Welcome to your practice.
To begin,
Find a comfortable seated position,
Assuming what is referred to as a posture of dignity,
Where the spine is upright but the shoulders are soft.
The head is resting gently between the shoulders,
The chin tucked very slightly in.
Your hands can be resting on the lap or perhaps crossed and just held hand in hand.
Once you find a posture that feels supported and easeful,
Taking a full breath in through the nose and exhaling with a big audible sigh.
Taking one more breath like this in through the nose and as you exhale,
Sigh out slowly,
Softening through all the muscles in the face and the jaw and the whole upper body,
Not allowing the breath to find a natural rhythm and simply becoming aware of the breath here.
And you might even say to yourself gently,
As I'm breathing in,
I notice that I'm breathing in and as I breathe out,
I notice that I'm breathing out.
Simply observing the effortless movement of the breath in and out through the body.
And as the mind wanders,
As it will,
Simply notice this as the natural activity of the mind and gently,
With kindness,
Returning your awareness back to that flow and movement of the breath moving in and out through the nose and seeing if you can notice the sensation of the breath as it enters the nostril and flows into the body.
So you might notice the temperature of the breath.
Is it warm or cool?
Is there dryness?
Notice the sensation of the breath as it enters the nose and travels down into the body.
And then notice the exhale as the breath leaves the body,
Noticing if the temperature or quality has changed.
And if thoughts move through your awareness or pull at your attention,
No worries.
Notice,
Observe,
And gently bring your attention back to the movement of the breath.
You might become aware of the breath as it moves through the chest area,
Perhaps noticing the soft movement of the ribcage,
Perhaps noticing the movement of the ribcage as it expands on the inhale and softly releases on the exhale,
Sensing the lungs receiving the breath and softly releasing the breath,
Becoming aware of the sensation of breath moving through the ribcage and region of the lungs.
And as thoughts move through the mind,
You might observe these much like waves moving across the ocean,
Rising,
Falling,
Dissolving as you bring your attention back,
Redirecting it to observing the movement of breath in the body.
You might notice the breath more strongly in the abdominal region,
Sensing the diaphragm drop and the belly expand as it takes in the breath,
The navel drawing towards the spine as the breath releases.
You might notice that all of the ways that the breath moves through the body,
It does so intuitively.
You don't have to do anything here.
The body knows exactly what to do and that you can bring the awareness of the mind to witness and observe the symphony of movement,
This effortless rhythmic action that happens on its own.
You might notice thoughts,
Images,
Memories,
Plans arising,
Simply noticing these as activity of the mind,
Natural,
Normal occurrences,
And gently with kindness,
Returning your attention back to where you notice the breath in the body most effortlessly,
The nose,
The chest or the belly,
Allowing your awareness to rest here for a few moments,
Observing the inhale,
Observing the exhale,
Each breath flowing fluidly,
One after the other,
Lovingly redirecting awareness as needed,
Lovingly redirecting awareness to the breath as needed,
Gently bringing the palms of the hands together and rubbing them together to generate a little bit of heat.
Once they're a little bit warm,
Placing one hand on the heart,
The other on top of that,
Just sensing and feeling into that point of contact of the hands on the heart as you take a full breath in and a soft,
Steady exhale out as you tuck chin to chest and palms and invite a soft grin to form on the lips,
A grin that simply acknowledges this time that you took for yourself to reconnect with the breath and the body and gently opening the eyes or turning your grin and your gaze upward into the space around you as you resume your day.
