Come into your seat and start to take a deep breath in,
Up from the base of your spine,
Into your lower back,
Your upper back,
Your neck,
The top of your head,
Briefly pausing and letting the breath release as it comes down through your head and your neck and your upper back and your lower back and into your seat.
If you're in a chair,
Feel the backs of your legs on the chair.
Feel your feet on the floor grounding you.
If you're sitting in a cross-legged position on a cushion or the floor,
Feel your sit bones in the ground.
Feel the thighs,
Feel your shins,
Feel your ankles on the ground.
Maybe feel the bottoms of your feet pressing against your legs.
And make a decision about your eyes.
They can either be open with a gentle focus about six feet in front of you,
Or if it feels more comfortable and you won't fall asleep,
Feel free to close your eyes.
We're going to take a breath again.
Move your attention back to the base of your spine.
And as you take a breath,
This time focus on straightening that back.
So up through the lower back,
Stack the vertebra,
Mid-back,
Nice and straight,
Neck and head.
And then as you release the breath,
Gently tilt the head down just enough to get a nice straight spine all the way up from the base.
Now in breath,
Take your shoulders,
Shrug them up to your ears,
And let them roll down your back,
Opening your heart.
And then as you breathe in,
Bend the elbows,
Let the palms come face up.
Let them feel the air.
And then as you breathe out,
Turn those palms over and bring them to rest on your thighs,
Right behind your knees.
Feel the hands resting on your thighs.
Feel your thumb breathing in from the tip of your thumb to the base of your hand.
Feeling all the bones.
Feeling the thumb resting on your thigh.
Feel the index finger,
Feeling your breath come in through the index finger all the way through the bones to the wrist.
Feel the index finger resting on your thigh.
Feel the middle finger breathing in through the tip of the middle finger,
Through the bone,
All the way to the wrist.
And then relaxing the middle finger onto your thigh.
Feeling your ring finger breathing in through the tip of your ring finger,
All the way through the bone to the wrist.
Feel your ring finger resting on your thigh.
And feel your pinky breathing in through the tip of the pinky,
All the way through the bone to the wrist.
Feel your pinky resting on your thigh.
Feel your entire hand resting on your thighs.
And on an in-breath,
Feel the back of your hand.
And as you release that breath,
Release your attention down into the thigh itself.
Feeling through the thigh,
Into mid-thigh,
Back into the seat.
And we'll take another breath in,
Up through the spine,
And the top of the head.
And then release it back down into the body.
With this meditation,
Our anchor is going to just be how the breath feels in the body.
So we'll start just following the breath,
Not controlling it,
But just watching and feeling as it comes in through the nose,
As it comes down through the windpipe,
As the chest expands,
As the diaphragm expands into the belly.
And then as you release the belly,
Contracting the ribs through the windpipe,
And back out through your nose.
And as you're watching the breath coming in and going out,
Feel the sensations of the breath.
Maybe at the nose,
You notice some coolness.
Maybe even in the upper windpipe,
Feeling the expansion in your lungs as they fill with air.
You're noticing the expansion of your belly as your diaphragm opens up the lungs.
And then notice the contraction again as the belly closes,
The diaphragm pushes the air out.
Notice the contraction of the ribs.
Notice the warm air coming back out through the windpipe and the nose.
And feeling yourself release the breath gently.
We're going to just pay attention to the breath for a little while,
Noticing it as it comes in and goes out.
And again,
With this practice,
If your mind tends to wander off,
Smile at the thoughts.
They're trying to entertain you,
Protect you.
It's what your brain does.
So smile,
Take a breath in,
And as you release the breath,
Just come back to your focus of the breath in the body.
Perhaps noticing if your breath is getting longer than when you started,
Just noticing and feeling it as it comes in and goes out.
So as you're breathing in and out,
You may also notice that there are some pauses as you breathe in and out.
Perhaps you notice that as you release that breath,
There's a pause before you breathe another breath in.
Just notice all aspects of the breath.
And again,
If the thoughts have taken away your focus,
Just take a breath in and smile and come back to feeling your breath coming into the body and releasing and noticing the in-breath pause at the top and maybe releasing.
Notice the pause at the bottom.
Again,
Without effort,
Just feeling the breath and noticing how it feels in your body.
Notice if your breath is getting longer.
Notice if it's getting easier or more difficult.
Anything is perfectly fine.
That's what you notice that's important.
And as you breathe in,
Feel the breath fill you.
And as you release,
Let it go.
Let go,
Let go,
Let go.
