Hello and welcome to this guided meditation.
I'm Angelle,
Your meditation teacher,
And today we are going to spend time observing our breaths.
For this meditation,
You can be sitting on a chair or a meditation cushion,
Or lying down.
Start by closing your eyes and let your body settle down,
Slowing down the breath.
Feel the contact of your feet on the floor,
And the weight of your hand resting on your legs or resting next to you.
Observe the physical sensation of your body.
How does your body feel today?
Do you feel any tickling,
Tension,
Or maybe pain?
Observe with kindness what comes up.
And when you feel more settled in your body,
Turn your attention to your breath.
Observe where in your body you can feel your breath the most.
Is it in the movement of your belly as you breathe in and out?
Or the shoulders going up and down?
Or maybe it's when the fresh air comes in through the nose?
Find this point where you can physically feel the breath happening.
Observe what is happening with an open mind and curiosity.
What happens?
What moves?
What sound can you hear?
Observe your breath as if it was the very first time you realized that you were actually breathing.
As you are more aware and present in your breath,
We are going to start counting.
We'll count each in-breath and each out-breath up to ten.
It will be something like this.
One two three four up to ten and we go back to one.
Don't force the breath,
Don't change the rhythm.
Simply breath naturally counting each in and each out.
Each inhale and each exhale.
Don't worry if your mind wonders.
This will happen and that's normal.
Simply acknowledge it happened and come back to your breath.
Come back to counting.
Keep breathing on your natural rhythm without forcing anything.
You'll see that by directing your awareness to your breath,
You'll be tempted to control it,
Make it even.
Just let the breath come naturally to you.
Your body doesn't need you to tell them how to breathe.
It knows.
Trust your body.
You are breathing in and out.
You are in your body in the present moment.
And remember,
Every time you are distracted during the meditation,
At that very moment,
You are aware of where your mind is and you are being mindful.
So well done if you've dozed off and came back.
At that moment,
You are meditating.
Each breath in,
Each inhale and each breath out.
Each exhale is the reminder of your body being present in this earth,
Of your life,
Of all those things that we take for granted.
That's so precious.
Your breath is always with you and every moment during your day,
When you feel a bit stressed,
You can come back to this peaceful counting of the breath.
This is a great tool to include in your daily routine.
When you feel a bit tensed,
Count the breath just as you are doing now and observe your heart rate flowing down and your mind starting to quieten a little bit.
You're doing great.
You are exactly where you're supposed to be and you have nothing else to do but observing your breath.
If you get distracted,
If your mind wanders,
That's fine.
That's what minds do.
Just realize it happened.
Maybe you've been daydreaming or planning.
That's okay.
It happened.
Simply come back without judging yourself and observe your breath and start counting again.
Now let go of the attention on the breath.
Let your mind rest and do whatever it wants to do.
Think about whatever it wants to think.
Stop counting and stop the effort of observing.
Just let your brain do what it wants.
Come back to your body and your physical sensations.
Feel your feet on the ground,
The weight of your hands,
Maybe the contact of the chair you're sitting on or of the floor if you're lying down.
Listen to the sound around you,
The sound of your own breath.
Come back to this room,
To this moment.
Come back to your body.
Come back to your surrounding.
And when you are ready,
At your own time,
You can open your eyes.
