Just allowing the eyes to gently close,
Sitting with a sense of dignity,
The back relatively upright,
The chest open so that you're able to breathe freely,
But also letting go of unnecessary tension,
Letting the muscles around the eyes be relaxed,
Letting your gaze even behind your closed eyelids be unfocused,
Being aware of the whole of our experience of the body,
Open to sensations arising everywhere,
And many of these sensations are connected with the breathing.
Much of the body is moving quite directly as we breathe in,
And as we breathe out,
And as you pay attention to the breathing,
Thoughts may arise,
And that's okay,
And we can just treat our thoughts in the same way that we treat sounds,
They're just sensations that arise and pass through our awareness,
And sometimes you'll find that you've lost touch with your present moment experience,
And this is okay,
It's inevitably going to happen,
But what's also going to happen quite effortlessly is that your mind will step out of distracted thinking,
Back into the present moment.
You don't need to make this happen,
It just happens on its own.
We tend to focus on the fact that our attention wanders,
But we can also focus on the fact that our attention always comes back,
On its own,
To the breathing.
The mind always finds its own way home,
And in any moments of mindfulness,
Dropping in this phrase,
But right now,
Simply letting your attention be at rest in the present,
Simply being with,
Resting with your experience of the in-breathing and the out-breathing,
You are this present moment,
Simply being,
And you can trust that no matter how many times your attention goes wandering,
It will always find its way back home,
But right now.
And so now,
Beginning gently to direct our attention more toward the outside world,
Sensations of space and light and sound,
Beginning to move the body very slowly,
Allowing the eyes to open,
And bringing this attentiveness more fully into the outside world.
