Arrive In Presence- Body And Breath

In this mindfulness practice, we will bring awareness to the breath and body to steady the mind, to arrive in the presence.

The mind has been described as a galloping horse, it gallops to the future and to the past, we often find ourselves caught in discursive thinking, lost in thought, rehearsing the future or rehashing the past, and completely out of touch with what is happening in the here and now. We use the breath and body to anchor in presence.

There is a bell at the end.

Transcript

The purpose of this brief mindfulness exercise is to arrive in the moment in our body.

Let's begin.

Coming into the moment,

Finding a comfortable posture with both feet on the floor.

Allowing the eyes to close gently if that feels okay or just keeping them open with a soft gaze.

Taking a full breath and contacting your heart area.

Now gently inquire,

What is the intention to my practice right now?

Listening sincerely,

Maybe to be calm,

To be peaceful or to be present.

Now bringing attention into the areas of contact that your feet are having with the floor.

Feeling your feet,

Noticing the solidity of the ground under your feet.

Now feeling your sit bones firmly planted on the chair or the surface you are sitting on.

Just allowing the ground and the chair or the surface to hold and support your body without you needing to do anything.

Now feeling your back and noticing if it is making any contact with the chair or any other surface.

Can you feel the difference between where there is contact and where there is no contact?

Now moving your attention to your hands.

Feeling your hands,

Maybe noticing the position of your hands.

Resting them easily and effortlessly.

You can inquire here,

How do I know I have hands without looking?

You just know right?

We can feel the hands from within.

Now open the awareness like zooming out with a camera.

Feeling the entire body sitting here in this moment on the chair or another surface.

And now for the last minute or so of our short meditation,

Bringing the attention to the breath.

If you like,

You might take a couple deep breaths,

So you can really feel the breath.

Breathing in,

I calm the body.

Breathing out,

I calm the mind.

Calming and relaxing body and mind.

Breathing naturally and effortlessly.

Feeling the sensations of the breath from inside.

Notice,

Detect where the sensations of the breath are most vivid or perhaps pleasurable.

The nostrils,

The back of your throat,

In your chest or maybe in your belly.

Using that place as an anchor line to the present moment.

This is where you come back to if your mind wanders off.

Resting with the breath like a butterfly rested on a flower for a few seconds.

Whenever you are ready,

Gently wiggling your toes if you like.

Opening your eyes and come back to your surroundings.

Thank you.