I'm inviting you to invite your loving awareness into this space,
From wherever you have already been today or the last couple of days,
And whatever is going to come after,
Just taking a moment to invite our loving awareness into this space that you're at right now.
Perhaps you're even imagining yourself walking into this space all over again.
Perhaps even leaving outside this space your likes and dislikes,
Or even your personality.
Whenever your loving awareness meets your physical body,
Which is sitting on the ground,
Taking a moment to simply observe your body in space,
Observe the areas in your body which your body is feeling grounded by the ground beneath you.
Perhaps it's your seat or your legs or your feet,
Perhaps it's the texture of a mat or a cloth or the ground,
Perhaps it's the temperature,
Taking a moment to simply feel grounded by the earth beneath you,
Knowing that you are grounded in your practice,
That you are safe.
Whenever you are ready,
Allowing your loving awareness to climb upwards,
This time to the midline of your body,
So that can be your spinal cord,
Your actual spine,
Or perhaps an imaginary line between the front and the back of the body and the sides of the body.
Perhaps you have a different way,
This is just so you feel centered in your practice,
So any way that makes you feel centered,
And then simply allowing your loving awareness to climb upwards towards the top of your head,
Just observing any sensation around that area,
Perhaps even just an imaginary connection to the sky above.
So in your practice,
You are grounded,
You're safe,
You're centered and connected,
Which means that anything that arises,
You can observe,
And whenever you feel ready,
I'm inviting you to invite your loving awareness,
This time to rest at the triangular area that starts at the bridge of the nose and terminate in both sides of the upper lip.
Perhaps you can already notice that you have changed the breath as you did so,
That's totally normal.
See if you can allow the breath to soften further and further.
If it helps you,
You can take a deep cycle of breath in from the nose and out through nose or mouth.
Feel free to do that once or twice if you need this releasing breath,
And then allow the next inhale to enter your nostrils very naturally.
See if you can feel the touch of the breath somewhere around your nostrils area.
Perhaps the breath is shallow,
Perhaps it's long or deep,
It doesn't matter,
We're only observing.
Almost like a small fly at the back of your skull,
You're just observing the happenings without interfering with it,
Without changing it or modifying it,
Allowing the breath to travel in and out in its own pace.
Perhaps it's from the right nostril or the left or both at the same time.
Perhaps the breath is so shallow and so soft it is easier to observe the lack of air.
If the breath is traveling through the inside of the nostrils,
Observe that perhaps it's on the wings of the nostrils and above the upper lip.
Perhaps it's below the nostrils and above the upper lip.
Anywhere at all that you feel even the subtlest touch of the breath.
See if you are perhaps clenching your jaw in order to focus on your nostrils and see if you can relax that.
Maybe it's the facial muscles or the throat,
The shoulders,
Maybe even the limbs or the belly or the hips.
Sometimes we tend to hold tension somewhere completely different in the body when we're trying to focus.
At any point that there is a little thought that is coming to your mind,
Just not giving it any importance.
Just bringing your loving awareness to rest at your nostrils.
So as I mentioned earlier,
This practice is called Anapanasati.
It is helping us to sharpen our minds,
But also a very powerful tool to start and observe the reality as it is and not as we would want it to be.
So at any point where you feel like you need these releasing breaths again,
Feel free to take them if it helps you to find that neutral,
Natural breath.
At any moment if a thought is coming to the mind again with no hard feelings,
It's coming back to your nostrils area.
See if again there is any buildup of tension somewhere around your body.
And see if you can invite relaxation to that area.
You can even,
If it's your shoulders,
Roll your shoulders.
If it's the jaw,
You can even open the mouth for a moment and almost like massage the jaw.
Maybe it's your abdomen or your hips,
Anything at all.
And see what happens when you release that tension.
Maybe the breath also relaxes a bit.
And at any moment that the mind has gone away in thoughts or somewhere else,
The moment you are aware of it is the moment that you're back to your practice.
Simply observing the nostrils area,
The triangular area that starts at the bridge of the nose and terminates at both sides of the upper lip.
And observing the happenings from a tiny bit of distance.
So as I mentioned before,
Almost like a small fly at the back of the skull.
Just observing the happenings.
Perhaps even stretch your legs.
