Let's find a seated position here that embodies wakefulness,
Alertness,
But also a sense of balance and ease.
As you bring your awareness internally,
Allow the head and neck to be balanced on the shoulders.
Just noticing a sense of softening into the muscles of the face,
Allowing the shoulders to fall away from the ears.
Find a sense of rootedness and groundedness through the pelvis and the sitz bones,
And a sense of elongation or uprightness through the spine.
Become aware of the sensation of contact to where the body is meeting the chair or the floor.
Feeling fully present and awake,
This body feeling stable and steady with also this simultaneous element of upliftedness.
The eyes can be open or closed.
If the eyes are open,
Soften the gaze and lower the gaze.
And as you feel ready,
Becoming aware to the fact that your body is being breathed.
The body is breathing itself.
There's nothing for you to manage,
Nothing for you to manipulate or do.
With awareness,
Becoming aware of the body taking care of itself by breathing.
So this isn't an invitation to think or visualize the breath.
There's no need to change it or manipulate it in any way.
Just noticing what's been here since the day you were born.
Resting the attention on each breath moment by moment.
Allowing yourself to settle,
To ride on these gentle undulations,
These gentle waves of the breath.
So how do you know that you're breathing?
What are the physical sensations that come from this body that's breathing itself?
And if there's difficulty or feelings of challenge,
Know that you can place a hand on the chest or the belly to get more of a feeling of noticing the breath rising and falling,
Coming and going.
And if the breath does not feel like a strong and steady home base to place your attention to access the present moment,
Know that there's always a choice here.
Bringing your attention to sensations in the body.
Maybe it's the bottoms of the feet or at the sits bones or even the palms of the hands.
Or maybe your focus attention would be on the soundscape.
Know that there's a choice here.
So perhaps you're feeling the breath at the nostrils,
Sensing coolness or dryness on the inhale and a sensation of warmth or moisture on the exhale.
Can you get a sense of this feeling a tingling sensation perhaps at the back of the throat?
Do you feel the breath most vividly at the chest,
The gentle rise and fall?
Or do you feel the breath in the belly?
Is there a sense of inflation,
A sensation of getting larger with the inhale and a feeling of falling away or coming back towards center,
A condensing on the exhale?
Or do you feel the entire body breathing?
Notice here,
Where is it most accessible for you right here in this very moment?
And choosing one area.
In this way,
We can become more intimate,
Creating a sense of intimacy and familiarity and a greater ability to focus our attention to where we want it to be placed aiming attention sustaining attention.
As you've probably already realized,
This is a very simple practice,
But not so easy.
The mind has a mind of its own.
It will easily slip into the past or into the future,
Planning,
Worrying,
List making,
Fantasizing or replaying events that were have already gone by.
All we're doing here is noticing and acknowledging that the attention has wandered away,
That you're no longer feeling each breath.
The mind gets curious about other things very easily.
This is what the mind does.
This is natural.
When we notice this,
This is a moment of wakefulness,
We can gently let go of wherever the mind was letting go of the thought.
And then gently,
But also deliberately and persistently shepherding the attention back to sensations of breathing or another anchor that you've chosen.
Noticing that there's always this possibility of beginning again.
That moment that we notice that we've been gone,
That is the transformative moment here.
We can make a new choice without being hard on ourselves,
Without congratulating ourselves,
Without evaluating or thinking that we're not doing this correctly.
We simply begin again over and over and over again,
Utilizing the breath as the anchor to our attention,
Taking in what is needed,
This life giving nourishment and on the exhale letting go of what no longer is needed.
Just this breath,
Rising and falling like the waves of the ocean.
And if the eyes have been closed,
Slowly begin to flutter them open,
Beginning to move if that feels comfortable.
And noticing even as you bring the environment back in through the sense doors of the eyes that part of your awareness can still stay anchored to the breath.
This is what keeps us in this present moment.
