Hi and welcome to mindfulness practice with Annette Erickson.
I'm a mindfulness instructor and I am here to to guide you through a mindfulness practice where it's about coming out of your busy minds of thoughts and into your body of feeling this sensation.
So every time we practice mindfulness we will start by getting into a mindful posture.
So that means settling yourself down either on the floor or in a comfortable chair and then gently shutting down your eyes.
So if it's comfortable for you and if it's not you can have them softly open and look about a meter ahead on the floor in front of you and if your back is straight but not stiff so you kind of relax but your spinal is against the back of the chair and your shoulders are back as well.
So you're sitting comfortable and calm and quietly and your arms are resting on your thighs.
The mind and the body are relaxed yet alert and you're kind of shifting your attention from thinking to sensations of the body.
Kind of listen and feeling what your body is telling you.
And then the fourth step is about shifting your awareness from the chair supporting the whole body weight.
So basically you're you're paying attention to how the chair is supporting your entire body weight and then you shift your attention to subtle pulling of the gravity on the body like pulling your muscles down.
How does that make you feel?
We'll be doing this for one or two minutes and it's about you becoming mindful and pay attention to what your body is telling you through the sensations you are feeling and the thoughts that are coming through the body sensations.
So slowly try and do this calmly and quietly and then in the practice the more you practice the more calmly and relaxed your body and mind will be.
I would like to try and do a breathing practice with you as well and you have to remember that these practices may be new to you so it can feel a bit unusual but don't worry about it.
So first you place your right hand across your stomach and then in this exercise all we are doing is breathing like breathing normally and feeling your stomach rise and fall with each breath in and each breath out.
We will do this for one minute.
Turning your attention to the breath.
Breath is life so we are observing the inflow and the outflow of life-giving air.
Breath is our constant companion.
Breathing in and out to your body's natural rhythm not trying or forcing just noticing it softly and gently.
As the breath enter the nostrils and goes down to the lungs notice the small expansion in the breath and contraction on the out breath in and out and follow each breath as it leaves the body.
Try and do this for two or three minutes and see how it makes you feel and don't worry if you lose your focus and you start thinking that's normal just recognize that you have lost attention and start thinking and then gently return to the practice.
This will happen again and again and this is where we strengthen the attention muscle and develop the ability to stay present.
In the second part of the breathing exercises we are shifting our noticing to a small area beneath the nostrils.
We are going to close our eyes and breathe normally putting our full attention on this small area where we are doing what we are doing is feeling the air on the exhale in this area.
At first sometimes the breath may be hard to feel so make a strong exhale.
So we feel the exhale there and then just sit and relax and breathe normally and put your whole attention on noticing what that feels like.
Is the breath warm or cold?
Is it soft or hard?
Just notice the quality of your breath.
If your mind wanders away which it will and this is normal just bring your attention back to the breath and breathing.
We will do this practice for a couple of minutes and then we will finish.
I hope you have enjoyed this practice with me.
Thank you.
