the shape of a smile there,

Open,

Kind,

Receiving.

Instead of squinting or trying to hold any shape or form,

See if you can sense a sense of ease across the forehead.

And then bringing that same smile shape down to the eyes.

Feeling that sense of openness,

Gentleness and kindness across the eyes.

The outer corners peeking upwards and outwards.

Maybe feeling the eyeballs or orbs floating in a bowl of liquid,

Not quite touching the edges,

Just floating in empty space.

And then bringing the same smile shape down to the mouth,

Beginning on the outside of the mouth,

The outer corners again peeking upwards just slightly.

Very humble,

Gentle smile,

Sincere.

And what might it feel like to smile on the inside of the mouth?

The walls of the mouth feeling supple and soft.

And the tongue gently resting in the bottom of the mouth,

Or maybe the tip of the tongue resting up behind the upper teeth.

Simply allowing the tongue to find a place of rest,

And the mouth to come to a place of rest,

Not trying.

And then on your next inhale,

Expanding the chest and elongating the spine towards the sky above you.

Keeping this expanded chest as you exhale,

And just feeling slightly heavier in your posture.

The sit bones on the chair,

The cushion or the floor.

And then bringing the same smile shape across the chest,

Broadening the collarbones,

Shoulder blades slightly closer together on the back of the body.

Opening the front of the body,

Being ready to receive,

Being ready to listen.

And noticing that maybe as you open the chest,

A very natural quality of strength,

Of stability,

And readiness to listen comes alive.

Simply by changing our posture just a little bit.

For a couple of moments,

Simply taking some natural breaths into the navel,

Through the nostrils.

Just a space just above the belly.

Let the breaths be natural,

And seeing if instead of doing the breathing,

Seeing if you can sense the body receiving the breath in the same way that you receive the sound when you're listening.

Beginning to sense this sense of a smile throughout the whole mind and body.

Arriving,

Open,

Ready to listen and receive.

Wherever you find you are now,

Just finding your way to the breath,

Finding the path to the breath that is most noticeable for you,

Possibly the nostrils,

The back of the throat,

The chest,

The abdomen,

Or the whole body breathing.

And just resting for a couple of very gentle natural cycles of breath.

We're going to let our practice be very simple for this sitting.

You'll notice there will be no background music in this meditation.

We're simply going to notice when the mind has wandered away from presence and the breath when you can,

And with a kind attention and that sense of a smile,

Walking back to the breath,

Choosing to be here again.

So for the next few moments,

Just noticing when you can,

When you've wandered away from the breath,

And with that sense of a smile in the mind throughout the body,

Just choosing to come back to the breath once again.

And you may have noticed that you've been caught in a wave of thought and it just carried you slightly away.

And of course,

This is very normal.

And this is the essence of our practice here,

To notice when we have wandered off,

When you can,

And to gently return back.

So there'll be many waves of thought,

Of emotion and sensation that pass by on top of our calm ocean of awareness.

And so our practice is to let these waves pull us,

Is to not let us be pulled too far away by these waves.

And in the moments when we do notice that we've been pulled away,

This is our very practice.

And so with a kind attention to bring ourselves back to our open awareness and to our anchoring with the breath.

And sometimes we get pulled away by a big wave.

It feels like it captures our whole attention,

Pulls us into a strong storyline.

So just know that you can always choose to reset at any time,

To widen the attention again,

To become aware of the sounds around you,

To become aware of the sensations in your body.

It's coming back to an open awareness and then softening back into the body,

Noticing any tension or coming back to the sense of a smile around the brow and the chest.

And then resettling back into your breath,

Coming back into contact with your own living presence.

And we'll sit here like this just for a couple more moments,

Noticing when you can,

When you've drifted and with a kind attention,

Bringing yourself back.

And slowly deepening the breath,

Starting to notice the aliveness of your body,

Taking a couple of moments to become aware of how you're feeling now.

What may have come to you in the last few moments,

What reminders,

What whispers or lessons from within found their way to this surface.

So as you start to come back into your body,

Into deepening the breath,

Just become aware of what imprint these moments of stillness and listening may have had on you.

So mindfulness is simply a state of awareness,

A practice that can go well beyond the cushion and into the very ways that we meet each moment throughout our days and our lives.

Being aware that you are no longer mindful itself is also mindfulness.

It's to be aware and to be compassionate.

And so from this place comes the freedom and the ability to choose how we respond to the contents of each of the moments of our lives.

The freedom to be able to be aware and then to choose how we respond and not just react.

So hopefully by sitting in stillness and having a very simple practice,

We're able to strengthen our ability to compassionately guide our attention back to the breath.

So that throughout our days,

We're able also to hold ourselves with a sense of compassion and kindness as we meet each moment that makes up our lives.

So we'll close with a poem by Bob Sharples.

Meditate to fix yourself,

To improve yourself,

To redeem yourself,

Rather do it as an act of love,

Of deep warm friendship to yourself.

In this way,

There is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement,

For the endless guilt of not doing enough.

It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.

It's that there is now a meditation,

It's an act of love.

How endlessly delightful and encouraging.

Reviews

Gentle guidance with some space to enjoy the silence. This was the right thing after just coming off a very busy trip.

Thank you for this centering meditation. At one point you say there isn’t any background music — but in fact there is music. Do you have a version without? Thank you.

I’d put 10 stars if there was an option 😄 thank you so much! ☺️

The kindness shines through. The end is a breath of fresh air: to do this practice to befriend one's self, to care for the self. Thank you.

Beautiful, really soothing language, very comforting and self loving, thank you so much

Learned so much about meditation in this short practice. Beautiful!

It was a genuine and true meditation guide, especially the closing poem you shared. Thank you, I’ll maintain the smile throughout the day :)

So peaceful and multidimensional. I love the background music too

Thank you!

Lovely! I also enjoyed the poem at the end. Thank you!

Pretty endearing, really: he says “without background music,” over the background music! But I truly enjoyed his teaching, so there you go…

I love this teacher each meditation brings me to a new place. A better place.

Self love not self improvement. A concept that I have held occasionally, if fleetingly, through my life.

Love this. Really helped me this morning. Thank you.x

A lovely way to start the day. A reminder to be lovingly mindful. Thank you.

Really enjoyed this gentle guidance and loved the closing quote. Thank you!

Thank you for guiding me through acceptance of thoughts that come and go. My breath is my anchor and my anchor is my breath.

Thanks very much for this well guided practice:)

Very compassionate meditation - I feel so much stillness and love! Thank you!

So beautiful, restorative and soothing!!!! I am very grateful for this practice. Namaste 🙏🏻